The Great Debate UK
from David Rohde:
Complete Egypt’s revolution
For decades, the Egyptian military has operated an economy within an economy in Egypt. With the tacit support of the United States, the armed forces own and operate a sprawling network of for-profit businesses. The military runs factories that manufacture televisions, bottled water and other consumer goods. Its companies obtain public land at discounted prices. And it pays no taxes and discloses little to civilian officials.
Within weeks of Hosni Mubarak’s fall in February, experts predicted that the Egyptian military would refuse to relinquish its vast economic holdings or privileged position in society.
“Protecting its businesses from scrutiny and accountability is a red line the military will draw,” Robert Springborg, an expert on Egypt’s military at the Naval Postgraduate School, told The New York Times. “And that means there can be no meaningful civilian oversight.”
Protesters who are crossing that red line this week should be applauded, not oppressed. Egypt’s tumultuous revolution should be completed.
In increasingly brazen fashion, Egypt’s military has tried to usurp the revolt that toppled Mubarak in eighteen days and is transforming the Middle East. The protests this week are a legitimate response to those moves.
In a welcome concession on Tuesday, Egypt’s 76-year-old army chief, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, offered in a televised speech to hand over power to a civilian president by next July. Protesters are right, though, to react with skepticism. The military has botched a transition it initially said would last six months.
In a blistering report issued on Monday, Amnesty International accused the country’s military of suppressing dissent as harshly as the Mubarak regime. The report assailed its violent response to this week’s protests, which have left 36 people dead and more than 1250 wounded.
from FaithWorld:
Concern about Islamists masks wide differences among them
(Hamas supporters hold up copies of the Koran at a protest in Gaza City December 26, 2010/Mohammed Salem)
Part of the problem trying to figure out what Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood or Tunisia's Ennahda party would do if they got into any future power structure in their countries is knowing what kind of Islamists they are. The label "Islamist" pops up frequently these days, in comments and warnings and (yes) news reports, but the term is so broad that it even covers groups that oppose each other. Just as the Muslim world is not a bloc, the Islamist world is not a bloc.
I sketched out a rough spectrum of Islamists in an analysis today entitled Concern about Islamists masks wide differences. This topic is vast and our story length limits keep the analysis down to the bare bones. But the overall point should be clear that any analysis of what these specific parties might do that ignores their diversity starts off on the wrong foot and risks ending up with the wrong conclusions.
(Electoral posters of candidates of the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria on November 27, 2010 for the 2010 parliamentary electionS/ Goran Tomasevic)
While reading and talking to experts about Islamism these days, I either had the television on (zapping between BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera English) or listened to radio stations like BBC and NPR. When the Muslim Brotherhood came up, there were often suggestions -- explicit or implicit -- that it would seize power in a Leninist-style coup or whip up the masses to install a theocracy in a replay of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. Experienced generals sometimes end up fighting the last war. Clever analysts can reach for the wrong historical parallel to the situation they're tying to explain. Could it be that reflexes like these are clouding our view of what the Brotherhood and Ennahda actually are?
