Egypt's revolution continues as grassroots rage against fragmented elite

At least two separate struggles are playing out, between rival elements of the state and between defenders and opponents of the old system

A GOOD COMMENT
Jack Shenker in Cairo
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 July 2013

".....To understand what's happening in Egypt right now, it's important to distinguish between at least two separate struggles that are playing out, the outcomes of which will shape Egypt's ongoing revolution for some time to come.

The first is a factional conflict within the ruling elite. Since Hosni Mubarak's position was rendered untenable by the popular uprising in January 2011, those elements of the authoritarian state most invested in stability – the military, the security apparatus, the plutocrats – have worked hard to shield Egypt's status quo from the full brunt of revolutionary unrest.
From late 2011 onwards, that fragmented elite has been joined by higher echelons of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood movement, much to the chagrin of Mubarak-era loyalists whose antipathy towards the Islamists runs deep. The Brotherhood's leaders have done their best to maintain the autocratic nature of Egyptian politics and keep revolutionary demands at bay, but they have a sparked a popular backlash as a result.
Rival elements of the state are now seizing their chance to piggy-back on that grassroots anger and engineer a reshuffle at the top. So it is that among those jostling for Morsi's departure we find the felool, remnants of the Mubarak regime seeking to reclaim authority and preserve their privileges.
But there is a another, more critical struggle unfolding too, between those fighting to destroy the old authoritarian system that for decades has denied them political and economic agency, that plunders Egypt's public wealth in the name of private profiteers and arrests, tortures and kills those daring to defy it – and those seeking to protect it.
The majority of demonstrators have been drawn on to the streets not by a nostalgic yearning for the ancien régime but by their bitter sense of betrayal at Brotherhood rule. The president, they argue, has surrendered his legitimacy – through incompetence, through oppression, through a spectacular chain-breaking of promises that he offered up when, after a fatal split in the pro-revolutionary vote, he found himself in a presidential runoff with an icon of the Mubarak era......

Gaber Salah, 16, known as Jika to his friends, was killed in December 2012 at a protest against a decree placing Morsi above the oversight of any court in the land. Just before setting off for the protest, Jika wrote on his Facebook page: "If I fail to come back, I ask the people to continue with the revolution and claim our rights." Today Egyptians are heeding Jika's words, and the revolution continues."