A country extorted by its citizens

The scenes witnessed in the Egyptian political arena have no parallel in any democratic country in the world. Those spearheading the scene while inflaming tensions are the same individuals who lost in the presidential elections. Since Egypt is the land of wonders, they are challenging the elected president; in effect defying the very citizens whom they claim to represent.

Such people are the masters of provocation. They extort their country while standing on the shoulders of the hard-working citizens and trade on their suffering. They gamble with the blood of the martyrs after bringing them into their political bazaar and including them in their ludicrous games, which will end up destroying everything.

However, these individuals do not care about the country. And contrary to their claims, they do not really care about the people. All they are interested in and seek is the presidential seat that slipped through their hands. They are now going to great lengths to snatch that seat away from the people, as it became the people’s property. After all, it was the people who chose who sits on it. Hence their battle with the people who humiliated them in the elections; their hatred toward them; and their desire for revenge by any legal and illegal means.

---

If this is not the case, what would explain their meeting with the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and their signing a document renouncing violence in the morning; then the dreamer, who still enacts the role of the president and has assumed his character, calls on the people to go to the presidential palace, claiming it is the third wave of the revolution, calls it the Friday of salvation and raises the red card.

And the other pretender, who visits Egypt in the seasons of crises to cause more aggravation and addresses the people from behind a screen in a virtual world, writes in English, “Violence and chaos are likely to continue unless our demands are met.” This is an official declaration of his support for violence. Indeed, it is an incitement to violence, under the pretext that they are the demands of the people, even though this couldn’t be farther from the truth. You are demanding a rebellion against the constitution approved by the people for an objective that is no longer hidden; you have said it timidly in your conferences and today you are explicitly stating it. That you want to have early elections after you failed to overthrow the president by force in the street.

The problem is not in the constitution itself, but in its article on the transition that provides for the elected president to complete his presidential term. I am almost certain that if they had a choice between this article not existing in a constitution that declares that Sharia Law must be followed, and another constitution that omits this article and provides for a secular state but has the same transition article, they would chose the first without hesitation.

These imposters appear whenever there is instability and chaos in the country. They resort to their derisive media machinery to delude others into thinking that their demands are the demands of the people and that response to calls to overthrow the constitution and dissolve the Shura Council would achieve the objectives of the revolution.

While the public went out on the second anniversary of the revolution in order to renew their demands for life, freedom, and social justice, the imposters wanted to benefit from it, ride the wave, and take advantage of their suffering and frustration that has built up over two years of not reaping the fruits of their revolution. 

They wanted to aggravate the situation and complicate it for as long as possible, erroneously believing that the angry crowd will be in their favour and that they are in control of them and have their loyalty. However, the people opposed these deluded leaders, who were hoping that chaos and anarchy in the streets, with the illusion that the events of the 2011 revolution would recur and Dr Morsi would be toppled, as did Mubarak, in their favour.

There is a great difference between the peaceful January 25 Revolution, which dazzled the world and what is happening today, including the acts of violence and intimidation. International news agencies are now focusing on this; giving a distinctively negative image of the Egyptian people. There is no way to compare the two, especially since during our revolution we demanded the overthrow of the regime and not the state; which is what is happening now, with the blessing of these imposters. 

A revolution is a spontaneous historical moment in the life of people in which hearts are intertwined, voices are united, personal interests and desires are set aside and the interest of the country are put forth.

Revolutions cannot be cloned. A revolution is not a game, it is not a premeditated decision made by an individual or group using history as a reference to adopt their sayings and slogans, which have now been tainted by their actions. Their counter-revolution which united them with the remnants of the National Party and thugs, who operate based on the principle, my enemy’s enemy is my friend, to overthrow the state simply because of their hatred of the Muslim Brotherhood.

I assure you that in the midst of this absurd scene and this hypocritical political deception, that there are real protestors that have legitimate demands and want the revolution to achieve its objectives. However, they have been lost in the fogginess of the scene. I maintain that they are right before the eyes of the president, and that the main objective of the crises and incitement fabricated on a daily basis is to hinder him from executing his plan and meeting the needs of the people who are asking for stability in the country, construction, and a reawakening, which is the opposite of what the imposters want.

*The author is an Egyptian writer and member of the National Council for Human Rights

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.