Mubarak’s
regime has succeeded in creating deep distrust between the people and the
regime starting from the republic president and reaching down to the lowest
employee. Any statement or action issued or done by an official is regarded
wrong even if it was proved to be right… Rumor became more credible than
information… and doubt became stronger than certainty.
A
young man stood to tell the president about the sewerage system and garbage in
Aswan and the president in turn listened to him and moved immediately to see
the problem on reality. Then some said: it’s a pre-set scenario and a
poorly-acted play.
A
humble woman called out for the president while he was in his car and his
procession going. He heard her and ordered the car to stop to see the woman.
The situation affected us very much and brought tears to our eyes. The woman
talked about the warnings she received from the security that she may get shot
dead if she went near the presidential procession. The president kept calming
her down and brought her some water to drink for he realized she must have been
either thirsty or even sick after what she has been through. As if he wanted to
tell her: “calm down… don’t be afraid”. However, again they said it is a
pre-prepared scenario. You can add so many similar situations, in which the
president is involved, to this one.
Maybe
the root for this phenomenon goes back to January, 1977 when some voices used
to welcome making peace with the Zionist state claiming that putting an end to
the wars will make our country richer… people will live in luxury… and even the
monorail would be seen flying in the sky! It was even said that those who would
not become rich in the time of Sadat would never be rich. Suddenly, the
decisions to raise the prices were issued and the big uprising of January 18
and 19 took place.
However,
the origin of this phenomenon has absolutely become stronger in Mubarak’s era.
At that time, some said that the rule upon which the regime is based has more
than one part. First one is that the country is broken down into pieces due to
corruption and injustice, and that our country is like the broken clay pot that
will collapse if you tried to do anything to it… and in case a corrupt
personality was disposed, it shall go to hell so that the other corrupts can
stay safe where they are.
The
second part was a message directed to people: “say whatever you want… shout out
loud… criticize and attack the regime to the maximum limit… we, the regime, in
turn, will do whatever we want… but don’t you ever think of going into the
streets”… and indeed we used to write and shout while Mubarak, his son, wife
and all his regime figures were doing all what they wanted.
Then
we come to the third part of the rule; that is making use of the institutions’ conflicts
with each other… or it is more correct to say conflicts between heads of those
institutions. Such conflicts are considered normal and healthy in the countries
with well-established institutions. However, they are considered abnormal when
the heads of those institutions implement the rule “divide in order to rule”.
Such malicious rule spread into the society and aimed at dismantling it,
especially if it was supported by international and regional powers that do not
want Egypt to rise again.
The
fourth part was depending on foreign international and regional powers to stay
in power… meaning that as long as the Zionist state is satisfied, then the USA
is satisfied as well, since the first is the real gate – in Mubarak’s opinion –
to the second.
In
such manner, this phenomenon of distrust has affected the society. And despite
the deep trust between the people and the army has never changed or wavered,
there were some times when the trust between the people and police was shaken.
Such thing required a lot of efforts to bring such trust back. Also, the people
have delegated president Sisi at the time when he was a minister of defense.
Later, this was reinforced in the presidential elections when he won by a
sweeping majority. Such trust was consolidated one time after another like when
the people responded to finance the New Suez Canal project. There were also
other positive responses representing the trust between the people and the
president like floating exchange rate and soaring prices.
Some
may take this trust for granted but I believe nothing is guaranteed in such
regard. I say this because of those who will never stop damaging this trust
like those officials adopting Mubarak’s era rule. For example, that issue related
to Parliament’s cars and not executing the verdict issued by the court of
cassation to enact Dr. Amr el-Shobaki’s membership in Parliament.
We
need to support and reinforce trust and factors of Egyptian collective cohesion
between the people and the regime lest they get affected by political, economic
and social circumstances.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on
February 2, 2017.
To see the original article, go to:
#alahram #ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #Sisi #trust
No comments:
Post a Comment