“THE AGE OF TAHRIR AND A NEW BEGINNING FOR THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT”
PART II
6th Feb 2011
Islam and Democracy in Egypt-
Egypt is not the real Islamic state that it wants to be since the fall of the monarchy in 1952,
despite having the oldest University(Jami’ah al-Azhar’) in the history of Islam
or the greatest Sphinx or Pyramids,etc,
Hosni Mubarak acendency to the presidency was not achieved via democratic means,
there was no real general election to say the least,
all past Presidents came from the military top brass,
from Naguib, Gamal,Anwar to Hosni M. himself,
to exemplify his outstanding ‘achievements’ in his sunrise moment,
Hosni shut down the Internet to blind the people of the world,
Hosni pleaded with the ‘Council of Wise Men’ to stay on,
Hosni manipulated his National Democratic Party to appease the hungry souls,
the fact is glaringly vindicative : Hosni continue to make more blunders,
which confirms the fact that there has been no real democracy in the land of the Pharoahs(Fir’aun’)
and Egypt is certaintly no Islamic state(‘Daulat Islamiyyah’) since Constantinople;
Egypt’s Domestic and Foreign Affairs-
Egypt made headlines when it initiated the Arab-Israel Wars to the joy of the Arab world,
it led the Arab bloc to demand justice to the Palestinian cause,
Israel could have lost the war if not for US support;
but the 1979 Peace Treaty with Israel did not bring any peace to Egypt
nor to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere;
the US$1.3 billion annual aid to the Egyptian military is not for free,
Egypt must fulfil all US wishes to control the Mid-East
contrary to the wishes of the people of Egypt and the Arab bloc/OIC;
the new President of Egypt must take serious notice of this satanic anomaly
and the subtle underpinning of Israeli’s tentacles into Egyptian affairs;
Egypt must re-assess it’s role within the Arab world matrix either as a leader of the Arab world/Islamic voice,
or a tool of US intelligence and ‘sandiwara’;
US as Ally or Enemy within Egypt & the Mid-East Matrix-
President-elect B.Obama must seriously review past US foreign affairs/policies and
cleaned up the mess created by the the two former Presidents(George Bush & Co.),
He must not repeat the laughable blunders of Geaorge Bush & Co. to the detriment of US interest
and the interest of the Arab/muslim world at large,
Israel must be reined in to comply with international law and norms of good neighbourhood;
POst Hosni and the Beginning of ‘Tahrir’ in Egypt-
As thousands of Egyptians gathered at Tahrir Square in Cairo,
demanding a need to right the wrongs of 30 years of Hosni’s famed mis-administration,
the new leadership of Egypt must be one who represent the spirit of Egypt,
one who is able to act without fear and favour,
one who can follow the footstep of the Prophet Muhammad, M. Ghandi, Mother Teresa,etc
and not the footsteps of the mummified Pharoahs.
………………………..
Jeong Chun phuoc
Lecturer-in-Law
and an advocate in Strategic Environmentand and Taxation Intelligence(SETI)
He can be reached at Jeongphu@yahoo.com
*The comment expressed above by the writer is in his personal capacity and
they do not neccessarily represent the view of his Institution, Research Centre or any NGOs etc despite his
official attachment to the same*
(See “THE MU-ALLAQAT OF HOSNI MUBARAKA AND THE DAWN OF’TAHRIR’ IN EGYPT”-
PART I, 3rd Feb 2011)
from FaithWorld:
Can Arabs learn from Turkish model of Islam and democracy?
(Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, December 2, 2008/Umit Bektas)
If President Hosni Mubarak bows to the clamor of the street and goes, Egyptians and other Arabs seeking to turn a page on autocratic government may look at Turkey for some clues on marrying Islam and democracy.
Relatively stable, with a vibrant economy and ruled by a conservative and pragmatic government led by former Islamists, Turkey has often been cited as a model Muslim democracy and a linchpin of Western influence in the region.
With a wave of unrest spreading from Tunisia to Jordan to Yemen and as calls intensify for Mubarak to start a transition soon, Middle East analysts are turning their attention to Turkey, a rising diplomatic force in the region.
"The only effective, working model in the Middle East is the Turkish model. There is nothing else," said Fatwa Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics and international relations at the London School of Economics. "Turkey's model serves as a foundation for similar societies so I think then in the wake of the protests Arabs will be taking a second look at the Turkish model that marries Islamic values and democracy as a universal form of government," Gerges said.
But analysts cautioned that deep differences between Turkey, a NATO partner and European Union candidate with a moderate brand of Islam, and an Arab Middle East lacking a culture of political freedom, means the model cannot be readily copied. "There is no question Turkey's example can be an inspiration in Tunisia or in Egypt, but if any Arab country would take Turkey as a model it would take it decades to emulate Turkey's political and economic development," said Fadi Hakura, associate professor at London's Chatham House think tank.
Protestors who demand elections be delayed are very likely the same who demanded they be speeded up – months back.
Sorry, guys, but I can’t help but feel the core motivator is that they’ve surveyed the feelings of the masses of voters getting to choose and their own political parties don’t stand to win control.
That ain’t the way democracy works except maybe in Ohio and Florida. :-]