A furious wave of protests swept Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak from power after 30 years of one-man rule, sparking jubilation on the streets and sending a warning to autocrats across the Arab world and beyond. Mubarak, the second Arab leader to be overthrown by a popular uprising in a month, handed power to the army after 18 days of relentless rallies against poverty, corruption and repression caused support from the armed forces to evaporate.
In carnival mood, ecstatic Egyptians took to the streets while there were also warm embraces in Tahrir Square ‘the Egyptian alter of change’ all in celebration of the victory and liberation they paid for with their blood. A military council was thereafter put in place to run the affairs of the most populous Arab nation and the council delivered on its promise of a free and fair presidential election which eventually brought Mohamed Morsi to power as the first elected president of Egypt.
Barely a year into Morsi’s regime, Egyptians began to feel the president and his clique are exploiting the grounds they all fought for towards their selfish interests. Morsi’s rule under the aegis of the Muslim Brotherhood brought extreme polarization amongst the political class, with the Muslim Brotherhood refusing to really reach out in any kind of inclusive or consensual process on the political level. They withdrew inward into their own organization, and a few core Islamic supporters, even the major Salafi party, the ultra-conservative Muslim party, did not back them.
While Morsi’s government was stiff to the opposition, life was also becoming more difficult economically for most Egyptians. The prices of food and medicine and other basic goods had gone up. The Egyptian pound witnessed 13 percent decline within a year. Electricity blackouts which Egyptians were not used to became a daily part of their lives. There were fuel shortages with long queues, people had to wait for hours to get diesel or fuel, causing crippling traffic jams around the country.
For whatever its worth, this was not what Egyptians bargained for when they ousted the ‘pharaoh’ that led them for 30 years. They brought the change they wanted two years ago, hence, they wouldn’t hesitate to return to their Liberation Square. This time, it was a protest adjudged the biggest in Egyptian history. Millions of people took to the streets in Tahrir, Alexandria, Delta and other parts of the country to clamour for the resignation of their elected president.
Still on the eve of a nascent democracy, Egyptians wouldn’t have premeditated the implications of their action. They are used to the democracy of getting your demands through protest. They all cheered at the military helicopters when they heard the ultimatum given to their president by the military. Exactly 48 hours after, Egypt was to see the end of its first democratic dispensation.
Morsi might have been running a government based on segmentation, but he wouldn’t be neglected by his own fraction of the Egyptian population; their response ushered in the current episode of the Egyptian state of crisis. The military promised to conduct another election just like it did after Mubarak was ousted, but Pro Morsi protesters demanded Morsi be reinstated.
Continuous protests and counter reaction from the Egyptian military has caused the death of hundreds, mostly Morsi backers, with the death toll way over what was obtained during the 18 days of vehement protests that toppled their former dictator.
In a damning report published recently, Human Rights Watch called the killing of civilians in Egypt “the most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history.” In all an estimated 1,000 people, mostly pro Morsi were killed in clashes and executions within a week, with 36 Morsi supporters also killed while in state custody.
Recent reports also have it that Islamic militants ambushed two mini-buses carrying off-duty policemen in the northern region of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, killing 25 of them in a brazen daylight attack. State prosecutors have brought new charges against President Mohamed Morsi for an alleged role in “violent acts” committed during protests last December.
The tension and unrest in the second most populous nation in Africa appears to be nowhere near subsiding, this happening in region where people are ready to die for a course either just or unjust, Egypt may not return to the peaceful nation it used to be in a foreseeable future. – See more at: https://brandpowerng.com/news-page-Egypt-the-never-ending-crises.html#sthash.OqaVsmeA.dpuf