Not the president, not the Pharaoh

5
Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi felt like a pharaoh. And not only felt, but also proclaimed. No, he did not go to Tahrir Square and did not send heralds to cities and villages to inform his people about this. Now, in the second decade of the 21st century, such things are made much easier.

Not the president, not the Pharaoh


November 22 Mr. Mursi promulgated a new constitutional declaration (This is a document that temporarily replaces the basic law of the country in Egypt). In it, without further ado, he secured for himself exceptional powers. Whether the president decided that his distinguished political figure, who had just established peace between Israel and Gaza (which they enthusiastically responded to in the US), everything is allowed, or decided that his act against the background of the successfully completed Palestinian-Israeli conflict, where both sides consider themselves winners, simply slip unnoticed.

But what did the Egyptians fight for in 20011? Does the ghost of comrade Mubarak rise on the presidential throne?

On the same day, the Egyptian Constitutional Court sat down to study the question of how to impeach the president of the country correctly - with the wording: for violating the oath and undermining the constitutional foundations. After the impeachment, which probably would have found support from former revolutionaries, Mr. Mursi could even be planted in the same cell with Mubarak. No doubt they would have found suitable topics for long conversations ...

The procedure for the removal of the head of state from office, according to the norms of international constitutional law, may be launched by the constitutional court on special grounds: for example, for high treason and other serious criminal offenses, as well as for violation of the constitution. Well, it would seem that Mursi broke - what is so complicated about it? It is time to initiate - and judge.

But in a non-democratic Egypt, not everything is so simple. The complexity of the local situation is that the basic law of the country has not been in effect since March 2011: after the revolution and the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces suspended the previous constitution, and the new one has not yet been worked out. M. Mursi took advantage of this.

Egyptian oppositionists (for example, such famous figures as Amr Moussa, Mohammed al-Baradei, Hamdin Sabbahi) after the news of the president’s nvoations, held an emergency meeting and then demanded from Mursi to cancel his amendment to the Constitutional Declaration. Also, the opposition called for a national dialogue, the purpose of which would be the formation of a new constitutional commission: Mursi had stubbornly refused this earlier. In the commission that is acting now - completely Islamists. Recall that Mursi himself comes from the Muslim Brotherhood, and he left this movement only formally, after winning the election.

What to do? Egyptian oppositionists are studying several scenarios today: a general act of civil disobedience can be organized in the country. Another option is the perpetual strikes on Tahrir and other central squares in the provinces. The third option is to pass a vote of no confidence in the president.

An emergency meeting was held in Egypt and the College of Judges. The judges called the last decrees of Mursi "an encroachment on the rule of law and judicial power."

However, the president will not give up so easily. The fact is that the former revolutionaries, now again remembering the old, are behaving illogically. After all, its amendments to the Constitutional Declaration Mursi will fight with enemies and defeat those just for the sake of preserving the gains of the revolution.

Changes give President exclusive powers precisely to “protect the revolution”, deprive the judicial authorities of the right to dissolve the upper house of parliament and the Constitutional Commission, which is developing a new basic law of the country. Also in the Constitutional Declaration included a provision according to which any laws and decrees signed by Mursi from the moment of his assumption of the presidency can neither be appealed nor canceled. At the same time, a new procedure for appointing the Prosecutor General of Egypt was introduced: now he is appointed by presidential decree for the 4 year. Mursi has already implemented his new self-proclaimed right. Talgat Ibrahim became the Prosecutor General.

Two well-known presidential advisers Mursi were amazed: after all, their democratic president suddenly became a pharaoh. Both of them immediately abandoned their posts. Logically: who advises Pharaoh? It is like advising the Sun.

First left his post as a writer and representative of the Coptic church, Samir Morkus, followed by the journalist Sakina Fuad. Both explained their demarche unwillingness to participate in the violation of the basic law of the country. S. Fuad stressed:

"Judging by the decisions taken, the president does not need any advice."


And one of the opposition representatives, Mohammed ElBaradei, wrote in a microblog:

"Today M. Mursi usurped all authority and appointed himself a new pharaoh of Egypt."


Oppositionists are supported by the former high-ranking member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Tarvat al-Kerbavi:

"It is unacceptable for M. Mursi to behave as if he is a god."


