Friday, June 3, 2011

Will the true representative of the revolution please stand up !?

One of the biggest advantages of Egyptian revolution is that it has no leadership nor centralized ideology and this what made millions of Egyptians from around the country join the revolution and support it with all its differences. It is a blessing  but it is also a curse at the same time because who will speak with SCAF on behalf of the revolution and all those millions that support it !? I will not speak about politicians and parties because they have never represented the demands and needs of the people before.
Since the ousting of Mubarak and there is a rapid increase in the youth coalitions speaking to the media on behalf of the revolution and the Egyptian youth. It is like you mix the following words " Coalition , Tahrir , Youth , January 25th, 25th , January , Egypt" and you will get a coalition from those coalitions we do not understand from where they came from or when they formed and on behalf of whom they are speaking !!

 Many of these coalitions came to life after the revolution youth coalition began to rise in the media. The revolution youth coalition is among the most important political coalitions and groups sprang from the revolution. The coalition is made from the youth of : 6th April youth , Muslim brotherhood, El-Ghad Party, Democratic Front party ,El Wafd party , ElBaradei campaign , El Karma Party , The progressive union, Justice and freedom movement , independent activists and bloggers. The revolution youth coalition has not got only a shaky relation with SCAF "They cut all communications with the council as far as I know" but they also got even worse relations with other political activists and also the street in Egypt as well. The coalition cut its communications with SCAF after the incidents of April 9th still other political activists think that they are too soft with the council and should stop speaking on behalf of the revolution. The Egyptian street as far as I could tell do not trust these young inexperienced men whom are not ready to rule the country. "I do not know from some had this thought that the revolution youth coalition wanted to jump on the chair !!??"

It is worth to mention that the coalition members are speaking on behalf of their coalitions and political groups they represent not behalf of the revolution nor behalf the country but people considered them as sole representatives of the revolution just like they consider Wael Ghonim and Asama Mahfouz.
I believe the revolution coalition youth was burned in the media and this is their problem. Of course the coalition does not bother me on the contrary it could be a good chance for young people to learn politics in the hard way , what bothers me are these endless youth coalitions in the media.
Last week SCAF invited youth coalition to attend a meeting that was actually as lecture at Galaa theater , Cairo on last Wednesday. The invitation was only for coalitions so do not ask about those are not members in coalitions like me what they can do. The invitation was for all coalitions around the country and it was only announced 2 days prior Wednesday only !!! According to the invitation each coalition should send at most 10 because only 1000 will attend the meeting in the theater !! The theater's capacity only takes 1000 attendants !! Of course needless to say the number 1000 indicates that it would be a lecture from one party while the other party would only listen in silence.
Unfortunately it turned in to fiasco as expected. The revolution youth coalition did not go as well as other groups like 6th April but the NDP and MB did go. That fiasco was expected because if you want to make a real dialogue with youth , you invite a small number from youth in order to have a discussion. If you want to make a real dialogue with youth from all over the country then you must travel to the governorates and meet them there in order to know their needs and demands. It is not a mission impossible on the contrary it is very easy to organize knowing the logistics of the armed forces.
Now amazingly it seems that there are more youth coalitions than I have ever imagined in Egypt because the number was too big that the SCAF decided to have other meetings "lectures" next week !! SCAF Fax got the details of 156 youth coalition in Egypt dear friends !! 156 youth coalitions suddenly now are speaking on behalf of the revolution and millions of Egyptians !!!
Needless to say almost all these coalitions were made up just in the 48 hours before the meeting , you and 9 of your friends make up some fancy coalition name from the words I posted above and sent it to the SCAF Fax.
What I am worried is that the Egyptian revolution was too big to be represented by these coalitions even coalitions like Youth revolution. What I am worried about was how the NDP youth will seize the opportunity and they did. According to activists the NDP youth from Qena where the ones who represented the governorate in the meeting as youth coalition from Upper Egypt !!
The Egyptians need their voices to be heard and we do not have a parliament yet.
I will not speak about the generals and about what is in their minds but as long as we divided we will not pass this shady period in our revolution , in our history as we should. We should start to correct our mistakes
The generals need to negotiate with someone stronger enough to represent the Egyptian people.It is like that unforgettable scene in "Wa Islamah" when Hulagu Khan's envoy asked his historical question : When I would like to speak to someone in Egypt , whom shall I speak to !? 
I think we need to overcome our differences and return back our true Tahrir spirit of those wonderful 18 days. May be we need a new coalition that does only represent the youth or the revolutionaries but rather the Egyptian people in the current time.
I am not against the dialogue with SCAF like some do because I think if we do not talk and make our voice reach to the generals , the voices of others will be heard especially those of the hypocrites who do not give damn about the future of the country or the future of revolution just like those who went from NDP fake coalitions at Galaa theater.

