Quite how a new president will be able to solve the traffic chaos in Midan Tahrir is something yet to be seen. How he will cut short the lengthy queues of cars waiting to fill their petrol tanks in the hot sun has not yet been revealed. As for questions of a more serious nature for the future of Egypt, like providing jobs for the unemployed or food for the hungry, time will only tell. But isn't that the mistake that has been made all along, that one man, one strong man, can rule the country effectively in a way that a parliament cannot. For sure, Egyptians have been spoon fed this explanation for the last twelve months. They have been told time and again that the country needs a strong man (and preferably a strong man with an Armed Forces background) to put an end to the chaos and restore stability to the nation. These voices insist that what the country needs is an end to the free-for-all we have seen since the downfall of the jailed former president. Instead, they assure us that a strong man at the helm will take us back to normality. To be sure, what we have witnessed in recent months is enough to put anyone off democracy for ever. Where has the old Egypt gone? It seems that every street in the country is now daubed with graffiti. Cairo's most central and now iconic square resembles a refugee camp with its tents and makeshift stalls. Talaat Harb Street, once the capital's elegant shopping thoroughfare, is now home with anyone with the strength to shout out that three pairs of socks are available for ten Egyptian pounds. Chaos is everywhere. There is not a policeman to be seen. On an international level, we are told that the country's tourist industry has all but collapsed and that millions of pounds are being lost each week on the Stock Exchange. In such circumstances, then, surely what the country wants is a man who can put an end to the chaos and put the nation back on its feet. To believe such a lie is to be taken in by men whose vested interest, either economic or political, is to return to the past. Egypt has had one so-called strong man after another for years, and what have been the tangible results? The rich have certainly profited from these strong men. Thieves and fraudsters have benefited having a strong man at the top. But what have ordinary Egyptians gained after all these years? When the jailed former president was forced from office last year, what was the legacy he left to ordinary Egyptians? With the streets piled with rubbish, millions of them were living in squalor, with access to neither running water nor electricity. Millions more were without jobs or the means to provide adequately for their families, having to eat vegetables and rice as their staple family diet. The legacy of that regime was a generation of university-educated young men and women with no hope for the future and no prospects for any kind of career. On the world stage, the situation was just as bad. Once the acknowledged leader of the Arab world, Egypt had become so closely tied to Israel and the United States that it was seen as a puppet in their hands, taking their money and doing as it was told. In such a vacuum of leadership, we saw tiny little Arab states able to shout loudly and pretend to lead the Arab world, whilst Egypt was taken out of the picture and largely ignored. Is that the kind of strong leadership people want to see return? Is that the kind of feeble leader, doing the bidding of foreign powers abroad and beholden to liars and thieves at home for his security and stability, that they want as the president of Egypt? If that is what Egypt wants, then that is what Egypt will get. We will see the police back on the streets, lording it over ordinary citizens. We will see petty government employees looking for bribes before citizens can attain what is theirs by right. We will see the whole hated security apparatus back at work, controlling the lives of those they are meant to be protecting. So what is the alternative to a “strong man?” What is the alternative to an Egypt where only those with money can feel secure, whilst the poor and those who work for a living are so busy earning their daily bread that they have no time to question those elected to care for them? The alternative is simple. For a few more years, it may mean more traffic chaos and more graffiti. It may mean that queuing for petrol remains a normal part of life. But, given time, it will mean an Egypt where freedom, dignity and social justice are available for all. It will mean an Egypt where an elected parliament holds to account the one exercising the executive power and the judiciary watches over them both. And it will mean an Egypt which belongs to all its people. Such an Egypt won't happen overnight. Of course, America and Britain and the other interfering foreign powers will prefer to see a strong man because, with the offer of foreign money, such a man can easily be leaned upon to do as he is told. The corrupt businessmen and discredited politicians who are not already in jail will similarly have the most to gain from a return to former ways. But Egyptians need to be patient. They need to go to the polls in vast numbers this weekend and make their voices heard, honouring the memory of those who lost their lives to rid Egypt of dictatorship for ever. Enough of strong men. Let us try democracy instead. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, is a lecturer at Al-Azhar University . The author of eight books about Islam, he divides his time between Egypt and the UK as a speaker, writer and broadcaster. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com.
