The Egyptian Uprising
The new dawn for the people of Egypt has emerged. The unprecedented historic demonstrations in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other cities and towns in Egypt is proofing every one wrong that the Egyptians are an apolitical and apathetic people who will not rise up against the atrocities unleashed by the Government. It’s hopefully the of beginning of the end of the regime in Cairo.
The current political leadership of Egypt has the beginning in the toppling of the pro British King Farook of Egypt by Free Officers Movement under Gamel Abdul Nasser in 1952, and the subsequent appointment of him as President in 1956. Anwar Sadat took over the reign of Egypt after the death of Gamel Abdul Nasser in 1967 until 1981 when he was assassinated, by Islamist extremist for his part in making peace with Israel. Hosni Mubarak, the vice president was appointed by the military backed Government as the new president, a declaration of emergency was proclaimed by Hosni Mubarak which is still in force giving the police extra judiciary powers in suppressing any decent or real opposition to the ruling junta.
The Muslim brotherhood a fundamentalist Sunni Islamist group was banned as an illegal party. The Muslim Brotherhood is accused in the complicity of assassinating Anwar Sadat. The Islamist party is one of the protagonists for the regime, even though the regime is secularist in nature, efforts were unleashed to compete with the Islamic Party, to out manoeuvre them. Hosni Mubarak won all elections through his National Democratic Party with overwhelming majorities, by discreet and illegal methods.Eventhough the electoral results shows favourably to the ruling NDP party, similar to the electoral victories of parties like Pap of Singapore, Barisan National of Malaysia and Golkar of Indonesia, the media under clutches of ruling party portrayed the government as benevolent, the champion of Arab interest in the Middle East, fair and always ready to defend the people of their well being. Only twenty five percent of the people are registered voters. The election results were not the manifestation of the people’s mandate, gerrymandering and rigging of electoral process was promulgated in prolonging the rule of the autocratic ruler. The President’s grooming of his son Gamel Mubarak as the next president is very unpopular with the Egyptian people; this action of the Hosni Mubarak of creating his own dynasty after his planned departure, is just like adding fuel to inferno of anger. But the basic bread and butter, social justice, employment and housing issues were sidelined. A very high inflation rate, unemployment, extreme corruption of the ruling party, truncation of civil liberties and other problems were not solved to eradicate the people’s miseries.
But the spark which ignited this conflagration is the Jasmine Revolution of Tunisia, a small nation situated along the Mediterranean Sea, sandwiched between Libya and Algeria; which was under a ruthless despotic Government under Ben Ali, who was overthrown by the popular uprising of the people there. Shock waves spread across the Maghreb and the Middle East on the remarkable unprecedented, historical development, and it’s slowly engulfing the region, Demonstrations in Yemen, Jordan. Mauritania and Algeria are now unfolding. If the political tremor in Tunisia is Point three in the Richter scale, it is point seven in Egypt. The fear of the people against autocratic regime has collapsed and it is resonating across the nation and neighbouring countries.
The Face book, Twitter and the Internet mobilised the People for the popular uprising on the 25th January. And on the 28th January 2011 after the Friday prayers the world was shocked when the unfolding of the popular uprising was brought to the living room through out the world by satellite TV channels Al Jazera. Curfew was imposed from 6pm to 7 am, but the people were undeterred on the resolve, and it was ignored by the oppressed people of Egypt, it’s now or never for them, police stations were burned, armoured cars were torched, and the symbol of the ruling junta, the headquarters of the National Democratic Party was set ablaze. To appease the people’s anger, Hosni Mubarak announced the sacking of his Government and proclaimed a new Vice President and Prime Minister. But the demonstration has not subsided. The police have melted away and now the military is on the street to save guard public properties. The wrath of the people of Egypt is still continuing in the street of Cairo.
The uprising against the autocracy is like wild fire burning spontaneously ignited by the pent up feelings of the people. It is participated by myriads of people of different ideologies, religion and believes. The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood has said that they are not the organisers of the demonstration. But there is a grave concern for this peoples uprising, could be hijacked by Islamists party like the Muslim Brotherhood, just in Iran in the 1979 Iranian revolution which was led by wide spectrum of people like trade unionist, socialists, communists, students and village folks but which was eventually was given a religious favour by Ayatollah Khomeini: And the country is now reduced to theoretical dictatorship. All the progressive forces which propped the revolution except the mullahs were persecuted and send to political oblivion. The Iranian who successfully dethroned Emperor Shah Reza Pahlavi, for his all his bad governance is now under a similar but a theocratic dictatorship doing all the same atrocities under guise of religion.
The events unfolding now in the Maghreb and Middle East is like, the historic event of the breaking of the Berlin Wall and the liberation of Eastern European, Balkan and Russian vassal states. People cannot be fooled forever. This political transformation unfolding now hopefully liberates them from the crutches of poverty and frees them from the current political quagmire.
Long live the Egyptian Revolution.
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