THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION:
The great revolution is
started on the 25th of January , 2011. to face the injustice , iniquity,
unfair and tyranny which were deep rooted in our society so all of these things
and more than them leaded to a lot of problems such as : the poverty which has
quickly spread in our society , the starvation which became the main
problem in the poor areas whose people who haven't had enough of an income to
buy anything even the important things for their life such as the foods which
can help them to stay alive and they also can't easily buy any medication
which can help them to recover quickly and protect them from any disease
so I thought that there was no place for those people in this tyrannic life
because a lot of people became only think about How can they earn a lot of
money and how to get a great position specially in the political life in our
life don't think at all about how the others people live in this tyrannic life
even if they can't bring any foods for one day and if they have a shelters or
no to protect them from the bad weather , the education problem which became a
very bad thing in Egypt. I think that all subjects became depend on only the
saving information in the minds not understanding but now they trying to
improve their education system all over
and the tormenting problem which the security nation was doing it in it's
center for anyone has an opposite view for their rules and their regime such as
" Muslim brotherhood " because they were wanting to still in the
political life forever " they and their sons " so a lot of troops in
Egypt went out to all Egyptian squires and streets there was no different
between " Rich and Poor " or " Muslims and Christians " we
all were as one man in this revolution , they all were asking to overthrow this
dictator and tyrant " Mubarak " with his regime; because he and his
regime were exploiting country's power
and money in an illegal ways and he was always trying to breakdown people's future for only his family and his assistants
so the people made also their revolution to get
freedom and the social justice so after 18 days of revolution from
killing a lot of revolutionists who were considered a huge part of Egypt's future
with their minds , powers .........etc.
After Mubarak deposition
from president position the
protesters made a lot of marches
against their "SCAF" then the trials were started for the previous
dictator , his sons and a lot of his assistant who were helping him in his
crimes specially " The Revolutionist Killing Crime " and through the
trial in this issue ; he will imprison for 25 years and then the Egyptian
people started to choose the new president for
the country so there were a lot of candidates entered this elections
such as " Abo Elftoh , Elsbahe , Elawa , Morsy ........ etc " and the
results of the first round in this elections were " the first one was
Morsy who represent the Muslim Brotherhood and the second one was the person
who represent the remnants of the last regime so both of them entered the
second round of this elections , in this round a lot of Egyptian people were
dispersed so there were a lot of common people who didn't go to vote to anyone of those candidates
because a lot of them don't like to back again to the last regime by choose the
person who represent them , don't like also to choose the Muslim brotherhood
because they think that Muslim brotherhood are conservatives and don't flexible
like liberal people , also a lot of those protesters damaged their votes , some chose Morsy to
don't back to the last regime and the others chose the second candidate who
represent the last regime anyway in the end of this elections "Thanks to
God that they have now a new president
and I think that it don't matter wether
they are happy or sad of this results
which succeeded in it the candidate who represent Muslim brotherhood , should
only now be optimistic of their future, and
work hard to progress the country's
economic and all field .
CAUSE OF REVOLUTION:
Egypt‟s revolution was the
continuation of a „domino effect‟ that started from suicide of avegetable
vendor, who set himself on fire. The slap‟s echo on his face trembled all
dictators‟
castles in region. The suicide of
Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia, which led President Ben Ali toflee from the
country, was the first spark for Egyptians to show their dissatisfaction served
as acatalyst for the protests in Egypt. This event flamed the anger of people
who had beenhumiliated repeatedly by the regime of Hosni Mubarak for decades.
The Egyptian revolution was among the first in an enormous wave democratic
protests in the Arab world this century.
