CAIRO - One of the many ills of the Mubarak regime was the destruction of political and party life during his thirty years of rule. It is thanks to this transgression that Egyptian society is sinking into a fierce debate over differing past, present and future issues. This open dialogue might be seen as a healthy condition reflecting the space of freedom the Egyptians now enjoy and their high level of concern for their country's future. However, the problem lies in this debate being carried out in the wrong place the street instead of on the premises of the political parties. Therefore, it lacks democratic rules and respect for the other's viewpoint. Whenever, I read some news about the differences occurring between the revolutionary coalitions over any issue, such as the cabinet reshuffle, the timing of the parliamentary elections or the trials of the corrupt officials and killers of protesters, certain questions come to my mind. I ask myself: how could they organise this debate to conclude in agreeing to agree or disagree over certain issues and what is the mechanism organising this challenging process between ordinary citizens, which has turned them into political activists overnight? Sincere young people organised January 25 demonstrations to express their desire for change and opposition to the security state of Egypt with its state of emergency that has prevailed since former President Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Thanks to their patience and sacrifices the movement turned into a revolution, which has continued to put pressure on the ruling regime until its president was forced to step down and the Armed Forces chose to take the revolutionaries' side against the ruler, who had come from the military institution. During the 18 days of the revolution, the persistent revolutionaries steadfastly refused to accept any concessions offered by the former president to end their protest, despite certain setbacks. They insisted on maintaining their stand until their hopes were fulfilled on February 11, when Mubarak announced that he was handing over rule to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [SCAF]. This was the moment that most Egyptians celebrated with great joy, even those who were ready to compromise and accept the half-solutions offered by Mubarak some days earlier. So what has made society now suffer these present divisions over the Fridays demonstrations and open strikes that revolutionaries continue to organise to effect the full eradication of Mubarak's rule? The answer is: even though they were pleased by the departure of Mubarak, those annoyed by the 18 days of demonstrations and its related state of unrest are very eager to restore stability and security to the society, even if this entails not completing all the goals of the revolution. Those people, who are addicted to a sedentary lifestyle, are deep down opposing the revolution for its shocking changing nature that disagrees with theirs. Strangely, most of those people used to complain about and even suffer from the tyrannical regime of Mubarak. However, they became accustomed to it and learnt how to survive, so that they have shown strong resistance to the stands, which some revolutionaries have insisted on adopting until the revolution is completed. It is no secret that some of those who supported the revolution and even participated in it are opposing the Tahrir demonstrators and wish that they would give Essam Sharaf's Government and the SCAF the opportunity to complete the procedures to have a new parliament, constitution and civil president. These different stances could be regarded as healthy in any society if the different factions agreed to listen to one another and to respect different viewpoints without accusations of treason or agency or threatening to forcibly impose their will, as some Islamists have warned. But the latter is the case now in Egypt and occurring in such a way as to threaten its political process. It is also the case in my own large family whose members seem to belong to different parties and hold different opinion over the ongoing developments. Instead of being an enjoyable occasion for family gatherings, our monthly meeting at our parents' house have turned into a political conflict that genuinely reflects the kind of differences society is suffering nowadays. My eldest sister, who was not very happy with the revolution and was cursing her fate for living through its difficult events, continues to express fierce opposition to the revolutionaries and even accuses them of being an agency for some foreign powers that wanted to destabilise Egypt. What is really shocking is that she has never been one of Mubarak's supporters and her life was not going well under his rule. My second eldest sister insists that the solution is completely changing the Sharaf Government, accusing the ministers of concealing piles of files of corruption that could be enough to send most, if not all, members of the Mubarak regime to jail. My only brother is approaching 40 in age without having fulfilled his dream of joining the academic staff, despite having been awarded a Ph.D and being the first of his group in his graduation year who was not the son of one of the professors. He has shown absolute support for the revolution, seeing it as the hope for Egypt's future. He exonerates the revolutionaries even when they have gone to extremes to try to force the authorities to meet their demands. My youngest sister, however, feels that it is much better to spend the time cooking the lunch instead of being involved in fruitless debate that won't change the governmental conditions or influence the stand of the demonstrators in Tahrir. She argues that this needless debate held behind the closed door of our parents' house and not on any party premises would eventually damage sibling ties in our family. Being fed up with this noisy argument that has continued to follow me along weeks of work at the newspaper, last Friday I decided not to participate in the conversation. I satisfied myself with contemplating the impressions of our children whose age ranges between 12 to 24 hoping that they would become more civilised and able to practise politics in the right way. Hopefully, this generation will abandon ‘the couch party' and have an influential role in drawing up the present and future of their country. This is the present condition then. Egyptian society is finally involved in political affairs but via noisy debate, which can seem natural after the long sedentary state of living in which not much concern was given to politics. Tomorrow, the new generation should know how to appropriately engage in politics, to find common points of agreement between different parties and accept differences as a natural condition of democracy, to finally work for progress and the welfare of the country.
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