10 comments:

  1. "May be we need a new coalition that does only represent the youth or the revolutionaries but rather the Egyptian people in the current time."

    Not exactly easy task, but I suppose ElBaradei has known this problem for a long time since he is trying to lead one: National Association for Change.

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  2. agree with you plus the revolution youth coalition and SCAF have no common language ... and the prob is any new coalition will face the same trust issue .. ppls 1st should know that protesting is not the only way to solve the political problems , i am really surprise how we all were so firm to dr. El Barad3y b4 the revolution while we all are searching for an imaginative leadership NB: "WA ESLAMAH" was a scene welcome to the real damn world

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  3. The Egyptian revolution has no leadership or ideology, true, but it does have a number of clear principles and demands:

    1) The people want the removal of the regime. Not only Mubarak, not a few of his cronies, but the corrupt legal, economic, political and police state system that kept Egyptians weak and degraded and oppressed.

    2) The people want to live in a state that guarantees there will be no more violations of the dignity and human rights of any Egyptian citizen, regardless of his or her wealth, religion, gender or any other consideration. And that all citizens will receive equal treatment under the law regardless of who they are.

    3) The people want social justice, meaning that the political and economic system should include safeguards that protect the poor from being exploited and cheated and endangered by the rich.

    4) The people want Egypt to be an independent nation, once more a source of pride for its citizens, not the client state of Egypt's enemies or any other foreign interests.

    5) The people want a government that they choose freely and that they can hold accountable or change if it fails to deliver on its promises, or if its members violate the trust of Egypt's citizens.

    These are all very basic, modest rights that citizens of free countries take for granted.

    NONE of these basic demands have been addressed yet, on the contrary: the AFC itself has violated them repeatedly, and continues to do so. THAT'S the real problem. Instead of all these dead-end "dialogues" with self-appointed "revolutionaries" designed to keep us distracted until the fateful elections in 3 months, the AFC should stop frustrating and insulting us with empty words and cheap avoidance tactics instead of positive, concrete actions to fulfil these principles. They have to demonstrate that they are not trying to manipulate us into "electing" our future tyrants.

    Otherwise, it will become obvious to more and more people why the revolution is not over yet, and must go forward if we are not to go back to what may very well be the same or worse oppression.

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  4. People were united (almost) in the infamous 18 days because their enemy united them. And the enemy was stupid enough to repeat his mistakes over and over.

    People get united when the enemy is clearly an enemy and clearly a stupid.
    I said "almost" because I remember Omar Soliman negotiations and how some people - with good or bad intentions - ran after the low hanging fruit and did not want to wait for the real harvest.

    So now there are forests of low hanging fruit for everyone and there is no clearly stupid enemy – yet.

    There are few common causes that should have united any common sense people regardless of their ideologies (e.g. no military cases for civilians, street security, and economy) however that did not happen because in every stream, there are loud runners after the low hanging fruits that ruin it for everyone.

    It is not almost impossible – it is impossible to quiet the low hanging fruit runners and get everyone united behind a single character or even a single group for the sake of bigger common causes.

