Some readers at this point might object: What are you whining about? Why this talk of gloom, conspiracy and dark forces? Shouldn't we be focused on the upcoming parliamentary elections?
Let me first try to go over what we have managed to accomplish:
- We got most of Mubark's coterie under detention and they are being tried for corruption
- Mubark, his sons, and wife are facing charges of corruption (though no criminal charges have been pressed yet).
- We have temporary constitution that limits the power of the president, and the duration of his/her presidency (never mind that it gives the supreme councle of the armed forces [SCAF] unchecked power for the time being).
- We have some sort of road map for democratic transition where we are having parliamentary elections in September, followed by presidential elections six months later.
- We have Prime Minster who supported the revolution, and who many still believe is genuinely a decent person (though many have doubts about his ability to assert the demands of the revolution).
Trust broken with a butt of a gun
In the early hours of the February the 26th, I stood with a couple of hundred revolutionaries in front of the People's Assembly building. We were all gathered for sit-in, demanding that Shafik and his cabinet step-down. This was the same cabinet that Mubarak put in place in his last days and that the SCAF had kept for mysterious reasons. That night many of us were severely beaten, electrocuted, and subject all sorts of abuse. In one harrowing account of the torture that went on that night, it is clear that many in the army are still loyal to Mubarak. The army officers reveled in forcing the protesters to cry "long live Mubarak". I was lucky to have escaped being captured, I was running and hiding in nearby streets.
The SCAF tried to deny any wrong doing and often declared that it never incarcerated any of the protesters. Their narrative does not hold much water, and runs counter to the many eye witness accounts. The SCAF has shown itself very trusting of the late regime's corrupt figures. This was clearly demonstrated in the appointment of the governors, many of who were from the minister of interior who were notorious for their involvement in torture cases, and others who have often spoken out vocally against the revolution.
The SCAF reputation now reeks of anything to but trustworthiness. I firmly believe it becoming exceedingly hard to see them as honorable custodian of our revolution. Their decision making is opaque and their actions are far from comforting. It is very hard to explain how the army highly trained special forces were being used to hunt and incarcerate protesters while idling when churches were being burnt or peaceful protesters were being shot at.
Why regroup, why a second Friday of Anger?
The SCAF has proven itself to be at best incompetent in helping achieve the demands of the revolution, and at worst having designs on post revolutionary political landscape to serve the best interests of the SCAF generals. The SCAF generals maintain massive economic interests and no civilian oversight. One can see that it would be hard for generals to abandon many of their perks for the greater interest of the country. I find it very suspicious that a supposed scholar like Moataz Abdel-Fattah tries to push forth the notion that SCAF is totally immune to ambitions of its generals and that there is something, that almost veers on the supernatural, the will make them the honest executors of the people's will. Recalling the faces of the soldiers chasing in on February 26th and their determination to capture and torture makes me immune such flimsy (or more likely disingenuous) arguments.
What do we do? Fire the SCAF?
The SCAF for all its sins still maintains a semblance of stability and yet we would never trade away our freedom and our revolution for this poor attempt at maintaining "order". We are pressing forward demands that we hope will keep the SCAF straight, yet those demands are still being worked out, refined and crystallized.
Over the past few months a great deal of trust has been eroded and it is about time that SCAF pays attention to the revolutionaries and stop trying to undermine the spirit of the revolution. I am looking forward to May27 where amongst a sea of competing memes, the best ones will dominate.
What does the situation look like now?
It is best captured in this brilliant graffiti by Ganzeer showing a taking facing of a bicycle. The revolutionaries are doing the difficult act of moving forward while balancing a bread tray over their head. The bread tray is future of Egypt. The tank (SCAF) seems to be standing in the way. Together we can force the tank to change direction, and we are far more powerful than what naive sizing up of strength may suggest.
