I will not comment on what happened last night because I do not approve on storming private properties at all, the right of protesting can not be disputed and actually observers have warned of instability in Egypt if Shafik is elected as a president.
Of course these observers do not know that Shafik is ready for this and got a plan for any instability : Execution style in one month !!
New York Times has published a report about what he has said in the American Chamber in Cairo and it is quite interesting perspective on his future policies if he is elected as a president :
- He will restore order in the country in a month using executions !!
- He will have clash soon or later with the Islamists in the country as he believes they have got armed militias and they want to turn the country in to Lebanon
- Contrary to what the world thinks the Egyptian people obedient !!!!!!! Obedient !!
It is worth to mention that many of the American Chamber members from Egyptian businessmen were members in the former NDP who had connections with the former regime directly and fear on their financial interests.
Update : Here is a video clip for the meeting of Shafik in AmCham , I have not seen it yet.
Knowing how Shafik and those behind him from journalists think like Abdullah Kamal and Siyad Ali , I fear that the NY Times will be closed in Cairo after he is elected as a president especially with Shafik’s campaign fight with them !! Needless to say now Shafik’s supporters believe that NY Times is biased to the Muslim brotherhood and Kirkpatrick is biased to the revolution.
I fear more violence will be on the way , I fear more instability , you got angry youth , you got impatient people , you got SCAF and MB with their own agenda and world powers with interests. Everything is on the table now from assassinations to jails to coups
Hitler was brought by democracy , remember that. Of course I do not regret having these elections or democracy because people have to try their choice and learn from their mistakes in the hard way. Their idolism to Nasser brought to us the six days war defeat. I look to Shafik and the images form Tiananmen square in 1989 massacre especially with the level of hate showed by some of Shafik’s supporters towards the revolutionaries and the revolutions as reflected in their tweets.
Shafik and his supporters represent the nationalist right wing in Egypt just like Morsi and his supporters represent the religious right wing in Egypt !!
BY the way read this horrifying story of a Dutch journalist who was threatened by Shafik’s supporters. Of course reading this post , I wonder if that building and that cabbie are members of National security aka State security.
The meeting in AmCham seems to be audio only.
ReplyDeleteI read the Nwew York Times for many years and admired its reporting. I don't read it regularly anymore as I believe they now have an extreme liberal bias. I do believe the following article gives a good report on the whole picture of the Arab Spring. Egyptians face a real problem, Do they vote for the Devil they know or the Devil they don't? Hopefully secularism will prevail. Please copy and paste the following:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stratfor.com/weekly/egyptian-election-and-arab-spring?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120529&utm_term=gweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=69f19fa4333b4033beaf8ce82825bb73
Revolutionaries should push Morsi to establish fully transparent and observed elections in future.
ReplyDeleteIf Shafik (and possibly Suleiman as his VP) become president, first goes the parliament. Next goes all leftists, and alongside Islamists to jails.
And what is worse SCAF's grip over security and economy means Shafik-Suleiman duo can "improve" the lives of Egyptians to effectively cement them there for decade or so.
Let's put it this way: The revolutionary, "secular" forces are hopeless divided. Their only program is "against felool", "against Ihwan" and so on. The Ihwan have 80 years experience of organizing themselves and of surviving political minefields. However, they are fanatics. They want to force their religious ways on others and that is not what the majority of Egyptians wants. Charishing religious values is one thing - being forced to respect those is another one.
ReplyDeleteThe example of Iran teaches a profound lesson: once they are in power you cannot get rid of the religious easily.
Shafik and SCAF are representatives of the old order and what he said at AmCham is what he means. He will try to turn the wheel back as far as possible. Personally I cannot imagine he nor SCAF will turn Tahrir Sq. into a Tiananmen. China got away because they are a world power. Egypt is not. SCAF wants billions from the USA and in the case of a massacre no American President could afford to tolerate this. EU will cut all aid, tourism would collapse again ...
No, Shafik will act very cautiously. If he remains "human" he will have the support from all: Israel, USA, EU, Saudi Arabia. If he dissolves Parliament, Ihwan will lose a lot and this will be the opportunity for the liberal movements.
