A week is a long time in politics. Only last week it seemed that the promise of a free and fair election for the first time in Egypt's history was a reality. After months of talk, the people had all been led to believe that the choice before them was simple. They had only to cast their votes and the uncertainty of the last eighteen months would be over. Petrol would once more be in the filling stations. The tents in Tahrir Square would be dismantled. It seemed that with an elected president, the future of Egypt would be safe. Yet, at the same time as the citizens were arguing on the Metro and in the coffee shops around the country about the merits of their chosen Presidential candidate, plans were already in place to take their democracy away from them. One week later, having been fooled into believing that the Presidential election would give them a strong leader, able to deliver the country from the chaos we have seen since January of last year, the people of Egypt are waking up to a newer reality. They now learn that their chosen leader will have almost no powers and that the ruling military, instead, will continue to control the country. In fact, having consolidated their grip on the eve of the election by dissolving the parliament and taking legislative power to itself, the military are now the nation's undisputed rulers. Like the Turkey of Kemal Ataturk, Egypt seems to be heading towards a system of government where the armed forces see themselves as above the Constitution and where the elected government requires the approval of the unelected leaders of the Armed Forces before it can act. Quite how Egypt got to such a state of affairs after all the hopes and the promise of last year's revolution is, to many, a mystery. Others, however, see that this has been the plan all along. Far from being a revolution at all, they assert, what really happened in January and February of 2011 was that the army pushed aside the ailing president and took over his power, planning all along to hold on to them and to treat with contempt the aspirations of the people for freedom, dignity and social justice. Setting aside, though, all that seems bleak and pushing to one side everything that is negative in the current situation, there is still hope that things can get better. It would be foolish to think that things will get better any time soon. Indeed, it seems that things are going to get a lot worse before they begin to get better. Some sort of a showdown between the military and those who rose up last year against tyranny and brutality is looking more and more likely, leaving the military rulers even more fearful of being held to account for many of the crimes committed over the last months. But there is still hope. The hope comes from the selfless courage of those who died last year to make Egypt a better place. It can still be seen in the hearts of those who believe in the revolution and the will of the people. Whilst most Egyptians remain bewildered by what has been going on in their country since then, failing to see any positive benefits from the downfall of the old regime and seeing, instead, only chaos and destruction, the revolution has nonetheless changed everything. Those who are now trying to cling on to power and to re-write things for their own benefit are just failing to see what has happened in Egypt. There is no possibility at all of going back to the way things were, whether we like it or not,. The deaths of one thousand people have not been in vain, because Egypt's youth will no longer accept that things can go back to the way they were. Nor can any educated person accept such a thing. And therein lies the problem and the solution. Education is the key. There is no democracy without education. It is only possible to fool the people most of the time if the people don't understand what is going on. This week, we saw jubilant crowds celebrating the victory of their chosen candidate, even though they didn't seem to realise it was only a pyrrhic victory. The delight on their faces would soon have disappeared if they could have seen what was happening and how the country was being taken over. However, with education people can make decisions for themselves. The revolution of January 2011 opened people's eyes to reality. Having been fed a diet of lies for decades they were at last able to see the truth. In seeing the truth they forced the army's hand and it acted swiftly to remove the now jailed former president from office. The revolution taught many to see that they didn't any more have to accept being treated as second class citizens in their own country. It is that same spirit that has driven the protests in Tahrir Square ever since. An uneducated electorate will vote for who it is led to vote for. Once people can make up their own minds they can no longer be fooled. So although, this time round, the political discussion has been superficial and people have been led down the garden path in their aspirations for democracy, the process has begun. There has been debate. There has been voting and the votes have been scrutinised very carefully. As long as this momentum continues and as long as some of the people continue to question their leaders, the future of Egypt is safe. It will take time. There is no democracy without education. But every day, the people are becoming more and more educated to reality. Those trying to pull the wool over their eyes need to wake up to this. 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.