    We have to look at the SCAF as black box. They are not traitors but they are not human rights activist either. They are bipolar and know only black and white colors and hence tolerance does not exist in their very small dictionary of human words.

    SCAF will never approach people or voluntarily improve the situations – any situations. (By design, they are reactive –not proactive). The less they stay in power, the better.

    Solution:

    Lesser of two evils: 50% fair but quick parliament election is better than another year of SCAF ruling, regardless.

    The common sense people from every stream stay united around their common causes – as they already now. They are not much but they are persistent enough to create enough pressure every other Friday and force SCAF to react in their favour.

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  5. There is no need to identify a leader.
    There is not even a need to talk to the ruling generals.
    There is only a need to have free elections and those freely elected Egyptians should rebuilt every thing in Egypt.

    And if those elected Egyptians screw up or destroy our newly earned freedom Tahrir Square is still there and they would not take more than 18 days and 800 Egyptian lifes.

    So no need to fight now who did start. Let us keep the fight for the elections and let us start preparing for it now.

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  6. The revolution has a leader and an ideology .... interesting, and it's an advantage for you?

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  7. You have no leader, you have no ideology, what you are doing now is going through the learning cycle where the outcome is still based on what goes on and how it goes on. The constitutional reform is taking too long and there is a reason for that, there is no post revolution clear political fabric in Egypt to speak off just yet. Egypt right now is like an an aircraft in a storm with no indication of speed or direction and fast running out of fuel.
    There is no direction because you agreed to empower the army. As a result, in your case it is the Military and the Elite who have the power right now to filter the speed and the Elite will filter the direction. Aware of this the other political contestants are playing their cards close to their chests and that is bad because now you have an issue of transparency. I see no clear impartial legal executive committee, I say legal in the jurisdiction sense, the involvement of the supreme courts and and executive senior judges to oversea and examine proposed democratic constitutional ratification and make these public. I see no governing body to oversee interest group wishes expressed in the proposed constitutional reform,I see no industrial relation and workers union or other union involvement in the constitutional reform with a clear political or industrial disposition, "a fairs day for a fair wage", or the issue of "minimum wage" for example. Another related point is the issue of public vs private distribution of the industrial and commercial landscape. This together with the union template will control the effect of future globalization should the elite play their cards right, for instance where Egyptian workers may lose their jobs as a result of external takeovers and privatization, I see no significant woman's right expression nor direct involvement of woman's interest as workers,managers, mothers, politicians and business women at the same level as men. I see no meaningful women debate in the constitutional reform nor as a recognized pressure group,I see no campaigning on specific issues related to the social and economic manifestos, including education, health, housing, employment, banking, agricultural, industrial or commercial so banks can play an active part in helping business start ups and survival in order to boost employment etc.. I see no meaningful open debates about the direction of the above reform, the political reform, foreign policy reform, freedom of speech etc.. yet you jump the queue and you are looking for a leader as if this leader is going to be a superman ready with all the answers. A leader is like a messenger, he transmit his party's manifesto and at this stage he is not required because I can see no serious parties to speak of, not manifestos contests, so where are your parties and what are their manifestos?

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  8. Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak made sure that Egypt never had a true and strong opposition party or leader, so there are not many charismatic leaders today left to choose.
    I am a firm beleiver that as the revolution matures, a real and natural leader will emerge provided that the course of the revolution is not tampered by external or internal forces.

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  9. you don't see a lot but you also don't see that Mubarak was toppled 3 months ago. Reading your post one would think the revolution happened like 5 years ago and there's no outcome. What you want to see will take at least a year to achieve, expecting so much so soon is either simplistic view of matters or wishful thinking that the revolution will fail. Do have any idea how long did it take revolutions to reach their goals?no? history section this way-------->.

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  10. Yeah I think the Youth Coalition not meeting the SCAF was the right choice. They saw an opportunity to bring to light important issues and they took it. good on them!

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