In Alexandria, fights broke out and clashes broke out between opponents and supporters of Mursi. At least 25 people were injured. In Cairo, open clashes were avoided, and the situation is still under the control of the authorities. But the opposition has already announced that it will necessarily conduct a “march of millions”, similar to those that took place during the revolution in the spring of 2011.

Can a revolution in Egypt get a sequel?

Mursi apparently believes not.

25 November, the Egyptian president made an official statement. He said that the decrees on the expansion of his powers were temporary. (Mursi doesn’t need much, 30 years, like Mubarak, we’ll add on our own). The President urged his opponents to dialogue for the return of political stability.

In a published statement сообщаетсяthat the empowerment of the president by himself with new powers “is not aimed at concentrating power” in the hands of the head of state, but is provided for the purpose of ensuring their subsequent transfer to the democratically elected parliament. Even Mursi in this way would like to achieve the apoliticality of the judicial system.

No wonder - when most of the powers of this system were assigned to the super-president, whom the press has already dubbed both the “new Mubarak” and “Mursalini” and the “Pharaoh”, Where do “politicity” come from, if one person can decide everything?

“The President stresses the temporary nature of these measures, aimed not at concentrating power, but at preventing attempts to undermine the democratically elected authorities and preserve the impartiality of justice,” says in the communique.


So, all this authoritarianism serves exclusively the interests of democracy. So what? It acts in America and the NDAA (National Defense Act) is extended every year, allowing to detain the enemies of the country without trial, to name only those or other members of the human race as terrorists and spies. The National Defense Authorization Act permits government indefinite detention of US citizens. The NDAA directly violates the US Constitution (Amendment VI).

Also in democratic america acts John Warner's Defense Act of Authority of 2007. It allows the US president to declare a “state of emergency”, send troops to any point in the country and take control of the state with the help of the National Guard, without the consent of the governor or local authorities, with the goal of “suppressing the disturbance of public order”.

Finally, in the United States at any time, a Food Resource Ordinance may be activated, extended by 16 in March 2012. This law renewed the authority of the President. When the decree enters into force, the president gets the right to take control of all state energy sources, including oil and natural gas, to gain control over all civilian traffic, and even provides an opportunity to reintroduce the draft in order to achieve both military and non-military goals of the country.

Beside these edicts and acts of amendment, Mr. Mursi is just a babble of babbling. In any case, it should be noted that he had to learn from someone. Mursi just decided to copy a little democracy from the reference America.

In many Egyptian cities because of the legislative initiative of Mursi, the opposition announced the start of protests. On Tahrir Square the Egyptians shouted old revolutionary slogans:

"People want to break the regime!"


Opponents of Mursi accused the president of wanting to become a new Mubarak and trying to carry out a coup d'état, abandoning the ideas of the Egyptian revolution. Opponents characterize Mursi as

"Pharaoh-autocrat, who wants to apply the Islamic order in Egypt."


In the evening of November 25 it became known about the first victim: south of Alexandria, in Damanhur, in a clash between supporters and opponents Mursi, the 15-year-old teenager speaking for the president died. According to eyewitnesses, the tragedy occurred at the local branch of an Islamist organization. The death of a teenager, as stated by the representative of the local Ministry of Health, occurred "from blows with a blunt object on the head." In the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, calls for "revenge" immediately began to sound.

Georgy Mirsky, Chief Researcher, IMEMO RAS, says:

“Just a few days ago, Mursi won another important victory. This is because he is first and foremost, not Obama, he reconciled Israel with Hamas. His authority rose incredibly. Obviously, after such a success, he overestimated those cards that he had in his hands, and made the wrong move. Although he can still win this standoff. But I think that he did not expect that so many forces would come against him at the same time ... ”


State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the people of Egypt fought against the regime of Hosni Mubarak in order that "there was no excessive concentration of power in the hands of one person." Following the presidential administration was Mr. McCain, who was supported by Democratic colleague Carl Levin. A few days ago, these same people, US lawmakers, praised the outstanding mediator who facilitated the truce between Israel and Hamas, but now Republican Senator John McCain and Democrat Karl Levin said: the actions of the Egyptian leader aimed at expanding his powers and causing mass protests in the country , Are unacceptable.

Mr McCain was interviewed by Fox, where hinted on the possibility of freezing financial and military assistance to Egypt. He said that the United States should condemn the actions of the President of Egypt and force him to abandon his intentions. “We don’t want the democratically elected autocracy to become a non-democratically elected dictator, as it happened before,” said his colleague Levin in the NBC program.

