Egypt: Massacre of Democracy

(By Salithamby Abdul Rauff)

Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi democratically elected by at least 13 million people was unseated by an infamous military coup of his appointed defence minister and army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Pro-Mubarak General Sisi has not had any reason other than Morsi belonged to Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) of Islamist rooted Muslim Brotherhood (MB) for his ousting. Democracy and democratic practices of people in Egypt have been brutally massacred by military junta. After the military coup, the Egyptian constitution recently crafted and accepted by a popular referendum has been nullified and parliament of the country dissolved. The despotic rule of deposed Mubarak- which made Egyptian military a lucrative industry and allowed its strong grip in politics of the country- has been restored to allow General Sisi to play a notorious role once again in post-military coup Egyptian politics.

 Given the military installed care taker government led by a staunched Morsi opponent and constitutional court judge Adly Mansour, it is increasingly occupied by Mubarak remnants.  Dorreya el-Sharaf el-Din, Ibrahim el-Demeri, Ayman Abu Hadid, Ibrahim Mehleb and Nabil Fahmi who participated in Mubarak regime are all key ministers of Adly’s unelected government.  A police general Adel Labib known well for his unpopular human rights records in Mubarak times has also been a cabinet member of this government.  Of 25 provincial governors of the country, some 19 have been appointed from military or police generals. Sadly, the January 2011 Egyptian revolution has betrayed itself by silently accepting again the return of a long-standing police state which it claimed to have eliminated the country. 

    Thousands of Egyptians, including children and women, who non-violently stood against a military coup in their country were killed and wounded heavily in cold-blooded by their own generals. Defence minister Sisi has committed this using his Algerian counterpart’s tactic (that) “if you are to stay in power, you need to kill thousands of your people,” which sacrificed at least 200,000 Algerians to insulate a military coup from democracy. Today, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has been demonised by Cairo authorities as a terrorist outfit against stability and security of Egypt, and its leaders branded as sinister forces. Interim foreign minister Nabil Fahmi in his interview to Der Speigel magazine of Germany has equated deposed president Morsi with Hitler giving no rationale for this comparison. Dozens of senior MB leaders today have been arrested as terrorists for the only reason of being adhered to a political Islam.

The Sisi’s subservient caretaker government in Cairo has also gone on to outlaw the MB citing the same terrorist reason. Ridiculously, they have stubbornly not understood the fact that an 80-year old organisation established well on socio-political fabric of Egyptian community is unlikely to be banned. Having digested this enough, their predecessors Sadat and Mubarak have not dared to go ahead with it, but cracked down the organisation sporadically. Interestingly, even though the west was to coin the word terrorist to achieve their objectives in Islamic world, it has been Muslim world than west to use this word in large scale to cushion life-long despotism, dictatorship, dynastic succession and militarism in that world. People in this world are persecuted and even wiped out in the pretext of terrorist by their rulers for resisting undemocratic practices in their countries. 

Hypocrisy of West

    Once again the west has proved its hypocrisy over the issue of democracy and human rights in Muslim world. Even though having understood clearly that what happened in Egypt was no doubt a military conspiracy against people’s democratic aspirations, US played very destructive role in this. President Obama could not even term it a “military coup.” His administration also could not halt US’ decade old largest military aid to Egypt despite growing call for its suspension from many, including Congressman McCain. Even when anti-coup protesters were indiscriminately executed in subhuman ways - regardless of children and women - and their rights badly abused by Egyptian army, Obama administration irrationally turned its back on helpless Egyptians waiting for justice. Actually, U.S. was succumbed to the pressure of a strategic reason that always prioritised Israeli interests in the region.

The European Union (EU) also failed to help Egyptians preserve democracy from its predator. The EU stopped its intervention with few rounds of talks with Military Junta in Cairo which had no results. The UN totally forgot its obligation and ended its role with asking in a statement both sides (Juntas and anti-coup demonstrators) to show “maximum calm” after a massive massacre of peaceful protesters played out. Leaders in the west projecting themselves as defenders of democracy and human rights acted totally against their conscience in Egyptians’ fight to restore democracy and rights. Such leaders purposely avoided to call what general Sisi carried out in Egypt was a military coup. But behind the door or in their private meetings, they acknowledged it “yes as an apparently coup.”  How to explain this hypocrisy? 

Arab/Muslim Reaction

    Just hours after the coup, Saudi Arabia summarily welcomed it. Country’s monarch found this military coup a most crucial need for Cairo and therefore praised its brainchild Geneal Sisi for meeting such need. While monarch interpreted Sisi and his fellow Generals as great heroes, he saw Morsi and his MB followers as dangerous terrorists. Therefore, in his royal decree, he said Egypt was rescued timely from terrorist clutch. To show his unwavering support to military juntas, monarch funnelled billions of dollars in aid, sent field hospitals to treat wounded Egyptian soldiers and explicitly encouraged Cairo’s heavy-handed crackdown on peaceful protesters, including MB Islamists. Saudi monarch was followed by his counterparts of UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, hailing the coup and providing billion- dollar worth aid to the military appointed government of Egypt. In one case, Kuwait went on to prove its commitment of this support by repatriating the Egyptians who peacefully marched before their embassy in Kuwait against the military coup. It was Jordanian king Abdullah II who was the only Arab leader to visit Cairo to extend a support directly to military coup installed government, hailing military rulers for dismissing a popularly elected Islamist regime and reinstating the toppled Mubarak rule with his remnants.

