Egypt: revolutionary responsibility

Morsi withdrawing his controversial decree will not be enough to restore the calm and trust that Egypt needs

Editorial
The Guardian, Sunday 9 December 2012

".....Unfortunately, that is exactly what it is perceived to have done. The withdrawal of liberals and Christians from the constituent assembly, the resignations of some of Morsi's key advisers, the appearance, and perhaps the reality, that the president consulted unelected senior members of the Brotherhood rather than his own cabinet when he made the decisions that have led to the present unrest – all these suggest a leader, and a movement, which has lost sight of the need to bring along the whole spectrum of the forces which made the revolution. Some of it, but far from all, can be put down to inexperience, some to the unwillingness of elements of the opposition to compromise and, perhaps, in a few quarters, to a hope of unseating the president.

None of it can be ascribed to the machinations of outside forces. The "foreign hand", Morsi should remember, is the last resort of the unscrupulous, or irrational, politician everywhere. His withdrawal of his controversial decree is not going to be enough to restore the calm and the trust Egypt needs, as the opposition's rejection on Sunday of the constitutional referendum proposal showed. He should now be exploring what will be enough – and working to convince the alienated that the constitution whose making is at the core of this crisis will not be a winner's document but a charter that all Egyptians can accept."