The Egyptian protesters‟ target
was the main powers of the tyrannical
regime and PresidentHosni
Mubarak, viewed as the main principal of the authoritarian regime. This time,
the leadingof objection were not human beings who can be imprisoned and
repressed by the regime. It wasa new source, born from technology that had been
utilised by intelligent minds over the past three decades. Social networks
played a significant role in the North African political
revolutions.Mubarak guaranteed that he would not attend the next election and
appointed Omar Suleimanas his Vice-President, but none of protesters were
sufficiently satisfied to leave the Tahrir Square of Cairo and continued
to their civil disobediences. The military tried to control the situation. The
threat of being fired upon and possible death of protesters was not enough to disperse
the crowd from Tahrir Square and other streets. The same scenario happened in
other cities of Egypt. The march of the million was underway. Civil
disobedience was the turning point
of rebellion. Civil resistance
was efficacious and Mubarak‟
s regime collapsed. Unemployment,
inflation, repression and state corruption were the most important causes
of
Egypt‟s uprising, as the need to
comprehensive reform was viewed an important step toward a
great future
Public Demand
Egypt‟s revolution was not merely a political
revolution against a dictatorial regime; it was a
public demonstration of outrage regarding state
corruption. State corruption, based on the reports, had risen dramatically in
both Egyptian society and the Egyptian government in recent
years. Mubarak‟s regime appeared to dismiss the
urgent need for general reform and
subsequently overlooked opportunities to adapt,
alter or establish laws and policies leading to meaningful reform.
It was not enough for protesters, when the
President Mubarak and his deputy appeared in the media, promising to amend the articles 76 and 77 of the
constitution.
“The
People‟s Assembly shall nominate the President of the Republic. The
nomination shall be referred to the people for
a plebiscite. The nomination for the President of the
protesters were arguably logical requests for
substantive reforms, but seemingly difficult for the Mubarak regime to address.
The manifesto issued in Tahrir Square at the beginning of the revolution
consisted of some important protesters demands. Highlighted the principal
demands of the protesters,includingthe resignation of President Hosni Mubarak; the abolition of Emergency Law;. the immediate release of all political prisoners;iv. the annulment the current constitution and its amendment the formation of the Constituent Assembly to codify a democratic constitution;vi. the dissolution of Parliament;vii. the freedom of political parties, the dissolution of the Military Courts and the aolition of their sentencesix. and the freedom of the press.
Risk of
Revolution
The military regime, “which paid 50000 Egyptian
pounds to the families of killed people in the protests and gave promise to add
15% on monthly salaries of the government employees”, has the majority of the
state‟s economy and the power of retaliation. Now,
the military leading the country by with the
legal support of 30 years imposed Emergency Law
as the main ruling
state‟s law was one of the most important
protester‟s issues to resolve. The Parliament there is no supervision power.
For now,
the military prefers the people‟s side rather
than Mubarak‟s as an elegant option, but the fear of
conspiring to steal the revolution
still remains and the history of political revolutions supports this ideal.The
revolution, it seems to me, was genuine and it will prevail. Unless it is set
on
„
devouring its own children
‟,
reform will occur under the watchful eye of the
armed forces who will work
Republic shall be made in the People‟ Assembly
upon the proposal of at least one
third of its members.
The candidate who obtains two thirds of the
votes of the members of the People‟s Assembly shall be
referred to the people for a plebiscite . If he
does not obtain the said majority the nomination process shall be repeated two
days after the first vote. The candidate obtaining an absolute majority of the
votes of
the Assembly members shall be referred to the citizens for a plebiscite. The candidate shall be consideredPresident
of the Republic when he obtains an absolute majority of votes cast in the
plebiscite. If the candidate does not obtain this majority, the Assembly shall
propose the nomination of another candidate and the same procedure shall follow
concerning his candidature and election. The term of the presidency shall be
six Gregorian years starting from the date of the announcement of result of the
plebiscite. The President of the Republic may be re-elected for other
successive terms.”
Emergency law in Egypt was first enacted
in 1958, and has remained in effect since 1967,
except for an 18-month break in 1980. The emergency was imposed
during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and imposed again after the assassination of
President Anwar Sadat assiduously to keep western aid flowing and, perhaps, even
allow a greater part of it to flow towards economic development and towards
meeting the demands of the 40 percent Egyptians who live below the poverty
line.