However, the conventional wisdom at homes of these monarchs was otherwise. People in Saudi Arabia silently stood against their king’s pro-military coup stance. In social media, Saudi scholars, activists and others unequivocally expressed their view in support of MB, protesting Morsi ouster. They strongly condemned what occurred in Cairo, describing it as a project of anti-Islamists to destroy their Islam and them and criticising that Sisi and his fellow Generals were complicit to this conspiracy. They tweeted and posted on face book a claim that their kingdom’s official position did not represent them. Even in Jordan, people registered a strong resistance against the coup and subsequent killings and abuses to Cairo embassy in Amman by an anti-coup march. Qatar reportedly played a reasonable role in Egyptian case. Country’s young monarch made serious efforts to broker a solution to this crisis of democracy alongside EU and condemned army’s slaughtering of people. Kingdom, a onetime benefactor and sympathiser of MB, once again substantiated its qualities of leadership as a growing regional player.

Popular mood in Muslim countries over military attack on democracy in Egypt was a well visible anger. People in countries like Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh voiced their strong discontent against this military coup and subsequent violent crackdown on Islamist MB by organised popular rallies, lectures, Friday Jummah sermons and other activities. They found the coup a plot engineered by enemies of Islam and Muslim, saying Egyptian General Sisi was succumbed to such plot. In their anti-coup campaign, they called for withdrawal of military interference of politics and reinstatement of deposed Morsi.
MB Failures

    Failures of the MB also wittingly or unwittingly have partly contributed to the current crisis of democracy in Egypt. At first, the MB decisively chose not to run for the first presidential poll of the post-Mubarak Egypt that followed the January 2011 popular uprising. Later, they changed their political decision and fielded Morsi for presidency. In fact, their first decision may have been most viable and pragmatic to post-Mubarak political context, where the Egypt was deeply disturbed by rural poverty, unemployment, poor economic opportunities and more life expectations of growing young generation. Whoever became president, the tenure would have been insufficient and a testing period for such a president to address these problems and rebuild the country soon. This inability of a president would certainly enable Mubarak remnants who still heavily control Cairo’s defence and judiciary establishments and bureaucracy to bring unrest and gain their lost political muscle back. Whoever the first president was would have surely faced the similar fate of Morsi. So, the MB could have refrained from the poll for now and played a prominent role of power broker by backing a suitable outside candidate. This might have shielded the MB from falling into current catastrophe. In addition, this also would have served the organisation to expand its power bases even further and produced an impression among Egyptian polity that the MB would be a viable choice for now to give the country a political leadership.  

    The other failure of the MB was its inadequate response to grievances of Copt Christian community of the country. In post-Mubarak political context, the Copts - Egypt’s religious minority making up 10% of 80 million populations of the country, gravely worried that they would be marginalised and their rights abused if the Islamist MB assumed power. They were notably uncomfortable with political Islam of the MB, viewing it with serious reservation. As a mainstream socio-political organisation and ruling party, the MB was bound to address this religious minority’s grievances, overcome their misperception of political Islam and build up an inter-religious amity. But, the MB significantly failed to do this in its years. This failure escalated Copts’ worries and suspicion and served further MB-Copt division. The failure made Copt minority closer to military. During the coup, the Copt remained on the side of General Sisi.

In contemporary Egypt, secularists/liberalists remain notable factor in politics. They have always had little tolerance over political Islam because of their anxiety that it would destroy their opportunities in politics. Again, the MB was obligated to respond to this factor with an inclusive political agenda which could recognise secularists’ presence in politics and rally their non-confrontational support. This is essentially crucial for the MB as a socio-political organisation facing a lot of challenges from inside and outside the country for its Islamist-rooted political democracy. In this case also, the MB’s response was still not clear and said to be failed.

These politically strategic failures of MB have given the opportunity to its rivals in the country and dangerous adversaries in the region to act. Military juntas today try to eliminate the organisation by killings, threats, arrests, detentions, abuses and outlawing. These are all their repetition of the same mistakes of past and would never work. We witness an Egyptian history that whenever military rulers tried to strangle MB’s throat, the movement has evolved more vigorously  On the other hand, the MB has today paid a heavy price for these strategic blunders, compromising a great political achievement (Egyptian presidency). Yet, this would remain a temporary setback to the organisation should it appreciate (that) “yes, they were errors of our political strategies to be corrected in future.”

Egypt is a vulnerable victim of a 40 - year despotism. All it needs is a vibrant democracy, which Egyptians already brought from their will by the January 2011revolution. However, their democracy today has been massacred by Kalashnikovs and the democratically rejected despotism has been renewed.

   Salithamby Abdul Rauff pursues a PhD in social work at school of social sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia