This is an indirect Guest blog post I am proud to present. Writer/blogger and tweep Iyad ElBaghdadi wrote in a series of tweets brief history of Chile's coup in 1973
I wish someone would translate these tweeps in to Arabic
One of our problems in Egypt is that we do not read history whether our own history or other countries' history in order to learn how to avoid mistakes. We do not read history in this way because we are not learned in our education system to do this properly unfortunately.
Ironically and sadly some people warned of having a Romanian Counter revolution scenario in Egypt including people like Alaa Al-Aswany but no one wanted to listen. Some warned of having a Chilean scenario in Egypt but no one wants to listen. Some warned of having another 1954 scenario and are warning of another Nasserite era with its cons before its pros but nobody wants to listen.
I know every country has its own circumstance and time plays an important role but yet again the same mistakes are committed and people are paying the price.
Here are the tweets of Dear Iyad gathered in a storify post below.
I wish someone would translate these tweeps in to Arabic
One of our problems in Egypt is that we do not read history whether our own history or other countries' history in order to learn how to avoid mistakes. We do not read history in this way because we are not learned in our education system to do this properly unfortunately.
Ironically and sadly some people warned of having a Romanian Counter revolution scenario in Egypt including people like Alaa Al-Aswany but no one wanted to listen. Some warned of having a Chilean scenario in Egypt but no one wants to listen. Some warned of having another 1954 scenario and are warning of another Nasserite era with its cons before its pros but nobody wants to listen.
I know every country has its own circumstance and time plays an important role but yet again the same mistakes are committed and people are paying the price.
Here are the tweets of Dear Iyad gathered in a storify post below.
Sisi's entry into the presidency shows numerous signs of being preplanned, not a last minute thing. It may be the case that authoritarian forces in the state were unsure about whether to select Sisi or someone else, but, obviously, they are determined to put their puppet in power. It is extremely irrational, for the interests in the general population, to make a coup leader a president through undemocratic "elections" in which the all facets of the state are campaigning directly for that leader. There is no country in the world where this pattern ever produced positive results.
ReplyDeleteThere is no real evidence that Sisi has any commitment whatsoever to democracy or liberty of any kind. What is he going to do as president that he is not doing now as defense minister with great clout in ruling circles? The interim cabinet is restricting freedom and trying to hold unfree elections. If Sisi actually believed in democracy, he would object to this. Moreover, he would not run at all and instead allow a civilian to take the presidency if he truly cared about Egypt rather than just his military clique.
A Sisi presidency will almost certainly see the armed forces incessantly intervening in politics and continuing to massacre opponents. His followers cannot even say what his real economic program is or how he will address the country's true problems. Many of them will receive a rude awakening if he does take the presidency.
Any comparison of Sisi to Washingon, Eisenhowever, or de Gaulle is farcical, as those three did not seek to erect a Mao-like personality cult or outlaw political opponents. They also did not seek to destroy any and all semblances of media freedom.
Politics and militaries/militarism must be kept entirely separate, enforced by a sturdy wall to prevent intermingling. Military elites have a disproportionate tendency to lack the mental equipment necessary to respect a civil democracy or human rights. It is no coincidence that military autocracies generally comb universities for dissidents to purge, as educational institutions often become hotbeds of opposition to tyranny.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that the impending Sisi candidacy exists, not because of a sense of "patriotism," but to further the institutional interests of certain portions of the state. This pattern has happened over and over again in places like Chile, Thailand, Pakistan, Guatemala, and much of Africa. Pakistan is trying to escape military despotism while Egypt in surging toward it again.
Any future constitution should firmly enshrine a prohibition against any form of military intervention in politics.
If there is indeed a "third revolution" following a precipitous decline in the general's popularity, perhaps this will lead to Sisi supporters and any party he may found being declared terrorists and terrorist organization to be eradicated. Or, they new order might be more merciful than Sisi's.
Somehow manages to avoid mentioning the deliberate destabilisation of the Chileno economy by rightist-led petty-bourgeois organisations, the massacres at the soccer stadium and elsewhere, including the torture and murder of the popular folksinger Victor Jara, the banning of the Cantata de Santa Maria de Iquique, etc.
ReplyDeletereminds me of this article:
ReplyDeletehttp://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/03/3_media_narratives_about_the_m.html
First, I would suggest you tell Iyad to put this together into a single blog post or a small article.
ReplyDeleteSecond, this is very and real: "As a result, the coup regime instituted a purge of its police and armed forces of anyone suspected of having MIR sympathies."
The imprisonment of Alaa, Douma, Maher, Adel, the Alexandria people, others in Mansoura, Tanta and Asyut from RevSoc and Egypt Social Democrat is a big indication. The journalists Synd. dispersal on 25th of Jan (although I blame Ikhwan on that) is another indication.
Unfortunately it is slowly happening without us feeling it. Everybody, please take care.
Iyad is wrong in comparing Pinochet and Sisi, especially the economic reforms. Pinochet was a man of the right-wing neoliberal faction who ruled thru sheer brute force over the majority of the population. Sissi was originally a populist, left-of-centre man using Nasserist rhetoric for the economy, Sissi wouldn't have been what he is today if it had not been the millions of poor unemployed ppl out on the streets for him, Pinochet came to power solely through his Tanks and the elites. Sissi specifically tapped into poor people's grievances relating to social spending being cut, etc Rather it was Morsi who cut social spending.
ReplyDeleteChile, Turkey, Pakistan, Thailand, Myanmar, Argentina, Brazil, Algeria, Egypt.
ReplyDeleteI think it is time to report Sisi to ICC for crime against humanity.
ReplyDeleteThat should happen but the ICC rejected hearing such cases since Egypt is not a full party to the ICC. The court's requirements to hearing cases present obstacles to justice being served against leaders like Sisi. If a non-Sisi government one day changed this situation, it could in theory get the ICC to investigate Sisi and his cohorts.
Delete