Al-Sisi's bicycle

Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi chose to begin his presidential campaign in Egypt by riding a bicycle valued at 40,000 Egyptian Pounds in an empty street with no vehicles other than a parked bus and exactly eight individuals. They were, of course, his guards. I am intrigued by those who doubted that Al-Sisi would run for the presidency. He is the man who carried out a brutal coup and overthrew elected President Mohamed Morsi in order to make a dream he has been having for over 30 years come true. In the dream he told the late President Anwar Sadat that he knows he will become the president of Egypt, and he saw his Omega watch with the first letter of his name, a red sword, and other figments of his imagination.

Al-Sisi has been a prisoner of his dream and will continue to be so until it becomes a reality; and now is the time. He did not carry out his bloody coup in order to hand over power to the man seeking the presidency, Hamdeen Sabahi, a lover of power; or to the greedy Mohamed El-Baradei. He used these two as civilian cover to gather their supporters after promising them, just as he swore to the Egyptian people after carrying out the coup, that the honour of defending his country is more precious to him than ruling Egypt. Were El-Baradei and Sabahi so naïve that they really believed that Al-Sisi would betray the elected president, the man who appointed him as Minister of Defence, for their sake?

In one of his television interviews, El-Baradei said that Al-Sisi told him that he will not run for the presidency and that he believes him; Sabahi said exactly the same. The truth is that they both knew that they would not be able to overthrow an elected president and a legitimate government with an approved constitution without the intervention of the army and a military coup. They also realised that they wouldn’t be able to compete with the Muslim Brotherhood in any upcoming elections, as their existence on the ground is minimal with no popular base, even though their hatred for the movement and their deep desire to eliminate it was more important to them than their country, the establishment of democracy in Egypt and dignity for the people. Both were thus dealt the harshest blows when, during his famous emotional speech, Al-Sisi announced that he would be a candidate in the presidential election. El-Baradei was accused of treason by Al-Sisi’s media and judiciary, while Sabahi’s financial portfolio and foreign funding is under investigation. Traitors are always hit by those sitting next to them, plotting and conspiring behind their backs, and the head traitor always gets rid of his henchmen.

Everyone knows that the person actually running Egypt since the coup has been Al-Sisi; that all the state institutions follow his orders; and that the media refers to him as if he is already the president; so why are we allowing this charade of an election to continue? How can a real presidential candidate run for a position that is already occupied? Are there still people naïve enough to believe in this process through which Al-Sisi is trying to justify his position? I say “justify” not “legitimise” because the election will not give him any legitimacy inside Egypt or beyond its borders. The true revolutionaries on the street will be able to overthrow him, just as they have already used the hashtag #voteforthepimp to expose Al-Sisi and describe him in a most deserving fashion.

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