Some army sources said that Major General Mamdouh Shahin announced that after few hours the AFC will announce another constitutional declaration right after the announcement of the constitution amendments’ results.
We do not know yet if the results of the referendum will be announced today or tomorrow already despite in twitter the referendum committee said it will be after few hours but all the primary results from the governorates show that Yes is wining over No. It would be announced at 2 PM.
Of course in the virtual world the No team is making it already the end of the world already in a pathetic way. Please read this FB note “in Arabic” by my old friend Bassem Sabry. Also please read Ibrahim Eissa’s column today “in Arabic”
I did not say Yes for the Muslim brotherhood or any Islamist fraction , I did not say Yes for the NDP. I said Yes because I do not want the AFC to rule me for more than 6 months and supervise my new constitution. I think many Egyptians did that not for any other reason. Yes I know very well that outside Cairo the MB and Salafists used the religion in an explicit way to force the simple people to say Yes. Also I will not ignore the role of Church as well on the other side , say No because the MB will say Yes not because the real political consequences
Respect the majority and stop whining like a little girl , think outside Cairo and major cities and outside the barriers of online activism. You must stop this political and social elitism right now and start to act , I will not accept justifications from people who do not go all Egypt’s governorates and listen to the people’s needs and demands. There is nothing called impossible , if you are not ready now , you will not be ready for all. Stop being scared , it is enough that you try.
I agree that the houses of God should not be used for any cheap political propaganda and this is applied on all the houses of God in Egypt whether mosques , churches and even synagogues. This will not be achieved by a military order with my all respect but by the people themselves. I want the Muslims to pull any posters or banners at the Mosques calling them to vote for this or for that , I want the Christians not to listen to the Church when it comes to their electoral choices.
As far as I remember the Church and Salafists used to support Hosni and Gamal Mubarak. In fact do you remember their stand from the revolution in its early days ?
Am I calling for Utopia ? may be but remember from three months anyone would expect the revolution of January 25 would have been called
Egypt is not Iran nor Saudi Arabic , it is also not in Malaysia nor Turkey. Do your homework and read more about the history and politics of each country before speaking.
Work from today to the parliament or do not blame anyone except yourself and do not ask the help of the army.
Although i said NO. but i STRONGLY agree with you. i think we (educated , cyber folks) should do our best to fight religious hands from pointing uneducated people in a certain direction.
ReplyDeletewe need a plan especially that we don't have much time.
"Egypt is not Iran nor Saudi Arabic"
ReplyDeletenope..not for the time being
I bet in 1979 many Iranians were saying something along the lines "Iran is not Saudi Arabia..do your homework.."
the lucky ones now live in the west
I can respect your opinion and still oppose you know. I respect the majority and have no choice but to accept but that doesn't mean I'll abandon my initial postion and stop fighting for what I believe in. You are esstenially tell people who opposed the amendments to shut up and deal with it, which is not how a democracy.
ReplyDelete"if you are not ready now , you will not be ready for all."
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of fucked up logic is that?
I hope you talk something about snake Amr Moussa who criticized the attack by allied forces to Libya (to gain some votes in presidential race). First of all what the hell did Arab league and Amr Moussa expected?
ReplyDeleteAllied forces attacked:
1. Air bases to enforce NFZ.
2. Pro-Gaddafi tanks near Benghazi (Gaddafi forces killed 94 people in Benghazi yesterday alone!)
How the hell is that inappropriate amount of force? This is once again turning western attacking mid-east country, because of snakes leading Arab countries, snakes who cannot make up their minds.
Just minutes ago in Al Jazeera English the civil committe head in Misrata asked more attacks to Gaddafi forces, not less! Gaddafi has been increasingly shelling randomly to Misrata.
"I said Yes because I do not want the AFC to rule me for more than 6 months and supervise my new constitution."
ReplyDeleteI thought you said yes because you are 'a good citizen' and the army needs to go back to its primary job(confectioneries and catering)?!
2 more months would have made that huge significance? but honey, you know this is horseshit, voting NO would have essentially pressed the army to handover powers to a 'presidential council' made up of civilian representatives which is exactly what we have been calling for since day 1!
yeah..the Salafists/MB/suffists/NDP union club is the better choice to overlook "your" new constitution... goodluck with that..
you still don't get it? the elected MPs(or MB MPs) will not be obliged to call for a new constitution, the amendments offer nothing more than a promise and seeing how the new parliament will inevitably be like I actually don't think a new constitution will be a good idea..not any more when people are voting to go to heaven and avoid God's wrath.
"You must stop this political and social elitism right now and start to act , I will not accept justifications from people who do not go all Egypt’s governorates and listen to the people’s needs and demands. There is nothing called impossible , if you are not ready now , you will not be ready for all."
ReplyDeleteZeinobia you are contradicting yourself.. this is precisely why we have been asking for more time, you can't educate people and work on the ground when you virtually don't have any functioning parties with real credibility on the ground. You can't convince people of something if you don't offer alternatives.. haven't you been listening to your favourite politician Baradei(who by the way now has a snowball's chance in hell in any political career) in Britain you can drive the less-educated/working class from voting BNP because you have real parties, you can advocate against the Tories when you have labour and libdems, that's political activism.. you simply can't do that without real functioning parties and political groups. you want to ignore the facts that are right in our faces but we have all been to the poll stations and we know who has been driving the masses and how, from what I have seen the voters can be mostly categorised in 2 groups... a huge group going to fulfill their religious duty and a smaller one really concerned about their country's future(some of them were scared shitless).. well, I can't tell you what the smaller educated and concerned group voted for but I'm pretty sure of the other group's vote.
