Mubarak should be told: “C’est La Revolution, Sire!”

Mustapha Ajbaili

 
Stubborn Egyptian President Housni Mubarak needs someone in his circle to tell him what the Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt told the French King Louise XVI. When crowds stormed Bastille in July 1789, the surprised king told the Duke, “That is a revolt!,” the Duke replied, “no Sire,” “C’est la revolution.”


The possibilities, however, that someone in Mubarak’s powerful military, business and political circles will tell him that the people want him gone is difficult to predict. The case of Tunisia, where army chief Rachid Ammar told ousted Ben Ali that the time was up for him to quit, is unlikely to happen in Egypt.

Unlike Tunisia, the military in Egypt is part of the corrupt regime, but what is more saddening is the undeniable fact that the military is a respected institution among the Egyptian public. The old guards in the Egyptian army are basking in what they see as historical achievements in their 1973 war against Israel, which led to the “liberation” of Sinai. (The word Liberation between quotes because until now Egyptian army is still banned under the peace accord with Israel from deployment in some parts of Sainai).


During the ongoing popular upraising in Egypt, army generals are keeping the public at an arm’s length to tell them that they love them, but not to get too close to upset some allies at home and around the world.


Besides, army generals have a vested personal interest in the status quo in partnership, of course, with the business class, which Gamal Mubarak, a banker, brought to positions of political decision making through membership in the ruling National Democratic Party.


As the marriage of politics and business was formalized, the economic growth went above 6% but the benefits of such growth did not trickle down to the poor working class and about 40% of the population continued to live under two dollars a day. The economic growth in the last few years widened the rift between the rich and the poor making the eruption of a revolt simply a matter of time.


Now that it has erupted, what would it achieve? Certainly the rich and politically powerful upper class is all behind Mubarak, not only because he protects their interests, but more because he is their symbol drawing all the popular anger and attention away from them.

If Mubarak falls, the popular anger and attention will likely be re-oriented and directed towards them, and many of them would likely be brought to justice and driven out from positions of power in the government, in business, and in the media. It would be a reshuffling of the whole society not just of the regime. That is why Mubarak is stubborn and unwilling to surrender to the will of the people.


Despite all this, things can never be the way they were before January 25.The Egyptian revolution may not change everything overnight, but it has certainly fractured the old regime. Whether Mubarak’s succeeds to keep his post or not, he will never be the same Mubarak he was before January 25. The change is happening already and will continue, even slowly, and the powerful corrupt business, political and military elites will be divorced. The people have broken the fear barrier and they will continue to protest fearlessly for their rights.

The major fear is that if the regime becomes excessively irresponsive to the demands of the people, as expressed in the ongoing peaceful protests, we may see a shift toward the use of violence by protesters. We should keep in mind that thousands of arms were stolen from the central security buildings that were attacked by protesters on Friday of Rage and it is just a matter of time before they get to the hands of terrorists if security is not restored as soon as possible with the departure of Mubarak.

It is high time America told Mubarak “C’est la Revolution, Sire” if no one in his circle is willing to tell him so.

Mubarak's Egypt...A Nation Without A State

It took a few hours after noon on Friday, January 25, 2011, for the Egyptian state institutions to collapse in the face of a popular upraising unseen in the Arab world’s biggest nation in decades, after the regime’s repressive apparatus, namely the interior ministry’s central securities, was repelled and largely destroyed by thousands of protesters.

What happened in that afternoon surprised many, but I can’t say it surprised me. I lived for about a year and half in Egypt, from September 2007 to January 2009, between two realms: One was the Western type social environment of upper class rich Egyptians at the American University in Cairo, whose tuition fees were higher than those of many Universities in America. (I was on a fully-funded scholarship).  The other realm was the social environment of variegated ordinary Egyptian middle and working classes that I interacted with in my work at IslamOnline.net and in the street. I was exposed to the two realms sharply divided along the lines of mainly economic status and religiosity.

At some point I came to know that what brought the opposing social and economic classes together in a unified state was repression. The government and the police were perceived by ordinary Egyptians as a fearful monster. One evening, I went to the Boursa area in downtown Cairo, close to Tahrir square, where I used to drink ‘Kousheri’ tea and smoke a pipe while reading a book. I found out that a police unit just passed by and confiscated all the chairs and tables from the cafes in the area. I walked into a café where I used to sit and I asked its owner, Said, about a chair, and he replied: the police took everything. There were a number of young Egyptians standing by when I replied for a laugh: F*** the police! The reaction I received was astonishing to me. Everyone stepped back with unquestionable marks of fear mixed with suspicion on their faces.

Having come from Morocco where police and security forces are often challenged and sometimes even beaten, I could not understand how destitute young men who have nothing to lose can fear the authorities . I could understand the fear of those who benefit from the system, but i could never understand why the wretched of the earth have to fear the authorities.

I was then beginning to take notice of the profound injustice that existed in Egypt. I noticed that the state administration was built upon a system of enslavement—Whoever was in a government position enslaves those underneath and those who were most enslaved were the ordinary poor Egyptians.

State institutions seemed to me completely corrupt and completely disorderly. During my first year, I did not have a residency. Every time I would lodge in an application, I had to wait for three months before I received a response saying: your address is incorrect, resubmit your application and pay a “fine.” Yet ,I was a full time student, I worked I had a bank account, and according to the law I should have been banned from engaging in any such activity without a residency; but I never was, because there was what I called “anarchy--” nothing made sense..everything seemed arbitrary.

I remember when I told an Egyptian colleague at AUC that Egypt is a nation without a state. The definition of a modern state did not seem to exist, but this fact was concealed by forced silence or by the complacence of the rich upper class elites who shared interests with the corrupt regime and with the governing National Democratic Party. Two days ago after Egypt fell in total chaos, I logged into Facebook and I met online with the same old Egyptian colleague. He wrote to me: You were right; We are a nation without a state. What we thought was a state fell apart in a number of hours in the face of popular demonstrations.