CAIRO: The Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) head Mohamed Tantawi and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf seem to be having some problems figuring out what to do about the “situation” in Tahrir. In a public address on Saturday, Sharaf promised to meet some of the demonstrators' demands, but he did not offer enough to quell the swelling numbers of citizens partaking in the Tahrir Square sit-in. There are two serious problems with Sharaf's approach to meeting the demands of the revolution: (1) It's too little too late; and (2) the people should not have to resort to protest (again) just to be heard by their own government. Not only is the government mistreating the Egyptian people, but they are making things worse for themselves. First of all, everything Sharaf promised on Saturday is something that should have been done right the first time, months ago. Families of the victims of the revolution should be compensated. Period. Who would argue with that? Furthermore, how could Sharaf, Tantawi and others ever think people would just let it go for this long? Mothers have been protesting on stage in Tahrir, telling stories about sons lost in the revolution at the hands of the police. Anyone can see the anger in their faces and know that justice for the martyrs of the revolution is not optional and it is not to be delayed – it is an absolute necessity for this country to move forward. Sharaf also announced that he gave explicit orders to the prosecutor general to contest all “not guilty” verdicts in the trials of former regime officials. Again, too little too late. If the judiciary had been purged of Mubarak's loyalists in the first place, maybe real justice would have been delivered to his old cronies. A cleansing of the judiciary is one of the top demands of the demonstrations right now. Sharaf is adding insult to injury vowing to retry officials in an already corrupt system. What is the point? The protesters are not stupid. They see right through these charades and that is why they are not leaving, and neither should they until real change happens. The whole situation, the entire concept of protesting in Tahrir, and the fact that it is happening again right now is a result of the flawed system of representation that SCAF has established. After the resignation of Mubarak, the military tried to cast itself as the protector of the revolution. Now Sharaf identifies himself as the representative of the people and of the demands of the revolution. But what kind of representative is so unresponsive to his constituents that they have to take to the streets in protest? Not a very good one. The biggest problem with the Egyptian political, social and security situation right now is representation. The people have no voice except in Tahrir. A Supreme Council of Armed Forces is no representative of the people, which is why one of the main slogans of the recent demonstrations has been “The people want the downfall of the field marshal [Tantawi].” The Egyptian people do not need a supreme leader, a field marshal, a dictator or a military-appointed and supervised Prime Minister. They need and want representative government. If SCAF wants to ensure peace and security and a smooth transition through the elections in the fall, it should focus on establishing institutions for representing the will of the people. The Egyptian people have proven that they will voice their opinion one way or another, and the rulers will have to bend to their will. Whether that happens in an angry, congested Tahrir Square or in a quite government building is up to SCAF. Listen to the people. Do not force them to protest just to be heard by their own government. If the Egyptian authorities do not change their tune, the situation as it stands right now could escalate. Pressure is building, both among the people and upon the regime. What do the people want right now? Justice for the victims of the revolution? Punishment for corrupt officials? A new constitution? Elections? Of course, all of these things, but to make them possible, they need representatives, not rulers. Plenty of people have tried to lead the revolution, but it will only move forward if political movements and parties can effectively organize to represent their members' interests to the government. Protest is also important for now because it seems to be the only political activity that SCAF will listen to (remember the April 8 demonstrations that led to the arrest of Mubarak), but in the long-run, in order to move beyond the revolutionary phase, Egypt needs representative institutions. The “Republic of Tahrir” while it served its purpose quite well, is not a sustainable model. Political activists cannot resort to their beloved square forever. SCAF, Sharaf, and all of the political parties and movements should focus on creating channels for representation of the people's will. The idea behind democracy is that the people are not under the rule of any one person or group. The people themselves are the rulers. If political party leadership was not forced to resort to Tahrir Square for days at a time, maybe they could spend productive time developing platforms, polling citizens, canvassing neighborhoods and meeting with government officials to share their knowledge of the situation on the ground. Maybe if the government would act as a representative instead of a ruler, then there would not be such a disconnect between the people and the authorities. Create more open political institutions and the pressure build-up in Egyptian society will dissipate, to everyone's benefit. BM
