The Egyptian Question
Entry posted by The MVP
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So.. anyone been watching the news lately? It's no secret Egypt is being plastered all over the news for the potential game changer it could be. Is it true that if Egypt successfully undergoes a revolution that the rest of the Middle East will? No, however the fact that Egypt of all places was able to successfully revolt shows that any nation can as well. Now that's not to say Lebanon and Jordan are next, we can't know for sure.
Let me say this isn't a movement started out in the Middle East rather North Africa. With Ben Ali and Bouteflika (the Algerian president) being strongly opposed the fear was that it could trigger to Egypt as well. Tunisians right now are giving Egyptians advice as to how to deal with the army and police. Granted both situations aren't the same however they're both trying to fight tyranny. Tyranny, isn't this what the founders of this country fought against?
The idea of stabilizing the region is only further fragmented the Middle East from the rest of the world in order to create a short term fix. Egypt is already a secular state, most aren't fundamentalists and it contains quite a large Christian minority. Most don't want to see a turnover to Islamic fundamentalist, one can look no further than who's really fueling this revolution in the Egyptian youth. In the case of Iran what you mostly saw was people wanting an end to the shah, and that was it. Just to get rid of him in order to fix the situation. In Egypt the main objective is to get rid of Mubarak but how is it different?
Both oppressed some freedom within the nation, however where we see Iranians wanting a change to a corrupt government what we're seeing in Egypt is that they want more rights and freedom. If you've seen what most are saying on the streets, they want control of their country. They want democracy, they want to pick their own destiny. What most Israel/USA diplomats are worried about is with democracy the potential for a real Muslim movement to go through. At that you need to understand what the Egyptian people want and who the Muslim Brotherhood truly is. I don't trust the Muslim Brotherhood one bit, perhaps because I am a Christian, however many are over stating their importance in Egypt. The more they were oppressed by Mubarak, the more they gained popularity. With such a young nation, unlike Iran was at the time, I think the likelihood of the MB taking power is very small.
So what triggered this all, what's going on now what can we expect to happen in the future? This I will try and answer.
What happened? Although Egypt may look stable from the outside, it was overly oppressed on the inside. When I lived there unemployment was high, many had nothing to eat on the streets gathering nothing but the money off the generosity of people. Since I left? Things have gotten progressively worse. It seems that if you're rich they wonder if you're some sort of doctor, engineer or tourist. They knew immediately that I came from outside of Egypt my friends.. I don't have a lot of money. I used to be a college student who recently began to work. The fact I can go into a once great country and be considered, "upper class" is appalling.
However with all this said, there was hope. In 2011 Egypt intended to have elections to oust the corrupt dictator Mubarak who has already made enough in this Swiss bank account to live a happy life. Many felt that even though there would be elections, his son Gamal would win. They don't like him, hell even the army doesn't (Mubarak himself is close to the government due to him once serving as an officer there). Still, it would be change. It would be an election and people would make their voice heard. Mubarak intending to step down, candidates making a bid although largely it would be pointless but still it's a change, it's a step in the right direction.
Instead, Mubarak intended to run again. With all intention in front of America and all of Egypt. It was apparent there wold be no change, not maybe for the next 10 years more after 30 years of upheaval. This was unacceptable but most didn't know what to do. Until the Tunisians gave us hope, it spread and through facebook and other forms of media Egyptians took to the streets.
What will happen? Only God knows. It is all dependent on what the army does, however I have a hard time thinking this movement will fizzle out and Mubarak will take power again. If he takes power it'll have to be through some form of brutality from the army. Is it possible? Absolutely, the man has the trust of the army. The people won't burn Egypt to the ground, the army is too strong and respected for that to happen. Everything is now up to what the army decides to do. Decide with the protesters, or crack down on them? After 150 killed all over Egypt, for freedom and rights of all things, do they have the power to still kill more? For something so innocent that should be a god-given right to all people?
The future is uncertain, yet the population remains hopeful that it'll be far better so long as their voices are heard in the future. Maybe it won't be, still they'll try and fight for it.
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