Calls for demonstrations against the expansion of the 30-year-old emergency law have not attracted widespread support, reports Khaled Dawoud Liberal and leftist groups have set for themselves another challenge by calling for a so-called "million-man" protest in Tahrir Square on 30 September to protest against the sudden expansion of the 30-year- old emergency law in a decree issued last week by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). A similar call to demonstrate on Friday 16 September under the banner "No to the Emergency Law" failed noticeably, with only a few hundred people taking part. Observers agree that the level of participation in next week's scheduled protest will likely depend on the outcome of current negotiations between SCAF and political parties on the elections laws rather than the ongoing debate over the emergency law. Political Islamic groups, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, have clearly stated they were no longer in support of street protests, preferring instead to prepare for the upcoming parliament elections, and to engage with SCAF to provide the best conditions that would assure them a major victory. Meanwhile, and despite charges by critics that SCAF was responsible for the current state of chaos by unilaterally taking decisions on election laws and refusing to remove key figures who belonged to the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak, several opinion polls conducted recently have suggested that the majority of Egyptians support the expansion of the emergency law, hoping that this would restore a badly needed sense of security in Egypt. George Ishaq, a prominent figure in the Kifaya (Enough) Movement which has been credited for setting the stage for Mubarak's removal by demonstrating against his rule as early as 2004, believe that Egyptians seem to be suffering from "demonstration fatigue, and perhaps we need a break". Ishaq, who is close to the liberal and leftist parties and who continues to play an influential role in negotiations with the SCAF, also noted that "many people seemed to have been taken aback by events that took place on 9 September," referring to demonstrations that day which ended with attacking the Interior Ministry, besieging the Israeli embassy and attacking the headquarters of the Giza Security Department. Ishaq concedes that many questions remain unanswered on how events developed that day, and the reasons behind the suspicious absence of security and army forces around the Interior Ministry and the Israeli embassy. Many commentators claimed, albeit with no hard evidence, that the SCAF and the Interior Ministry intentionally allowed events to turn violent in order to justify later the expansion of the emergency law. Ishaq said he does not back the scenario, although he agreed with critics that the emergency law decision was "a major mistake and ignored one of the key demands of the 25 January Revolution." SCAF had vowed shortly after taking over power on 11 February following Mubarak's removal that it would abolish the emergency law ahead of upcoming parliament elections that are expected to take place by the end of November. Considering the unpopularity of the law which gave the Interior Ministry virtually unlimited powers to detain people indefinitely, even Mubarak was forced in June 2010, eight months before his removal, to promise that the law would only be applied in cases involving terrorism and dealing in drugs. However, after the violence on 9 September, the SCAF held a meeting with Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's government and decided to expand the implementation of the emergency law to include crimes involving violence committed by thugs who have run amok on Egypt's streets over the past eight months; possession of weapons; destroying public property; blocking roads and railway lines; and what was described as efforts to "spread rumours and lies". Calling the latter a crime was particularly alarming to supporters of freedom of expression who feared that the clause would be used to curb critics of the SCAF. The SCAF and the Interior Ministry recently sought to allay fears by issuing statements confirming that the emergency law would not be applied to "writers and those who express their free opinions". Major General Mahmoud Shahin, a SCAF member dealing with legal affairs, also stated that the emergency law was due to expire in any case in June 2012, and that he was still hoping to abolish the law at an earlier date if the security situation improved. Montasser El-Zayat, an Islamist lawyer who is now competing to head the Bar Association, said he was personally surprised by the low turnout on Friday 16 September in the demonstration against the emergency law in Tahrir. A few thousand marched from Tahrir to the prime minister's office in nearby Qasr Al-Aini on Monday to demand the immediate repeal of the emergency law. Organisers were keen to keep under control the demonstration which started at 5pm and ended peacefully two hours later. El-Zayat said that calling for the repeal of the emergency law has been a central demand by opposition groups since Mubarak took office three decades ago, and since the 25 January Revolution, "because it restricts freedom, deters citizens from taking part in politics and allows the Interior Ministry tremendous powers which makes opponents live in fear and terror that they might be detained indefinitely". El-Zayat added that the low level of participation in the "No to the Emergency Law" protest on Friday confirmed "the worrying state of division among national political forces which could delay the success of Egypt's revolution, especially that it has not achieved all its demands." However, leftist and liberal groups promised to continue to mobilise widely for next week's protest in Tahrir by explaining to the public the dangers of the emergency law, and that restoring security did not require exceptional laws but a political decision by the SCAF in coordination with the Interior Ministry. Alaa El-Aswani, a novelist and another leading figure in the Kifaya movement, sharply criticised the SCAF for expanding the emergency law, saying that SCAF "wanted to limit Egypt's revolution to removing Mubarak and his son, and has never been a revolutionary force". He added in his weekly column in the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm on Tuesday that those who took part in the revolution and supported it were not allowed to run the country after Mubarak's removal or have their demands met. "Thus the revolution cannot be blamed for the lack of security or the current miserable economic conditions. We are not the ones who take the decisions; it's the SCAF." However, even the 6 April Movement, one of the key youth organisations that triggered the 25 January Revolution, has conceded that the general public in Egypt no longer supported massive protests each week because of the hardships they cause to their day-to-day lives and fears that they would develop into violence. The movement announced that tomorrow, 23 September, would be devoted to public service, and that hundreds of its members would travel to various parts in Egypt to help in cleaning up the streets and revamping schools and hospitals while explaining to Egyptians the goals of the revolution and why they were continuing to take part in street protests. 6 April, together with the National Association for Change, Kifaya and other leftist and liberal groups, are among the major organisers of next week's protest in Tahrir Square.