The Guardian writes in its
editorial on 13 February 2011:
"There is no evidence yet
that the army plans to renege on its commitments to facilitate a transition to
popular rule. But in the absence of mature civil institutions, the fear of
chaos might easily lead the generals to conclude that democracy is a project
for the long term and then to extend the length of that term ever further".
The Egyptian military did
not play the role of a repressive power during the people revolution2011, such
as Libyan army in their bordering, but they have to show their honesty to the
people.Civilians should be entitle
d to support civil institutions
and labour unions, born from the Tahrir‟s
squares during the revolution,
and then also create and reinforce them in the body of the future government of
their motherland country to show their revolution unified and integrated at the
front of the military power. The power shift in Egypt should occur immediately
with the attendance of all groups and parties. The Egyptian people should
dynamically be present in the circle of power until their aims are achieved,
but the transition of power must occur carefully.Crossing from these
conditions and actualising the aims and targets of revolution must
occur quickly. The Egyptians should be able to make presentations of their
demands by their own activists and elites who have common goals and generate or
recreate their political coalitions,civil institutions and labour unions
immediately. Egyptians have been killed to achieve the rule of law, civil
liberties, and economic opportunities. The most important part of a political revolutionis
obtaining aims and reaching goals, now the most complex part of the revolution
is coming.
International reactions have varied with most Western states
saying peaceful protests should continue but also expressing concern for the
stability of the country and the region. The Egyptian revolution, along with
Tunisian events, has influenced demonstrations in other Arab countries including Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria and Libya.
Mubarak dissolved his government and appointed former head
of the Egyptian General
Intelligence Directorate Omar
Suleiman as Vice-President in an
attempt to quell dissent. Mubarak asked aviation minister and former chief of
Egypt's Air Force, Ahmed Shafik,
to form a new government. Mohamed
ElBaradei became a major figure
of the opposition, with all major opposition groups supporting his role as a
negotiator for some form of transitional unity government. In response to mounting pressure,
Mubarak announced he had not intended to seek re-election in September.
On 11 February 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced
that Mubarak would be stepping down as president and turning power over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and Mubarak resigned from
office. The military junta,
headed by effective head of state Mohamed
Hussein Tantawi, announced on 13 February that the constitution would be
suspended, both houses of parliament dissolved, and that the military would
rule for six months until elections could be held. The prior cabinet, including
Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik,
would continue to serve as a caretaker government until a new one is formed. Shafik resigned on 3
March, a day before major protests to get him to step down were planned; he was
replaced by Essam Sharaf, the
former transport minister. On 24
May, Mubarak was ordered to stand trial on charges of premeditated murder of peaceful protestors and, if
convicted, could face the death penalty.]
On 2 June 2012, Mubarak was found guilty of complicity in
the murders of the protestors and sentenced to life imprisonment, but this
sentence was later overturned on appeal. Numerous
protesters upset that others tried with Mubarak, including his two sons, had
been acquitted, took to the streets. On
19 June, protesters, many belonging to the Muslim
Brotherhood, protested in Cairo's Tahrir Square, angry that the SCAF had taken
some of the powers that had formerly belonged to the President. On 24 June, the
State Election Commission announced that Islamist Mohammed Morsi had won the presidential election. On
30 June, Morsi was inaugurated as the 5th President of Egypt.
On 3 July 2013 Mohammed
Morsi was deposed by over 30
million Egyptians, who didn't want Morsi to continue ruling . Egypt
will have an interim government until a new election. The interim government
was supported by the army and all major previous opposing parties and opposed
by the Muslim Brotherhood.
PRESENT SITUATION:
CAIRO — Amid an
international outcry over a bloody crackdown, the new government installed by
Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi is putting concerted pressure on the only remaining
news outlets in Egypt covering criticism of the violence: the foreign news
media.
