CAIRO - The answer to this question depends on the party that you belong to. If you are a revolutionary or a supporter of the revolution, January 25 will be a day of questioning the authorities about their efforts to fulfil their promises pertaining to the goals of the revolution. But if you are of the ruling authority or an Islamist party it will be a day of celebration and praise for the "great achievements" fulfilled along the year. For the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), January 25 will be a National Day to celebrate the revolution they protected. While the Islamists, even those who did not participate in or support the revolution, will get onto the street to celebrate the great gains the January 25 revolution afforded them, especially their domination of the new parliament. In other words, they will celebrate collecting the crop that was planted by the revolutionaries. As for the revolutionaries themselves, this will be a day for mourning the martyrs, and uncovering the shortcomings of SCAF and urging a quicker transfer of rule to a civil authority. These clear divisions over mode of celebrating the event are causing this high sense of anticipation experienced by Egyptians some days ahead of the event. Everyone seems busy in trying to fulfil certain objectives before that day, which they don't actually know how it will go and end. Even the State authorities have seemed busy in making certain arrangements before that day. The Ministry of Education intended to finish the term tests before the day in anticipation of a possible eruption of protest, violence and unrest. January 23 was set by SCAF for the first session of the parliament even though some constituencies have not yet completed their election procedures. The revolutionaries, for their part, launched campaigns urging citizens to get unto the street to resume their struggle to fulfil all the demands of the revolution. In response, SCAF escalated statements warning that it would take deterrent measures against those working on spreading chaos or offending any of the state institutions. Such repeated warnings might discourage citizens from participating in any of the expected events of the day, which would seem unbelievable on the first anniversary of the revolution in which more than 15 million people in different cities and towns of Egypt called for the toppling of the Mubarak regime. Today, the majority would prefer not to revolt against the transitionally ruling SCAF and have opted to show more patience until the end of the transitional period on July 1, when the first elected president of post-revolution-Egypt should be sworn in. However, the revolutionaries keep raising doubts, not over the date but whether the president will be freely elected by the citizens in a transparent election process. They keep asserting a deal has been made by SCAF and the Islamists to the effect that the new President will be chosen by the military establishment. What has intensified their doubts is the recent and sudden withdrawal of Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, from the presidential race on the claimed basis of refusing to participate in a cooked-up political play. Consequently, the revolutionaries seemed more persistent to get onto the streets on January 25 to correct the drive of their revolution. Additionally, they want to exert pressure for the country to have real civil president at this stage to achieve a kind of balance with the new parliament dominated by Islamists. What is really frightening is their acts might bring an end to their movement if the Islamists and the military police clashed with the young people, who, this time, would appear to be standing alone, facing the military authority and the elected parliament. It is also said that they would be abandoned by the people who are still hoping that SCAF would fulfil its promise and transfer rule to a civil elected authority. I have been wondering about the actual meaning of the word ‘civil' that SCAF members have continued to reiterate since taking office on February 11, which stands for the word madani in Arabic that could refer to non-religious or non-military rule. Although SCAF included in its Constitutional Declaration an article banning the creation of political parties on religious backgrounds, more than three parties with religious backgrounds were subsequently endorsed. Uppermost is the Freedom and Justice Party of the Muslim Brotherhood and En-Nur Party of the Salafists, which together managed to occupy some 75 per cent of the parliamentary seats! This means that SCAF, when it refers to a ‘civil' president, doesn't meant non-religious but non-military. However, arrangements seem to be continuing between SCAF and the Islamists over the candidate to be supported by SCAF and backed by the Islamists and about some special constitutional advantages. This climate of suspicion and unease, prevents the majority of citizens showing real celebration of the revolution or hoping it would bring better living conditions for them in the near future as they once thought would be the case when the dictator, Mubarak, stepped down a year ago.