The victim will be the people of Egypt who will be plundered as usual. No true reforms will happen, because the felool want to make billions and for the religious fractions "business" has no value (unless it is their own company).
Democracy requires a civil society, people who can read a voting paper. Egypt is lacking of such. Egypt is needs a Pharaoh - but a nice one.
One side benefit of Jan25 is to prove bigots like the above anonymous wrong. The diversity of opinions, intensity of participation and vigor of debates in the new Egypt, while negotiating the sea of minefields in our turbulent middle east region is a testament of a fast-learning, rapidly growing Egyptian civil society. In some respect, we are accomplishing is a few months what took Turkey, for example, decades to achieve. We can ship you some unused Pharaohs in good working conditions.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the last anonymous.....Egypt needs a benevolent dictator, it takes discipline and political maturity for democracy to work and Egyptians are not there yet!
ReplyDeleteSocieties that were far less ready than Egypt in its present state atttempted the democratic experiment by staging guerilla warfare, civil war, and other types of forceful methods of political change. Any society that successfully deposes an entrenched pillar of despotism through non-violent action already has demonstrated the capacity to use more advanced modes of political reform. The key will be ensuring that anti-democratic forces do not keep stalling the transition or actually succeed in subverting it. No point in returning to any kind of dictatorship. Popular participation is now needed for the growth of political consciousness.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, there is no such animal as a benevolent dictator.
ReplyDeleteDictatorship is an unnatural political state and can never be benevolent but like poison in the bloodstream eventually sickens and kills what it infects. All dictators, historically, believe & claim they are benevolent but history shows that long after they are gone they affect the societies that have been cursed by them. China will be no exception.
The real question is why more people didn't vote? My guess - poverty. They feel their misery will not be changed by voting.
Other than that the election was excellent. Of course, people voted for Mubaraks PM (those people haven't vanished) but just as many voted for 3 others. So the election looks to me to be incredibly fair, considering it was the 1st.
The Salafis are unhappy. Shafik is talking tough but that is all he can do. The MB tested the limits and in fact they didn't really pass that test since %75 didn't vote for their man and they showed their true face by entering the contest after reassuring Egyptians they would stay out. The question is will those who voted for El Fotoh feel comfortable with the MB or afraid of their slippery dominance.
The MB can claim they eventually backed Tahrir after it was safe to do so and the Army/Shafik can claim that Mubarak backed down instead of going the road of Iran/Syria/Libya. Both sides want the votes of the others. I hope turnout can be increased in the next round.
Dictator is not really a dictator if he/she can be replaced every 4-5 years in a free, fair and honest elections. Keeping a periodic honest elections mechanism and keeping freedom of speech will assure that no dictator will rule.
DeleteIts not important whether Shafik or Mursy or even Mubarak will be elected, the important thing is to keep the principles above of periodic free honest elections and freedom of speech.
@pirooz
ReplyDeleteCheck your knowledge of modern history and read about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Josip Broz Tito, they were considered to be benevolent dictators and have accomplished great feats for their countries.
@Mostapha: You have obviously no clue about Egypt! Obviously you are one of the street-smart facebookies spoiled by Starbucks and most active on Twitter.
ReplyDeleteI good news for you: 40% of Egyptians are illiterates. They live in the countryside in miserable conditions. They are use to sell their votes to make a living.
And here you go and talk to them about civil society! GET REAL!
I was shocked.
ReplyDeleteI have to say Shafik sounds just plain stupid in this
discussion.
He thinks the world can pretend nothing happened
in the last 2 years.
It leaves Egyptians with no choice. Too bad.
Morsi will win. Cross your fingers.
How could the SCAF be so stupid.
Reliance on some kind of political savior is an obsolete strategy and a pipedream at present. The people that most ardently seek to become dictators are not in any sense benevolent; someone that actually is benevolent would at some point be willing to share power and shift to a democratic system. The myth that a political messiah will sweep in and fix things can keep countries locked in oppression longer than is necessary.
ReplyDelete