Opinion Editorials, February 2013

Thought and Reflection, 2 years after Egyptian Revolution: “When leftists support The Muslim Brotherhood”

By Mohamed S. Kamel

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, February 4, 2013


After 2 years of the great modern Egyptian revolution, we all have to reflect and think loudly. We need to reflect on our positions, and our dreams to rediscover our strength needed to build the New Egypt. Thoughts and reflections that need to be examined with open heart and mind.   
 
It is usually easy to refuse everything and to stay in the opposition camp without taking the blame. It might be easier on the personal level in a short term. Provocation of fear and hate, screaming and destruction are easier than building. Building is the most difficult job, the longest, and hardest to sell.
 
But for the wellbeing of Egypt and for our own conscious, let’s not go down that road.
 
That is why some choose a different pass; choose that hard pass willingly motivated by an analysis of the situation in Egypt and an assumption built on the complex challenges facing the new Egypt. The analysis of these aspects has been driven by a reading of the history of Egypt, the characteristic of the Egyptian population, the position of different participants in the Egyptian politics, and the beneficiaries from a failing revolution, in addition to the international input.
 
That is how a segment of the leftist and liberal thinking chose and accepted the blame of some and the wondering of others for allying with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), as if it is a crime.
 
But, do I really believe in the MB platform? Mostly not! So why do I choose to support them?  
 
Egypt’s problems weren’t developed in the last 2 years or the last 6 months, and weren’t expected to be solved or even improved in this short period of time or even in the coming 5 years.
 
Removing Mubarak’s regime in 18 days was a huge achievement but this doesn’t mean that the country will be rebuilt in 18 month or even 18 years.
 
Egypt’s problems are an outcome of 40 years of organized crime that worked hard to destroy Egypt’s resources including its valuable human resource, by demoralizing the nation, distorting its history, and uprooting hope and self confidence.
 
This destruction touched the entire Egyptian society including the political parties, politicians and most of the opposition figures. This polluted and corrupted air penetrated the media be it mainstream or alternative, owned by the government or the opposition.
 
During these 40 years, the Egyptian leftists and all liberal forces opposed the regime individually and never worked within the society to build it is own grass roots; wrongly believing that they own the heart and the mind of the people.
This manipulated destruction could not be fought with historical slogans that lost their power after 40 years of systematic abuse by the ex-regime and the opposition as well. As such, it is irresponsible to live in the past and hang-up on these slogans.
 
Only the MB was clever in building its grass root movement and maintaining its direct link with the people; building it is own wealth and solidarity movement across the country that was able to support its members and their family especially throughout the ex-regime’s mass arrests and oppression.
 
Approaching January 25, 2011, no single Egyptian can claim that they knew that this would be the outcome. So when the regime collapsed, MB was the only group that could act as an available alternative to govern.
 
Are the liberal forces and the leftist responsible for this outcome? Partially yes! They developed multiple diseases, lost the people’s heart, thinking that pretending to be the only inheritance of Nasser’s era would permit them to abuse people’s intelligence as the regime had done. Leaders turned into television stars, creating a new form of militants who can militate on TV not in the villages and countries. They didn’t lead the society and they were not able to show a leadership for their own audience. Many of them are fighting among each other.
 
On the other hand, the collapsed regime didn’t give up and will never do. Its remained pockets, “Felol, in slang Egyptian”, are fighting a survival war that would end with their return or disappearance from the map.
 
Throughout this picture we have to examine the goals and requirements of this particular phase. Understanding this phase’s goals is essential to be able to judge correctly.
 
What Egypt needs after these 40 years of destruction? Egypt needs a cleanup of the mess created by that regime and a crackdown on all its remaining elements that continue to control every single governmental institutions, juridical institution, media, educational system…etc.
 
This cleanup and crackdown should go along with rebuilding the confidence, raising the morale slandered, helping the society recover from the reckless attitude, and injecting the society with a healthy hard working and selflessness mind set.
 
The outcome of this situation is the success or the failure of the revolution. And that is why in spite that many of the Egyptians don’t agree with the MB ideology, they choose to mandate the MB to do the job.
 
