Cairo, Egypt
November 22
100000 people are said to have filled Tahrir Square on “Million Man Day.” Whatever the number, it was a lot. Eventually Field Marshall Tantawi, speaking for Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) gave a speech that sounded to many like the same one Mubarak gave in his first response to protesters in January.
He said “unforeseen forces” were working behind the people to destabilize the nation and that accusations made about their administration were unacceptable.
Many thought his concessions, just like Mubarak’s, were too little, too late.
But it’s not January anymore and the military, though not swept up with visions of democracy, is not Mubarak.
SCAF has now promised:
o The 28 November elections for parliament will be held as planned
o Arrested activists will be held and tried in civilian courts rather than military courts.
o The resignation of the interim cabinet was accepted.
o The date for the Presidential election will be rescheduled and held before June, rather than much later in the year as they had earlier announced.To withdraw its proposal that SCAF maintain veto power over a future elected government and have advisory status instead.
In his televised speech today, Tantawi did not respond to activists demands for his resignation and the people, unsatisfied, have remained in the Square.
Hold everything for a minute
The question is, what should they ask for?
Suppose Tantawi and all of SCAF resigns, then who runs the country while it gets itself organized into some kind of democracy? Without an answer to those questions, all is gesture.
Or maybe it’s another necessary step. Even thinking of the resignation of Tantawi and SCAF dramatizes institutional for protestors unaccustomed to thinking about managing their government.
And that forces a look into a deeper question: Are people really changing? Are they genuinely outgrowing the dependency that years of authoritarianism has ground into them?
A New Egyptian?
Are Egyptians changing in some profound way? Has the lifting of the rockslide of an authoritarian government revealed an underlying progressive spirit?
Not very likely, but something is afoot.
Islamists have lost support. People of all religious and political shades express a gut dislike of the conservative Salfists. Support for any kind of over-religiosity is becoming fragmented.
Has their rejection of an authoritarian government forced them to rethink all their cultural systems?
Maybe. I can say that they have shifted their attention from religion – which used to be the major topic of conversation in this country – to politics. Maybe this temporary, but it’s a shake-up nonetheless.
Maybe I’m taking too much of a cue from the man who drives me around Cairo.
A year ago he was as close to being a Salafist as he could be without actually becoming one. Believe me, I’ve listened to a lot, a very lot of imans’ intoning of God’s will on my car radio.
Now my driver talks politics. He’s changed from being a supporter of an Islamic party to an advocate of a liberal one. If he hears a newscaster say something on the radio that he feels is incorrect, he picks and his cell and calls the guy – or gal – and lets them know about their error.
I still can’t quite believe the change.
Amal Sedky Winter PhD
Cairo Egypt
www.myeyeonegypt.net
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