Accidental Blogger

4 responses to “The Egyptian uprising: voices from a distance”

1. omar

   February 8, 2011

   I decided to ask the 3 Egyptians (all doctors, one a big shot, 2 working as research assistants and looking for residencies, all Muslims) who work with me and I was shocked (yes, shocked, I am enough of a liberal idealist to be shocked by such things) to learn that:
   1. They all think Omar Sulaiman is a thug, a torturer and a “hard man”.
   2. They also think he is the BEST man for the transition.
   3. They fear chaos and think the protesters are making life difficult for Egyptians.
   4. They sympathize with the protesters aims and would, eventually, like to see a democratic Egypt, but not too soon.
   I personally love the protesters and admire their idealism and their courage. I think Solaiman and his ilk are evil and dont deserve to stay unprosecuted for one more day. And I think my unreprsentative sample does not reflect the will of Egyptian liberals, Egyptian victims of Mubaraks thugs or Egyptian Islamists.
   But I also think that if and when democracy comes to Egypt, it will be more like Russian democracy or even Belarusian democracy, rather than the English or Scandinavian variety.
   Since most Brown liberals dont really regard even Western democracy as being anywhere close to ideal, one can safely assume that they will be extremely disappointed by the Egyptian variety. Having lived among overseas Brown liberals for decades, I can confidently assert that no actual democracy is too attractive for us and certainly no third world democracy can be too attractive (unless its a people’s democracy like, say, Cuba).
   Unlike the Phillipines or Indonesia, the warts and all of Egyptian democracy will not stay too far off the front pages of newspapers. Israel being so close means it will be of great interest to the elders of Zion, and where the Zionists are interested, can their friends and enemies be far behind?

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2. Ruchira

   February 8, 2011

   Unlike the Phillipines or Indonesia, the warts and all of Egyptian democracy will not stay too far off the front pages of newspapers. Israel being so close means it will be of great interest to the elders of Zion, and where the Zionists are interested, can their friends and enemies be far behind?
   I am not sure I understand this part of your commentary, Omar. “Elders of Zion,” of course is a pejorative term (and I am not saying this just as a Brown liberal) A virulent anti-Semitic soap opera of the same name is / was highly popular on Egyptian TV.
   I doubt that except for the really committed liberals, anyone else is hoping for a Cuban style “people’s democracy” in Egypt. I myself think that in the beginning, Egypt will resemble the Phillippines more than it will Indonesia or Turkey, the two famous Muslim democracies. Corruption, powerful elites, neglect of basic services etc. are not about to disappear overnight. But I think the Egyptians will succeed in cobbling together some sort of a democratic structure which will surely be under the scrutiny of the rest of the world. I am not at all surprised by the reaction of your colleagues. This is the eternal dilemma of the comfortable middle class – a free society versus the “stability” they have known all their lives. (The king is dead; long live the king!) People realize that the familiar present is horrible but they fear that the unknown future may be even more abysmal.
   As for Israel, it is indeed ironic that after boasting loudly about beint the “only democracy” in the middle east, it is now terrified of a neighboring nation striving to become one. But for Israel, any tremor in the region seems like an existential threat, especially if a whiff of “Islamist” power is in the air. This is all the more ironic because Israel’s own politics is becoming increasingly more hard line and fundamentalist, not just in the zionist front but along religious lines also. But what is our excuse for being so scared of Egyptians wanting to run their own country?

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3. omar

   February 9, 2011

   I just want to clarify that I personally am not scared at all of Egyptians wanting to run their own country. I was just reporting what my Egyptian colleagues said or thought. I dont think it will be necessarily pretty, but there is a good chance it will be an improvement over mubarakcracy. In any event, it is the Egyptian people who should have the most say in what happens in Egypt. If they end up with an Islamist dictatorship, it is first and foremost their choice and their problem and again, i dont think that is the most likely outcome. Some sort of military rule with democratic features is more likely in the coming years. But there are both better and worse possibilities.
   The bit about the elders of Zion was a joke and not a particularly good one. Anyone who knows me would get it, but of course, online very few people would really know me, so it was not a very good choice of joke. I was just making fun of the Egyptian’s (and other Arab’s) tendency to ascribe every problem to the fictitious elders of Zion, while simultaneously implying that American policy and media coverage of Egypt WILL in fact be different from that of, say Indonesia (even though it has many more people) because Egypt concerns Israel in a way that Indonesia does not and Israel, both pro and con, has a very large presence in Western media and a very disproportionate influence on US policy…
   Liberals in general should not be scared of democracy. But liberals in general may still want to have a realistic idea about the possibilities in any given situation.

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4. Ruchira

   February 9, 2011

   Thanks for explaining the Elders of Zion quip. Yes, I am aware of the tendency among Arabs, especially the leaders, to deflect the blame for all their woes on the conniving Jews. Pakistan does the same. In its case, the troika of trouble makers is India-Israel-USA.
   I agree completely that Egypt’s future (and present) should be decided by Egyptians themselves. If they get a repressive religious regime to replace the current military controlled dictatorship, it is their choice and also their problem, as you point out. We will just have to deal with it.
   Israel’s reaction while understandable, given the paranoia that rules the region, is also extremely selfish. That it is siding with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Arab Emirates in this case is ironic as also hypocritical. Perhaps at last, Israel’s real agenda will be exposed if Egypt in fact lurches towards some semblance of multi-party democratic rule and puts to rest all the hand wringing about Islamists. We’ll see. By the way, isn’t Saudi Arabia an Islamist state?
   Now let us see if the Palestinians have the courage and the discipline to march and gather peacefully in Jerusalem.

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