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<\/a><\/p>\n9 December 2011<\/p>\n
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editorial<\/p>\n
Egyptians took tentative steps toward building on the gains of the revolution that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak last February when they went to the polls on November 28, to cast their votes in the first of about twelve elections that would culminate in the presidential election in June 2012. Previously banned parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, as predicted, have done better than small secularist groups that sprang up in the aftermath of the revolution, raising concerns in some quarters that the military under ageing Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, which took over power about a year ago might make it a pretext to stall the democratic process.<\/p>\n
The election was held amidst resumption of huge demonstrations by disenchanted Egyptian youths who suspect the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had no interest in enthroning democracy in the country. So deep-seated was the mistrust that the protesters shunned the election, calling the military to relinquish power instead. The boycott reduced what would have been a keen contest between the Islamists and the Secularists for supremacy over the future direction of Egypt into a clean sweep of the polls for the former, lending weight to the notion that the Secularists may come to rue their decision if the Islamists, now in the majority to singlehandedly draw up a new constitution.<\/p>\n
The Secularists should have emulated the pragmatism of the Islamists who correctly deduced that while the protests were needed to jolt the Junta into hastening up the democratic process, going along with its programmes was the surest way to ease it out of power. This underscores the fact that the struggle for now is between the democratic forces –comprising the Islamists and Secularists- including the rioting youths in Tahrir Square, on one hand and the SCAF on the other. Confronting the SCAF as the rioters have done would not serve the interests of the democratic process because it could provoke it to dig in and further strengthen its stranglehold on power.<\/p>\n
What the SCAF had done since it seized power does not indicate it is in a hurry to usher in democracy. Under it, Egypt has continued to be ruled by emergency laws that are brutally enforced which itself is a bad reflection of the spirit of change the people are yearning for. In the same vein, it has continued to use military tribunals rather than the regular courts to try offenders; many of the demonstrators apprehended at the Tahrir Square were arraigned before the tribunals which threw them into jail with trumped up charges. Moreover, the inability of the SCAF to find solution to the economy has continued to worsen creating a sense of desperation in Egyptians for which many went back to Tahrir Square in agitation.<\/p>\n
The challenge facing Egyptians therefore is to manage the military in such a way that it will be compelled to see the democratic process to its smooth conclusion. This will entail all parties presenting a common front and exercising the patience needed to participate in subsequent elections in order to usher in the next dispensation. One issue that is likely to cause a testy time for the newly elected assembly in producing a new constitution are the pre-emptive clauses that protect the military’s stranglehold on political power and the economic advantages it enjoys. Good sense dictates that acts that could precipitate conflict and instigate a hostile response from the military should be avoided. One way out of such constitutional quagmire is to set a date when the issue would be subject to a referendum for the Egyptian people to decide on it.<\/p>\n
Egypt, with its 85 million people, is central to the democratization process and economic wellbeing of the Arab world and Africa. This notion should therefore be instructive to all parties–the military clique and the putative democratic forces –waiting to take over power to ensure that the process comes to a fruitful end.<\/p>\n
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