The military
had already shut down all the Egyptian television networks that supported
President Mohamed Morsi on the night the general ousted him. Now, in the last
four days, the new authorities have raided and shut down the offices of the
pan-Arab Al Jazeera network, taken steps to deny its Egyptian license and, on
Sunday, arrested its correspondent Abdullah
El-Shamy on charges of inciting
murder and sectarian violence. Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, was the only big
Arabic-language network considered sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Senior
government officials, meanwhile, publicly scolded Western correspondents in two
news conferences and a public statement for failing to portray the crackdown in
the government’s terms: as a war against violent terrorists. On Sunday, even
General Sisi joined the chorus, criticizing foreign news media for failing to
appreciate his mandate to fight terrorism. The criticisms echoed incessantly
through the state and private media, and, in an apparent response, vigilante
supporters of General Sisi have attacked
or detained at least a dozen foreign journalists, a vast majority on the same
day that an adviser to the president delivered the first diatribe against Western
news coverage.
“One could be
forgiven for saying that there is a coordinated campaign against the foreign
journalists,” Matt Bradley, a
reporter for The Wall Street Journal, said Sunday in an interview with Al
Jazeera’s English-language sister network. He described being pulled into an
armored personnel carrier by soldiers rescuing him after a mob tackled him,
tore at his clothes and took his notebook.
Coming at the
end of a week when security
forces killed more than 1,000 Morsi supporters in the streets, the push to
control how the news media portray the violence is the latest sign of the
government’s authoritarian turn, which its officials have justified as
emergency measures to save Egypt from a coordinated campaign of violence by the
Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Scholars and
human rights activists say they see signs of broad coordination between Egypt’s
state and private media to drive home the same messages. After the first mass
shooting following the military takeover killed more than 60 Morsi supporters
at a sit-in, for example, television talk shows across the state and private
media seemed to suggest that the Islamists might have deliberately provoked the
violence to tarnish the military. Later, all seemed to discover that even Prime
Minister David Cameron of Britain had argued for limiting human rights in the
interest of protecting national security.
“There is
very clear coordination,” said Heba Morayef, a researcher in Egypt for Human
Rights Watch. “Forgetting what is true or not, it is interesting that you hear
the same thing from everybody.”
Prominent
human rights activists whose criticism of the former government made them a
staple of Egypt’s nightly talk shows for the last two years say invitations
have dried up as they have continued to criticize the police’s disproportionate
violence since General Sisi’s takeover on July 3.
The scholars
say the sudden pro-government unanimity of the Egyptian news media, following
the cacophonous explosion of news media freedom after the ouster of President
Hosni Mubarak two years ago, is a throwback not just to the Mubarak era but
much further — to the pre-satellite era when the government ran all Egyptian
media. Some said the chorus of criticisms of the Islamists as “terrorists” relatively seldom heard here until July — recalled the years of the early
1950s, when Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser consolidated his power by cracking down on
the Muslim Brotherhood.
Even some of
the headlines were almost the same, said Prof. Mona el-Ghobashy, a political scientist at Barnard who has tracked the Egyptian news
media over the last eight months.
“It is the
same hyper-nationalist discourse about how the Islamists are terrorists, that
these people represent a transnational Islamism or some kind of foreign import,
so they are not real Egyptians.” Officials now charge, without evidence, that
many protesters are Syrian or Palestinian.
She noted a
pattern of “dehumanizing” the Islamists across the state and private media that
began shortly after General Sisi removed Mr. Morsi, when the Islamists
established a tent-city protest camp. Talk-show hosts said participants of the
sit-in had scurvy. Other media outlets gleefully repeated an allegation by a
government-sponsored women’s group that the Islamists there were conducting
“sexual jihad” with women at the protests.
To support
the crackdown, “you have to dehumanize them,” Professor Ghobashy said.
