Graffiti still documents the phase in the 25 January Revolution when protesters clamoured against military rule. Many demanded the prosecution of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. On one wall close to Tahrir you can still see the face of Hosni Mubarak melding into that of Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. Just over a year later and calls for the “return of the army” are being voiced. General Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, current minister of defence, has been petitioned to take control for a six-month transitional period during which new presidential elections would be held. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly in Port Said, Gomaa Mohamed, the founder of Beit Al-Thawra (The Home of the Revolution), said: “No one really wants the army to return to power. We had our share of suffering under military rule as well. But some opportunist politicians began to market the idea as a kind of stunt beneath the banner of the ‘secession' of Port Said, or ‘Muslim Brotherhood-occupied Port Said'. They hold the Muslim Brothers responsible for the bloodshed in the city and liken them to the British occupation. They are harking back to the time of the popular ‘power-of-attorney' drive during the 1919 Revolution when nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul assumed the role of the people's representative, and was given authority to negotiate with the British occupation authorities.” Amal Sahla, a prominent advocate of civil disobedience and whose cousin was killed outside Port Said prison on 26 January, explains that the crisis in Port Said could have been easily resolved by a number of presidential decisions. Not only were these decisions not taken, others were that fanned the flames. The president's pledge of just LE400 million for the development of three Suez Canal cities, and the restoration of the free trade zone were, she says, provocative moves. It is not a question of money but of the dignity of a community whose heroic past is alive in its memory, and whose younger members boast of being the grandchildren of the heroes of the Tripartite Aggression, she says. “The way the president handled the crisis drove some people to support the army, in the belief it could free the way for secular forces to take the reins of power from the Islamists.” Port Said was not the first city where calls for Al-Sisi to take control were made. In Cairo a shadowy group calling itself the Revolutionaries of the Egypt Front claims to have collected 10,000 signatures. Another group — the Independence Front — says it has 500. Led by Counsellor Ahmed Al-Faddali, the Independence Front comprises a handful of tiny political parties with no popular following, some of which are said to be made up of former National Democratic Party members. But could the calls gain impetus, and how does the army feel about them? Military expert General Mohamed Ali Bilal told the Weekly that there are basically three groups behind the petition campaigns and the pro-army rally in Nasr City last Friday. There are those who want to express their regret that they took up the banner against military rule last year. Others are seeking an outlet for their discontent with the current regime while a third group are worried that current politicking is undermining the military establishment. “The numbers are low. They do not reflect some growing popular tide but rather give authorities a yellow signal that they are approaching a danger zone. When the signal turns red the army won't hesitate to act. That point will arrive if the country finds itself on the brink of collapse.” Army officials have made no official response to the petitions. What statements have been issued seek to confirm the patriotic allegiance of the Armed Forces and their support for the people while striving for a neutral tone towards rival political camps. Military sources do, however, say the military command is dismayed by the current situation and by the way security forces have handled successive crises. A highly placed official in the current government insists it would be “a grave mistake” for the army to succumb to calls to drag it into a political quagmire at a time when it is still trying to salvage its reputation from the interim phase. He believes some of those behind the petitions are connected with “foreign security agencies hostile to Egypt and working to mire the army in a polluted political bog”. “There is evidence that some are linked to Mossad through arrangements devised by the former regime,” he claimed. “These individuals are still active and are promoting calls for the return of the army in order to undermine its moral standing.” The Islamist trend, said the source, has not yet displayed its true strength, implying that Egypt could be plunged into a civil war in which the Islamists take up arms in the street. The confrontation, he avowed, would be “fierce”. Petitioning Al-Sisi, says military expert General Talaat Mossallam, will do nothing to alter the current political situation. “The calls originate among parties that want to see power transferred out of the hands of the current presidency. They are dismissed by a military that sees the futility of becoming embroiled in ongoing political fragmentation.” The minister of justice has given a green light to public notary offices to register the desire of members of the public to transfer power-of-attorney to the military. An MB official told the Weekly: “There is some confusion in the Freedom and Justice Party [FJP] and the Muslim Brotherhood over how to deal with this issue. A meeting held in the FJP headquarters and attended by FJP Chairman Saad Al-Katatni, Mohamed Al-Beltagui, Hussein Ibrahim and Essam Al-Erian failed to produce a clear strategy on how to manage the problem.” The official said that information he had received suggested there was similar confusion in the presidency and the consensus is that any delay in handling the matter could only make it worse. According to the MB official the minister of justice did not consult the presidency before issuing his approval to the public notary department despite instructions that no official take a decision before first notifying Mohamed Morsi's office. The minister subsequently claimed his approval was intended to absorb the anger of those campaigning for the power-of-attorney and had he refused it would have lent credibility to the power-of-attorney advocates. The MB official added that those attending the FJP meeting found the minister's justification “unconvincing”. Another subject discussed, according to the source, was the degree of trust between the army and the presidency. Even if there is considerable trust, is it not still possible that some officers could stage a coup, regardless of the position of the high command, some participants wondered. During the confrontations in Port Said between police and demonstrators, an army officer was wounded by police fire. Ministry of Interior officials were quick to play down the incident as rumours began to circulate about a confrontation between the army and police. Gomaa Mohamed, who was at the scene, put paid to the rumours. Immediately after the incident the army vacated its positions, leaving them to police forces, he said. Nevertheless, he added, army vehicles conveyed military officers around the city to offer condolences to the families of the victims. To Mohamed this conveyed a dual message: the army does not want to become involved in a battle to which it is not a party but at the same time is disturbed by the excessive force the police are using.