This is the position that has been taken since the second round in the presidential election. This is the position taken by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians. Might it be right or wrong, it is purely motivated by the desire to build the new Egypt.
 
Understanding that the Egyptian society is in an early stage of learning democracy should lead us to distinguish between the disagreement and the destruction. The dictatorship regime has collapsed and will not come back unless we open the door to its remaining pockets, allying with them in the same line calling for the fall of the newborn administration and not acting as constructive opposition.      
 
Unfortunately, today’s opposition forces, now calling themselves “the salvation front”, are not motivated by a plan or a building project. These collectives are all motivated with hate, hating the MB and even some of them hating any Islamic slogan or project.
This has been clear for awhile, such as when using Mubarak’s constitutional court to dissolve a legitimately elected parliament, or irresponsibly calling to boycott the elections, withdrawing from the constitution committee and challenging its legitimacy and refusing all actions from the president even those called upon by the revolution (such as removing Mubarak’s appointed attorney general and changing government media appointees).
                   
Some of these opposition figures went as far as spreading a new wave of feeling of failure by raising the expectation limit to an extent that many thought that the 40 years of destruction will be solved and Egypt would be built in 6 months. Blaming the president for a train crash and an arrest of an Egyptian abroad is an easy way.
    
Could this situation change? Yes for sure, but under several conditions and only when the opposition recognizes that their movement should be built on a real alternative project not on Islamophobic acts and slogans. They should come clean by not including any of the old regime figures in their movement.
 
This could happen only when we stop acting as adolescents. Everyone is working hard to prove their own point of view even if the price is the failure of the revolution. Everyone is dying to prove that their camp is on the right track rather than making it work.
 
We should respect people’s will and no one group has the right to think that they are above the people’s choice. We shouldn’t think or accept that a legitimately elected system could be removed as done with Mubarak’s regime, because if this happened, it will destroy the newly born democracy.
 
This situation can change only if we believe in reconciliation. If we understand that freedom and democracy should be built on a learning curve, and by learning from the past. If we understand that there is no such thing as “with us or against us”. We shouldn’t consider the others as the enemies. The only enemy is the ex-regime and the counterrevolution. Not trusting MB is different than hating and excluding them.
 
This situation can change only when we accept people’s will and don’t consider that we are the only patriots and the only intelligent beings; when we distinguish between the time to demonstrate, the time of intelligent opposition and the time of cooperation with others including the governing party.
 
To make it happen, all forces in Egypt need to learn how to govern and how to oppose.  They need to appreciate each party’s limit and understand the limits of Egypt’s resources and capacities.
 
To make it happen, we should regain our moral standards and learn how to deal with each other in a respectable professional way. We shouldn’t forget that Egypt’s media needs to be cleaned up. We should stop listening to the ignorants calling themselves experts and stop trying to invent the wheels.
 
We need to learn from other democracies. Judges job is to apply the law not to make it, foreign affair employees can’t take a stand against their employer’s instructions, demonstrators are not allowed to get close to presidential palaces, and the media’s job is to inform not to spread lies?
 
Only at this moment, can we say that real Liberal and Leftist movements are going to be built in the new Egypt. And this will never happen under the existing media stars. 
 
 
 
* Mohamed S. Kamel: is a Freelance writer, the editor of http://forafreeegypt.blogspot.com/, he is a professional engineer, a LEED Green Associate and a recognized project manager professional, he is Member of several civil society organizations, a co-founder of the Canadian Egyptian for Democracy (CEFD), National Association for Change in Egypt (Taghyeer – Canada), Association of the Egyptians of Montreal (AEM), Alternative Perspective Media (APM-RAM), , Quebec Antiwar movement “Échec à la Guerre”, Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine “CJPP”, ex-president and co-founder of the Canadian Muslim Forum (CMF), member of the board of trustee in the Canadian Muslim for Palestine (CMP) and Community Center for Montreal Muslims (CCMM) . He could be reached at public@mohamedkamel.com

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