Egypt’s ‘Post-Democracy’ Nears Point of No Return
Wael Nawara writes that Egypt’s political crisis could lead to chaos or the intervention of the military unless the government and opposition agree to work together.
Egypt is commemorating the second anniversary of its “Peaceful” Revolution with the shedding of yet more blood. Violent clashes in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Damanhour and Port Said left almost 60 dead and hundreds injured and the numbers are rising.
There are circumstantial factors in every incident triggering violence. Whether it is the Port Said football fans court verdict or regular confrontations between protesters and the police, the root cause is political. It lies in the Muslim Brotherhood failure to create consensus around the shape of the political process.
Last month, the Muslim Brothers insisted on putting forward the draft constitution to a hasty referendum despite opposition appeals to take more time to settle disputed articles. Liberals, leftists and representatives of Egypt’s churches pulled out of the constituent assembly which drafted the constitution, leaving only Muslim Brothers and Salafists to craft a document which should ideally embody Egyptians’ ideology of coexistence in a country which had historically prided itself of being a “melting pot” and where accommodating diversity is a prerequisite for survival.
The referendum revealed that 57% of the voters in Cairo, Egypt’s capital and home to about fifth of Egyptians, rejected the draft constitution. And while urban voters all over Egypt mostly said no to the constitution, the Muslim Brothers, election-savvy and superior in organization and funding, managed to pass the constitution with a 63% majority.
