Reflections on the Egyptian Elections: Paving the way to Democracy

Waleed Mahmoud Mansour

Waleed Mahmoud Mansour, Egyptian and Green, writes about the recent developments in his home country. Even though at the moment, he is studying to get his degree in Ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment at the University of Koblenz Landau in Germany, he follows the events closely. For GreenYourope, he reflects on what happened in Egypt this year.

It has certainly surprised the world ousting a dictator like Hosny Mubarak (1981-2011) in Egypt; typically Mubarak has developed a confident record and a heritage of disdaining Egyptians via the strongest institution of his government known as the ministry of Interior (MOE). This ministry unlike any other ministry in Mubarak’s recent cabinets was mainly concerned with the security, safety and comfort of the Mubarak regime but never that of the people, it has exaggerated the use of power and oppression against minorities ranging from Women, LGBT and crossing to fundamentals but also political activists and civil society organizations.

Mubarak with MOE was the biggest fear of every Egyptian and was certainly above criticism at any point, the relentless façade of Mubarak’s regime protected by MOE has made it a bitter truth that this system may be eternal and perhaps one has to live with it as such.

January 2011 was the date when all fears went below, thanks to the Khalid said facebook.com page that promoted awareness on possibility of engaging every active or inactive citizen in the political life, it has promoted a sense of anger towards the oppressive patriarchal regime of Mubarak and his gang which made every Egypt willing to die on the road for his freedom. The people were shouting “bread, freedom and dignity’’ on the streets, it was not much that they asked for in terms of human norms, but for Mubarak’s regime it was a lot. The three words forced Mubarak’s MOE to use their extreme capacity in fighting revolts around Egypt fearing nothing and actually thinking that killing the people was the best solution. So many casualties and till now no such exact and accurate digits have been provided on the events of January and February 2011 leaving the people in hopeless condition, this number has even been amplified due to many other events related to the revolution thereafter.

On the 11th of February 2011 almost 17 days of uprisings around Egypt, Mubarak has delegated his responsibilities as a president to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) leaving his palace in the beautiful neighborhood in Heliopolis to the city of Sharm El Sheikh.

It was the epitome of happiness for almost ever Egyptian thinking that this is the end of Mubarak’s era not knowing that we now have to fight with a more brutal disorganized system of combined military power, religious fundamentals of terrorist orientation, pro Mubarak groups and a collapsed governance system with no backup. The previous is a typical formula for a country disaster.

Mubarak has not only left Egypt with recognizable poverty indicators and extremely low public participation in politics but also a feeble educational system and hungry fundamental oppressive political players. Not only that but a magnificent debt was also the result of Mubarak’s economic policies aimed at maximizing profits on the account of the society and environment leaving no possibility for real development.

Mubarak was keen on this terminator formula leaving no space for other political parties to develop except that of his, the National Democratic Party of Egypt (NDP) was another brutal arm of his regime, it is not a surprising fact that it has been lead by his son for the last 5 years mainly as a preparation step towards him occupying his long lasting dad’s position. Gamal Mubarak who has developed his interest in politics after being in business for some many years and living in the United Kingdom was chairing this party and being prepared as Egypt`s coming president.

The National Democratic Party was another brutal organization leaving no space for others to react or participate in politics; they basically voted for themselves and managed to keep that going till the revolution commenced.

The previous has all occurred in the presence of the Egyptian Armed Forces which claimed protection and support of the revolution since it has ever occurred. They have actually played the smart role of being subtly everyone’s friend that it was hard to defined their interests and challenges for the local citizen of Egypt. Nevertheless it was very quick that the game was well explained by their reactions.

Read Waleed’s complete report, download it here (PDF).