Doaa El-Bey reviews the remarkable military shake-up in Egypt The front pages covered the repercussions of President Mohamed Mursi's decision to retire Defence Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Sami Anan as well as the scrapping of the constitutional declaration that gave the military extra powers and less to the president which created a power struggle in the country. Al-Wafd on Tuesday wrote 'Sinai combing continues in spite of disbanding military council' and Al-Ahram quoted the presidency as denying that Tantawi and Anan are under house arrest. Al-Masry Al-Youm on Monday had 'Mursi puts an end to political role of Armed Forces' and Al-Akhbar wrote 'Mursi ends conflict of power'. Mohamed El-Hawari said the changes that Mursi made indicated an end to the conflict of power in Egypt. He praised the selection of Lieutenant General Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi as the minister of defence and Lieutenant General Sedqi Sobhi as the new chief of staff as an indication of the correction in the path of the Armed Forces. He also praised the selection of Mahmoud Mekki as the new vice president because it pointed to Mursi's appreciation of the judiciary and its effective role in society. Mekki was one of the judges who supported the 25 January Revolution, he elaborated. El-Hawari also welcomed Mursi's decision to annul the constitutional declaration that gave the military council legislative and other powers because it encroached on the authority of the president and created conflict in the country. "Egypt has one authority now which is the authority of the president. Egypt is now ready to head towards post-revolution development and building after it uprooted the previous corrupt regime," El-Hawari wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. Ashraf El-Ashri disagreed with El-Hawari, describing the changes in the military as a coup on the part of the president. "Egypt is now facing a different reality from that which ignited the 25 January Revolution. A certain group is monopolising the state and the decision-making. That is why many called it a violent coup," El-Ashri wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram. Thus, he added, it is not possible to understand the explanation presented by people like Major General Al-Assar that these changes were the outcome of an understanding between the president and the retired members of the military council. A better scenario for the retirement of these leaders, El-Ashri explained, could have been via a request from them to retire. But what happened looked like a deal between the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and the US to the extent that some said that the US sold the military council to the MB. The step that the president took, El-Ashri believed, was premature taking place only 40 days after he assumed power. Thus, he concluded by describing it as a shock that would not be accepted by many and is likely to deepen the differences between those who support and those who oppose the president. Writers still called for revenge in the killing of 16 security guards on the border city of Rafah. Amr El-Shobki tried to look at the reasons for terrorism. He wrote that after every terrorist act, people look at the reasons as a way to provide an explanation as to why it happened. Looking at the reasons, he wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm was just a way to escape from clearly condemning terrorism. In looking for reasons for terrorism in the wake of 9/11, the US ascribed it to the absence of democracy in the Arab region. As for the pre-revolution Arab regimes, they ascribed terrorism to the occupation of Iraq and the failure to resolve the Palestinian issue. Both sides, the writer added, acknowledged that there are political reasons for terrorism, but tried to present their understanding in a way that exempts them from responsibility. The sad thing, El-Shobki explained, is that officials dealt with the Rafah attack in the same way. Each party tried to accuse its ideological opponent of planning and implementing the attack without looking at the social and political reasons for the spread of terrorism in Sinai. He concluded by appealing to officials to learn from the experiences of others and not to reproduce failure. The performance of the new government is now under scrutiny. Nasser Fayad said that the new Prime Minister Hisham Qandil has now a historic chance to achieve the targets of the 25 January Revolution and initiate the development process of the country. "People will start to assess Qandil's government after one month. One month is enough for the citizen to feel a slight improvement in his daily problems especially garbage on the streets, petrol and electricity cuts and bread," Fayad wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. Although just one week passed after the selection of the government, the initial indications are not positive. The first week, he explained, witnessed further disorder, a fire in Nile City towers, an escalation in the crisis of power cuts and the Rafah massacre. While the writer noted that Qandil is trying to spread a new spirit in his work by paying surprise visits to different places, he doubted they were genuine surprise visits because ministers know he is coming. "Qandil should work on resolving the genuine problems people are suffering from rather than paying show visits to different venues," he added. Fayad also called on the prime minister to initiate a campaign to purge the cabinet which should include the press bureau, the security office and his own office as well. Qandil is before two options, he explained: either make genuine changes in the cabinet or bow to the pressure of those who oppose change. And that would be his end.