However, the same Levin stressed that the United States must exercise "extreme caution" in relations with the leadership of Egypt, so as not to violate the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas.

Still would! Mursi secured reliable rears. And the criticism is given to Washington every day more and more difficult. Every time, criticizing, the Americans look in the mirror.

Thus, the Egyptian president really skillfully used the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in order to identify and consolidate his own power interests, as well as the interests of those behind him - namely, the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to the statement of Yasir Ali, the representative of M. Mursi, it has been decided not to remove anyone from the work on the basic law. The president appointed deadline: gave two months for the representatives of all political trends to come to an agreement. But the commission has already been abandoned by Coptic Christians: as the “sole source of law” in the project is specified ... sharia.

In addition to the fact that the revolutionaries in Egypt were eager for a new revolution, with their constitutional amendments Mursi undermined the country's economy.

On Sunday, the first day of the auction after the publication of Mursi’s decree, the shares of Egyptian companies lost almost 10% cost. After the opening of the exchange, the securities of Egyptian companies began to fall so rapidly that the trades had to be interrupted for half an hour. But even after their renewal, the shares continued to fall in price.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood called on all supporters of the president to hold mass actions in his support. The next Islamist demonstration is scheduled for Tuesday. Its venue is on Abdin Square in Cairo. It is assumed that there will be a million people. Well, and their opponents will gather, as usual, in Tahrir Square.

Shares in stocks, and Mursi is now, whatever one may say, at the same time the compiler of laws, and their supreme executor, and the controller for their observance. To arrange an impeachment for him, a constitution is needed, but it is not there - and instead of it there is just that declaration, which Morsi tailored for himself and the “Brothers”.

Let's go back from Egypt to America. Browser Steve Clemence compares Mursi with Abe Lincoln and along with George Washington. Perhaps, Mursi - the one who powerfully press, and then, like Lincoln or Washington, will arrange total liberalization? The journalist is not sure that it will be so. But on the other hand, he laughs at the State Department: after all, only naive, in his opinion, could have admitted the idea that a healthy and balanced democracy will instantly replace the Mubarak autocracy.

With the political culture of Egypt, says Clemence, who is turbulent and shaky, it’s ridiculous to think that the Egyptian leader, be he religious or secular, whether he is male or female, will automatically and successfully begin to advance towards political architecture and balances of state power.

If even the verified American system of democracy is unstable, then what about the Egyptian one?

After the election, state leaders seek to get the maximum power. This is reality, according to Clemence, as government leaders around the world behave. Their job is not to balance the various branches of government. No, that is not their goal.

“As a rule, they want to be monarchs, they want their dreams to come true, that the future they see is“ in the interests of the nation ”- but rather for themselves or for the clans they represent.”


Therefore, those who want to build a so-called democracy building in their own country must first enlist the support of neighboring branches of government. We must get along with the judges, convince the legislators that they are right, and at the same time agree with the military. That’s what we’ll be, let’s add, the balance of the system, which with a stretch can be called democratic - if only because the role of the people in it begins and ends in elections.

Observed and translated by Oleg Chuvakin
- especially for topwar.ru
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    5 comments
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    1. +2
      27 November 2012 08: 10
      Well, what have you achieved? Now there will be not only political, but also religious dictatorship under the flags of Muslim brothers. Mubarak’s times will be remembered as the heyday of democracy.
    2. IlyaKuv
      0
      27 November 2012 11: 08
      Yes, it was always like that, they wanted to live better, they trusted the fanatics of the revolution, that’s the result, and now, God forbid, a civil war will begin.
    3. +1
      27 November 2012 11: 28
      Yes, the Egyptians clearly did not study the classics of the theory of revolution and also missed the experience of others. Who ultimately benefits from the revolution? They should have studied this immediately. Now, if Mursi also comes to an agreement with the army, they will periodically wash themselves in blood until they understand their "happiness" - to live according to Sharia law in a religious state. As an alternative, given the number of supporters of the new pharaoh, civil war. Eh, well, the history of unreasonable Arabs does not teach anything ...
    4. 0
      27 November 2012 19: 34
      Fools are a diagnosis. And everything else is the course of the disease.
    5. 0
      27 November 2012 21: 06
      Almost a classic!
      We wanted the best, it turned out as usual!

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