I believe Haikel knew the impact his interview in Al Masry Al Youm would make especially in this time , a man in his experience knew that his interview especially some parts of it will shock the regime and will make it go coco ; already it goes coco when Haikel criticizes the regime indirectly in a interview or in a lecture at the American university so you can imagine how it was disturbing for the regime to hear him suggesting to have peaceful democratic coup in order to save the country from uncertain future.
Yes a Peaceful democratic revolution according to his suggestion which is :
To have a council of experts aka council state and constitution that will work on having a new constitution approved by public poll. The council will consist of 12 experts in different fields in Egypt like General Omar Soliman, Amr Moussa, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, Sir Magdi Yacoub , Dr. Ahmed Zewail , Dr.Mohamed Ghoniam and Dr. Hazem El-Babalawy. The role of the committee will be a transitional one for 3 years where new generations can take over from there. Mubarak and the army should stay to back and support the council in those 3 years and that will the last and greatest service he will do to this country.
There are many points in his suggestion that should discussed in a thorough way, yes I may disagree in many of Haikel’s views but when it come to the future of the country I believe we should hear everyone and see what we got , may be we will find something logic , something applicable before giving up.
Haikel did not speak about fair elections and this candidate or that candidate but a whole political reform and he is right in this , we should have a new regime , a new system because this regime is obsolete by all measures.
Haikel wants the following :
1- Mubarak steps down after 3 years, 3 transitional years to be accurate where we will transfer from a fallen dictatorship to a real democracy , Haikel is speaking of Franco’s ending but without monarchy and despite he did not mention it I believe Haikel indirectly spoke about the safe exist of the president in return of this transition , Mubarak does not have to have the fearful Ceausescu or Pinochet ending and this is why this Haikel said that this will be the last and greatest service Mubarak will ever do to this country.
2- The army role or rather the army support to its democratic transition ; it will be impossible to have this kind of transition without the direct support and blessing of the army beside its direct protection ; this kind of transition will be met by opposition whether from inside or outside.
3- A New constitution which is the demand of almost everybody who really wants a better future for this country.
4- Preparing for this constitution and also that transitional period will be supervised by a council that includes some Egyptians we always mention their names as possible candidates for presidency even thought some of them are not a real candidates. Haikel did not only chose or suggested names of those we always mention when we speak about potential presidential candidate as examples of who should be members in this council ; only examples for sure.
Haikel wants a new constitution with a new brand regime as he claims and one way of having this regime peacefully is through this council. I do not see why people do not like what he suggested. He is not a crazy old man. He is a man who wants us to benefit from the Spanish experience as I see it.
The only thing I dislike in Haikel’s suggestion is the idea of this “Safe exist” which means Mubarak and his family will leave the rule and also the country with no accountability what so ever ; look I do not want Mubarak to have the same fate of Ceausescu but there is one problem I see it , if Mubarak and his family leave with no accountability ,he will be followed by the rest of his regime with the wealth of this country. It is expensive bargain which I do not think it will be fair for Egypt and it will defy that spirit of new democratic era Haikel wants to have.
Up till now , till this day Haikel is being attacked systematically in the official media and pro-regime media including the shadow partisan and independent press. What is interesting in this attack on Haikel is we have those big names of veteran journalists and writers like for instance Saleh Montaser and others who are trying to refute him using the constitution , the same constitution which really needs to be changed !! Of course the partisan daily attack on him from Al Wafd and the Unionist parties is logic , he undermined them and they had to fire back. The Pro-regime TV channels slammed him in a way you can’t imagine it but it will not be the first nor the last one.
I forget to mention that big heads in NDP spoke about Haikel’s suggestion and slammed it as unrealistic , unconstitutional and that Haikel has crossed all lines by speaking about the Egyptian army !!
I believe that they do not think it as an insult to the Egyptian army more they are scared that the Egyptian army would like the idea and move against Mubarak to implement it. Let’s be clear Haikel is polite and can’t say we do not need Mubarak because it will be direct call for a coup , he is not calling for coup but rather to a real democratic reform or change. This scenario he calls for I believe was the one we should have in 1952 after the coup of the free officers and you can imagine if we had had that council then made of those legends in politics and law. Please do not tell me that politicians and lawmakers were corrupted then because they proved to be better than the ones we have ; you know after a short thinking I believe I am wrong in the last sentence we do not have real politicians and lawmakers like in pre-1952. Of course Haikel won’t admit this that we needed that council then but he knew inside that it could be a useful way to save Egypt “if he really wants to save it”
By the way you must know that this suggestion has been proposed before by late famous Egyptian journalist Salah El-Din Hafiz as I read but I do not know when he said it , may be in one of his books.
I do not know if Haikel wants a real regime , a real democratic change in the way he could imagine it or not , Haikel ignored the economic part by saying we can keep couple of ministers from Nazif’s cabinet and he said two names “Rashid and Ghali”. I respect Rashid but I do not respect Ghali. My professor told us in university there is no real economic change without a real political change.Haikel should know better that if it were not for Mubarak’s era with all its cons , his businessmen sons would not be among the most richest men in Egypt and I do not know whether he is aware of this or not but that if that era falls , those businessmen and all other who have benefited a lot from it will go down with it and so he should be careful for what he wishes.
I have to say, I have your blog in my Google Reader feed list, as I check up on it every morning, as it's very interesting to read :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much , this means so much to me
ReplyDeleteThanks Zeinobia for writing about this, good luck to you and to democratic reform in Egypt!
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