People have very short memories. The tyranny under which people lived in this country for decades has been conveniently forgotten by those who were not arbitrarily arrested for dressing the wrong way or daring to speak out against it. Some people seem to have forgotten very quickly how all the resources of the State were used to ensure the succession to the presidency, whilst many people were living in abject poverty. They forget, too, that afternoon when the Constitution of Egypt was amended in just one sitting of the People's Assembly to prevent any parties coming to power except the ruling party. This forgetfulness has also included the untold millions that were stolen by members of the former regime and whisked away out of the country to secret bank accounts. The mess the country is in now did not happen overnight. Egypt's turmoil is the direct result of a regime that did not allow the people to play a part in the politics or the decision making of their country. Years and years of rigged elections and stuffed ballot boxes left the people of Egypt detached from the political process, knowing there was nothing they could do to influence what was happening in their lives. When the jailed former president fell from office last year he left a country on its knees. Those voices we now hear leading the cries for a return to the “better days" of the former regime have forgotten what things were like. They forget, also, that the country's education system is totally broken and that the entire infrastructure of the nation needs urgent repair. Do they not realise that Egypt's young people are without work and without any prospect of getting any? Things have now changed and people have the right to express their opinions. They can even do it by demonstrating. No longer will people be taken from their homes before dawn for expressing a view different to that of the government. Everyone has the legitimate right to his own opinion and the democratic right to express it. If people disagree with the President and his way of running the country it is their right to say so. Many commentators suggest, though, that the ones leading the voices of protest in Egypt during these last days in particular are the very ones who benefited most from the corrupt practices of the former regime. Those with legitimate opinions, they say, are being used by others who care nothing for Egypt's people. They don't do so openly, but from behind the scenes. Who, for example, paid for those brand new, expensive tents that we now see in Tahrir Square? Who is it that has encouraged certain elements of Egyptian society to pitch those tents in Tahrir and call for dignity and human rights, using the most impolite language to talk about the President and his government? The revolution of January 25 set free many people who had been excluded and whose voices were ignored. That revolution, though, also tried to put a stop to the fat cats who were making vast sums of money while others were barely making enough money to feed their children. They have tried many times in the last months to regain their power and influence, almost succeeding in getting their chosen candidate elected to the presidency earlier this year. What is truly ridiculous is listening to some of the protesters in Tahrir Square, who clearly have no money of their own, decrying the fact that the Egyptian Stock Exchange is losing money! On the face of it, the Presidential decrees which give the President almost unlimited powers are the reason for the present crisis. We must treat with the greatest respect those Egyptians who are opposed to those decrees. It is their right to do so. Democracy has given the people of Egypt a voice and it is their right to make their voice heard. It seems, though, that the real battle taking place is not a battle over the Presidential decrees. We must be very careful that the protests are not being encouraged and fueled by the very remnants of the old regime who cared nothing in the past for democracy or legitimate protest. Their only concern, both then and now, was for the Stock Exchange and how it influenced their own bank balances. Rome was not built in a day. It is foolish to think that a revolution can take eighteen days and then everything can return to normal. Many Egyptians even talk of “our revolution last year." No, a revolution takes longer than eighteen days and its result is not just the toppling of a president. A revolution, by its very nature, means that the whole of the society is turned upside down. Whilst we have seen many changes, we haven't seen that yet. In a real revolution, those criminals who lied and cheated and who allowed legitimate protest to be silenced by the use of a gun are held to account for their crimes. In a real revolution, these people do not escape justice. In a real revolution, all the members of the old regime are rooted out from their positions of power so that they cannot any longer influence the affairs of the nation. These positions do not just mean government ministers, but can include the many managers in government departments, the top police officers, the judges hearing ordinary civil cases, who all want to break the revolution and return to the past. In making those Presidential decrees last week, the President was doing one of two things. He was either, which is what his deepest critics believe, securing his own hold on power, like many an authoritarian ruler before him. Or he was trying, which is what he claims to be doing, to preserve the revolution and bring it to fruition. Surely those who allowed our sons and daughters to be killed on the streets cannot be allowed to get away with their crimes? Surely those who brought this country to its knees because they stole the nation's wealth cannot be allowed to benefit from their theft? Surely those who are opposed to the democratic choice of the Egyptian people when they elected the country's first civilian President in a free ballot are not to be allowed to thwart that choice by stalling tactics and dirty tricks? Dr Morsi says that his extraordinary measures are to last until the democratically expressed will of the people is brought to fruition in a new Constitution, a popular referendum on that Constitution and new elections to parliament.If the President is not acting according to his word, then the people can reject that Constitution, vote against the President's party in parliamentary elections and remove him from office through the ballot box. These are critical days. The freedom, dignity and social justice called for by those who gave their lives as martyrs last year has not yet been achieved. Egypt's revolution, far from being over, has only just begun. Surely we can wait for another six months to see if the President will be true to his word. In not doing so, and in listening to the voices of those who would return Egypt to the past, we would be saying that all those lost lives were in vain. Revolution doesn't happen overnight. When the dust has finally settled, and it may still take many years for it to settle, Egypt will be a better place for all its citizens, not just for those who make their money out of others' misfortune. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, teaches at Al-Azhar University. The author of nine books about Islam, he divides his time between Egypt and the UK as a speaker, writer and broadcaster. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com and join him on Facebook at Tawfiq Page.