State media made them afraid of a bogus constitutional void, the Islamists took care of the rest..it was only the activists/politicians and intellects who were worried about the real fear of parties vacuum..
hope you won't whine when the religious police starts chasing you with a stick for dressing "inappropriately".. respect the majority and all that, that's what the majority will vote for pretty soon.
totally agree, it's not the end of the world.. just one country
ReplyDeleteHi Zeinobia,
ReplyDelete"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen"
(Harry Truman)
You decided to go public with voting YES and you got a lot of heat for that, but you knew that was going to happen. Yes, people were probably not very polite, but that you tend to see in campaigns all over the world. Shrug it off, move on. (Or to us your words... don't whine like a little girl.)
The people have voted. Egypt will get a new constitution and I think you are very right when you say:
"Work from today to the parliament or do not blame anyone except yourself and do not ask the help of the army."
But I think that you should be careful in two respects.
1) I actually have the impression people took the decision quite well. You are on the winning side, it's now up to you to extend your hand to those who were not. I don't see that happening right now.
2) Your use of "elitism", as a way to attack people for their methods of communication or their opinion is extremely dangerous and poisonous to the political landscape.
This was a referendum and there were arguments on both sides.
Don't let this divide you or distract you from the real goals.
Cheers,
Moritz
@Anonymous, I think you are the one who is contradicting self. You first said that "State media made them afraid of a bogus constitutional void, the "Islamists" took care of the rest..". Then in your next paragraph, you practiced the same thing you criticized by saying "hope you won't whine when the religious police starts chasing you with a stick for dressing "inappropriately".
ReplyDeleteLook I really did not care much about the result of this referendum. It was much more important for me and I hope for many Egyptians that for the first time they were able to cast their votes freely without the fear of thugs or state police and without trading their votes for a pack of cigarettes and 50 pounds.
And how did you come up with that idea that organized political parties should precede any true free democratic elections?
Do you think waiting for another year or two will change how people think about "Islamists" and start forming formidable parties against them?
Immersion is an excellent method of teaching people skills (works very well in language and swimming). Engaging people in their first free democratic experience sooner than later is by far more important than agreeing or disagreeing on their ballots. Let the chips fall where it may.
If it is "Yes" - then Egypt is by virtue of the revamped constitution an Islamic state which excludes women from the post of President.
ReplyDeleteOnce the Ihwan have a say, intolerance and ignorance will grow and Egypt will be a failed state once again. Name me a single successful state that puts a specific religion as a favorite in its constitution. Name a single Muslim country that is no failure.
Religion belongs into the mosque and in the hearts of people - not in Parliament.
"Immersion is an excellent method of teaching people skills "
ReplyDeleteI don't think this analogy works here Hazem, this is a parliment we are talking about here. These are most crucial days for Egypt which will essentially shape Egypt and dare I say the entire region's future. Do think something this important should be left to chance, when political parties are esstenially non-existent? It takes more the licensing a party for it to actually exist and be able to participate. I can't even begin to imgaine what the MB will do come elections, judging by their recent conduct...72 virgins await you upon exiting the ballots perhaps?
I can say with confidence that the majority of people who voted whether YES or NO, didn't do so because they understood the amendments or thier implications. We are Egyptians, we do what we are told, especially when it comes to religion.
It's an insult for the memory of the martyrs who died during the revolution that this constitution patched up quickly was amended.
ReplyDeleteWe can't ask to political parties to be known in 6 months when the Moslem brothers and the NDP are known for 30 years ! More time is needed, and by voting NO, we gave the possibility in politicians and to the people to understand the various futures that Egypt could face and choose REALLY what they believe, not beeing controled by a brain wash ; but by voting YES, it's a door opened to the loss of the country, second Iran in sight.
The voters who said YES just wanted that things return back to normal that the life restarts again, but it's going to be worse.
I agree with this :
"Once the Ihwan have a say, intolerance and ignorance will grow and Egypt will be a failed state once again. Name me a single successful state that puts a specific religion as a favorite in its constitution. Name a single Muslim country that is no failure.
Religion belongs into the mosque and in the hearts of people - not in Parliament."
Although I wanted a NO vote I am kind of relieved that it was not close vote. 70-80% result means very strong support.
ReplyDeleteThe other 20% should really do serious training on how to run successful campaign before the coming elections.
Z is correct that Egypt is different. I think we are conservative in general and it will take a lot of work for any progressive campaign to succeed.
I think all who support Dr ElBaradie me included should start working immediately on his campaign before it is too late.
"I said Yes because I do not want the AFC to rule me for more than 6 months supervise my new constitution"
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be very trusting and obedient of the army otherwise, why the sudden skepticism?
I'm sure you're tired of all these comments that is if you're reading them but this is how a democracy works and you shouldn't take it personally. However, your argument is extremely flawed and you tend to contradict yourself. You also come off as very naive and disconnected with the reality of Egypt.
I'm still looking for someone to have a substantive argument on how having elections on this "How to be a dictator" constitution would be for the best interest of the country.
nope Hazem, I don't think I am contradicting myself because the fear of constituional vacuum is rubbish and anyone will a slight understanding of legalities will tell you that but the fear os Islamists taking over the Parliament and essentially imposing Shari'a laws is very very real..see the difference? one thing that can never happen and one thing that is very likely to happen when 'God willing' all our MB friends get elected and pass a bill mandating an attire for women then Zeinobia will have to make sure her dress doesn't violate the code or else..
ReplyDelete