With Mubarak out of power and SCAF taking the reigns, what's next for the country?
A VERY GOOD PIECE
By Joseph Massad
Al-Jazeera
"Many Egyptians are expressing concerns about the deployment by the ruling Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) of the very same political rhetoric previously employed by the Mubarak regime, despite the SCAF's claim that it is maintaining "neutrality" between "popular" forces; a "neutrality" that it has failed to demonstrate on all fronts.
Indeed, Egyptians who want to transform their uprising into a veritable revolution have responded to the ruling SCAF by refining their definition of the identity of the armed forces. If the famous cry of the anti-Mubarak uprising enjoined the army to stand with the people against the regime, the current cry cleverly differentiates between the SCAF and the army, so that the army rank and file continue to be invoked by the revolutionaries as being on the side of the people - while the SCAF is presented as the political antagonist who seeks to maintain the Mubarak regime with some reforms, albeit without Mubarak....
Follow the money
With the increasing chorus against the rule of the SCAF from intellectuals and revolutionaries, the major ally of the SCAF in the country remains the super-rich business class - which includes secularists and Islamists - which has so far vehemently refused to accede to the demand for a minimum wage for Egyptians (a mere 1200 Egyptian pounds a month, about US$200). It is joined by the Muslim brotherhood and various Salafist groups, which have threatened to end the sit-in in Tahrir Square by force Friday July 29, with a massive show of support for the military. On July 26, an agreement was finally reached between a number of forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis, on five demands to be made at the demonstrations on Friday 29th by all in order to maintain the "unity" of Tahrir Square.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which joined the revolutionary demonstrations late in the game and after much hesitation, may be looking for a wider role, now that the US administration has decided to speak to it openly (which has impelled it to refuse to join the July 8 sit-in). The Muslim Brothers may look like strange bedfellows with the SCAF and the business class, but if you follow the money back to Saudi Arabia and the United States, they are not at all. Indeed, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has threatened to have President Obama veto the new conservative Republican resolution to stop US aid to Egypt if the Islamists are elected, as it would interfere with her foreign policy strategy in the country.
While much of this does not augur well for the future of the uprising, some fear, and others are whispering calls for, a coup d'état to be staged by nationalist mid-level army officers who are not tainted by the corruption of their superiors or their subservience to the ancient regime to rid the country of the SCAF and begin with a clean revolutionary slate. As elections have been postponed until next November, the situation is getting increasingly tense and is gearing up to many possible confrontations - between the Islamists and other revolutionary forces, between revolutionary forces and the army, or within the army itself. The hands of the Americans and the Saudis in all this are too obvious to hide despite official rhetoric. In the meantime, the future of Egypt and Egyptians hangs in the balance."
A VERY GOOD PIECE
By Joseph Massad
Al-Jazeera
"Many Egyptians are expressing concerns about the deployment by the ruling Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) of the very same political rhetoric previously employed by the Mubarak regime, despite the SCAF's claim that it is maintaining "neutrality" between "popular" forces; a "neutrality" that it has failed to demonstrate on all fronts.
Indeed, Egyptians who want to transform their uprising into a veritable revolution have responded to the ruling SCAF by refining their definition of the identity of the armed forces. If the famous cry of the anti-Mubarak uprising enjoined the army to stand with the people against the regime, the current cry cleverly differentiates between the SCAF and the army, so that the army rank and file continue to be invoked by the revolutionaries as being on the side of the people - while the SCAF is presented as the political antagonist who seeks to maintain the Mubarak regime with some reforms, albeit without Mubarak....
Follow the money
With the increasing chorus against the rule of the SCAF from intellectuals and revolutionaries, the major ally of the SCAF in the country remains the super-rich business class - which includes secularists and Islamists - which has so far vehemently refused to accede to the demand for a minimum wage for Egyptians (a mere 1200 Egyptian pounds a month, about US$200). It is joined by the Muslim brotherhood and various Salafist groups, which have threatened to end the sit-in in Tahrir Square by force Friday July 29, with a massive show of support for the military. On July 26, an agreement was finally reached between a number of forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis, on five demands to be made at the demonstrations on Friday 29th by all in order to maintain the "unity" of Tahrir Square.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which joined the revolutionary demonstrations late in the game and after much hesitation, may be looking for a wider role, now that the US administration has decided to speak to it openly (which has impelled it to refuse to join the July 8 sit-in). The Muslim Brothers may look like strange bedfellows with the SCAF and the business class, but if you follow the money back to Saudi Arabia and the United States, they are not at all. Indeed, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has threatened to have President Obama veto the new conservative Republican resolution to stop US aid to Egypt if the Islamists are elected, as it would interfere with her foreign policy strategy in the country.
While much of this does not augur well for the future of the uprising, some fear, and others are whispering calls for, a coup d'état to be staged by nationalist mid-level army officers who are not tainted by the corruption of their superiors or their subservience to the ancient regime to rid the country of the SCAF and begin with a clean revolutionary slate. As elections have been postponed until next November, the situation is getting increasingly tense and is gearing up to many possible confrontations - between the Islamists and other revolutionary forces, between revolutionary forces and the army, or within the army itself. The hands of the Americans and the Saudis in all this are too obvious to hide despite official rhetoric. In the meantime, the future of Egypt and Egyptians hangs in the balance."
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