The Fundamental Flaw in Egyptian Uprising

February 6, 2011

Upright Opinion

By Saeed Qureshi

There is a basic flaw in mounting the prodigious protests at Egypt’s Tehrir Square and elsewhere. This flaw or the underlying reason for the protests not being efficacious and result oriented is that the protestors have refrained from storming the presidential palace where the villainous president resides and is directing the counter measures.

A person who claims to be a past master in obstinacy and having done a PhD in stubbornness would not bow out even if the entire Egypt goes up in flames. His defiance to the will of the Egyptian people must to be broken at all cost. He is unmoved despite many deaths and casualties, not to mention the colossal economic downturn.

The French Revolution (1789) triumphed because the charged protestors attacked the Bastille prison and engaged in a violent battling with the government troops and ultimately prevailed. The attack on Bastille was followed by sporadic yet consistent ransacking and pillaging of the mansions, palaces and well fortified citadels of the aristocratic and elite members. The replica of the degenerated French society can be seen in the present day Egypt, in the garb of democracy, lorded over by a most morbid and brutal military junta in tandem with parasitic wealthy sections.

The historic French Revolution had four challengers namely; monarchy, feudalism, papacy and aristocracy. These three exploitative institutions were obliterated through a relentless and sustained assault launched by a truly mass movement. In the case of Egypt it is primarily the military straitjacket that has to be broken to be replaced by a genuine and unadulterated democratic order chosen by the people.
It suits the beleaguered despot and his cunning cohorts to see the protestors wear out by a prolonged agitation ultimately resulting in the fatigue and weariness not to continue the movement any further. The signs of fatigue, disheartening and perhaps disenchantment bordering on dejection are visible by the shrinking number of protestors holding on at the Tehrir Square battleground.

Those who resisted their hunger and thrust and sleep for ten days now are seen asleep with the same attires and dresses they were wearing when they entered the arena bubbling up with a new hope and jubilation for a stupendous change that seemed to be around the corner.

The leadership of the crusading protestors seems to be lacking the guts as hard and uncompromising bargainers. They appear to be deficient in the fire of rhetoric, the thunder of a high sounding hyperbole, resounding eloquence and the oratorical bellicosity to propel and keep the tempo, momentum and dynamism on the boiling point.

The movement that started with a big bang is now dissipating with less zeal and gusto that if kept alive on high pitch and sustained vibrancy could keep fueling the fire of rebellion and revolt against a diabolic regime.

The assemblage of the protestors has no central leadership or conspicuous figurehead leader who can coordinate and marshal the demands and aspirations of the revolting people of Egypt in a loud and aggressive manner. The disparate groups raise slogans and keep motivating and stimulating the courage and passion and fury of the enraged protestors. Yet that is not the substitute for a transitional council or body of the frontline leaders and commanders who can keep the spirits and stamina of the protestors in the highest gear and save it from falling to the lower degrees.

The crux of the masses movement against a highly incompetent, murderous and corrupt coterie of rulers is that it should be replaced with a civilian transitional or interim government of the so called national unity government. Before it can be done, the mastermind of all the sufferings and degradations inflicted upon the wonderful people of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak must vacate the presidency. Along with him the entire military paraphernalia including the ministers most of whom are the former army generals must resign and leave the power.

As being misleadingly dished by the official circles, there will not be a power vacuum with the dismantling of the sitting government. In simple words it should be the civilian leadership taking over from the military leaders. That arrangement would pave way for a complete break from the gory or bleak past that have made Egypt as an outpost for safeguarding the interests of colonial powers most notably Israel for the past three decades.
Egypt under Hosni Mubarak has ignobly singled out itself as the protégé, or the client state of both Israel and for the sake of forces inimical to Egypt. For a paltry retainer of over one billion dollars Egypt let loose a reign of unspeakable terror and relentless intimidation upon its own people in order to silence them.

As an Egyptian himself, Hosni Mubarak has been treating his own people like the colony of slaves and fugitives to be kept under the specter of fear, brutality, repression and torture so that no one talks of fundamental human rights, a civil society, a home grown vibrant economy and a political culture based upon the popular will and sanction through the free ballot. As a selfish and power hungry dictator and with unabashed aggression, he has been steam rolling public opinion, muzzling every discordant element and leveling off all divergent voices.

So if one sows the wind, he has to reap the whirlwind, as the adage goes. And that is what is happening in Egypt. A tyranny exceeding the bounds would entail a backlash of the corresponding severity. The law of retribution works in nature. The mills of God grind slowly but these grind exceedingly small.
It is foregone that any way, the loathsome cronyism of Mubarak and his sold-out Cabal could not have lasted longer. It would have remained vulnerable even if Mubarak would have kept his throne intact till his death or he was succeeded by his son. The society is not a static phenomenon. It is always dynamic and keeps moving forward. The systems of governance and paradigms of societal behavior under go changes with the time passage.

The downtrodden and repressed Egyptian masses desersve a right to be living in a civil society and enjoy the benedictions of freedom and dignity. The “D Day” is predestined and no aggressor or tyrant how crafty and ferocious he may be, can stop or rollback that march towards a world free of parasites, monstrous autocrats running islands of totalatarianism and mercenary dispensations. Even the foreign regimes with colonial mindset cannot stop this onward journey of human civilization.

The world media has mercifully assumed the laudable role of a redeemer for the bonded societies as the Egyptian society is. The media is a collective voice of such people who are struggling for an equable status with their counterparts living in civil societies, who have freedom, openness, civil liberties, rule of law, national freedom, representative governments and right to choose their leaders.

The writer is a Dallas-based journalist and a former diplomat. Email: qureshisa2003@ yahoo.com

To unsubscribe or for comments please write us at qureshisa2003@yahoo.com