Jumping off the sinking ship: Intellectuals who changed their positions after June 30th

What is the fate of the political figures who created an alliance on June 30th 2013 in Egypt; those who called for demonstrations to end the rule of elected President Mohamed Morsi and subsequently announced a new roadmap on July 3rd? The truth is that the June 30th alliance is falling apart, if it has not fallen apart already due to the military regime’s regressive practices, which have affected everyone. Moreover, the military regime’s intention to monopolise power and control the gains of the January 25th Revolution through the military coup have also become evident.

So where are they now? In this report, we can see how the positions of a number of political figures have changed since last year’s coup. Many of them have gone from supporting the military regime to completely rejecting it based on what has transpired. The changes do not necessarily mean that these individuals have gone from supporting the military coup to joining President Morsi’s camp as much as they reflect the need to create a roadmap that deviates away from the current regime and its regressive practices.

1. Mohamed ElBaradei

ElBaradei is the founder of the Constitution Party and the former vice-president under the coup, who was appointed based on the July 3rd roadmap. He is also the general coordinator for the National Salvation Front, which demanded that Mohamed Morsi step down. He is also considered to be one of the most prominent advocates for the June 30th demonstrations.

ElBaradei participated in the July 3rd Declaration and he was subsequently appointed as vice president of external affairs as part of a greater effort to market the declaration to the international community. ElBaradei soon resigned in protest over the regime’s use of excessive violence in the massacre that occurred in Rabaa Al-Adawiyya Square. He disagreed with the regime’s use of violence as opposed to attempting to find a political solution to end the demonstrations and has since left the country and disappeared from the political scene completely.

Upon his resignation, Elbaradei wrote a letter in which he stated the following: “What we had hoped would come out of the events that led to the June 30th uprising was that the people would come closer to achieving their goals for the January 25th revolution and it this sentiment that propelled to accept the national forces’ invitation to participate in the government and its initiatives. However, things quickly went in the direction of violence and abuse and this resulted in a harsh polarisation and divisions among the society. These disruptions threaten our social fabric because violence only begets more violence.”

2. Ziyad Bahaa Eldin

Bahaa Eldin served as the Deputy Prime Minister for the July 3rd government and he focused primarily on issues of economic development and international cooperation. His disagreements with the government became evident publically after a new law on demonstrations was issued. His resignation was rumoured several times before he actually stepped down without giving an official reason.

3. Abdul Rahman Yousef

Poet and revolutionary Abdul Rahman Yousef was among the most prominent figures of the revolutionary youth who joined the rebellion against Mohamed Morsi. He called on people to participate in the June 30th protests in his famous article, which was titled “Sorry dear father… Morsi has no legitimacy”. In this article, Yousef responded to a legal opinion issued by his famous father, Dr Yousef Al-Qaradawi on the question of whether or not Mohamed Morsi was a legitimate ruler by saying, “Mohamed Morsi did not abide by his promises to the nation and as such, his legitimacy has eroded away.” He continued: “I know, dear father, that your fatwa came only as an act of defence for Egyptian law and for the Egyptian people’s right to choose their leaders voluntarily without reverting back to military rule. We will never allow for this to happen.”

“The will exhibited by the people on June 30th is an extension of the January 25th revolution and while some of the remnants of the former regime believe that these events are paving the way for their return, I confidently say that they are delusional. This extraordinary generation will confront any unjust ruler and will not back down until they reach all the goals that they have set since the January 25th revolution. This is true of every revolutionary, whether they wear a helmet, a hat or a turban,” he continued.

Yousef may very well be among the first to realise that these events were orchestrated by the coup, especially after the Republican Guard, Manasa and Rabaa Al-Adawiyya massacres. Moreover, these violent events are what propelled Yousef to declare that the June 30th uprising was a revolutionary wave that turned into the coup. He quickly became one of Egypt’s most prominent writers and was banned by Shourouk Newspaper for his writings against the coup and its leaders.

4. Bilal Fadel

Satirical writer Bilal Fadel was among the biggest critics of President Morsi’s government. Fadel wrote articles on an almost daily basis from November 2012 that critiqued Morsi and he signed the petition calling for a rebellion against Morsi’s government on June 30th.

Despite his initial support for the June 30th movement, which he considered to be a revolutionary wave, Fadel changed his position after he saw the violence, mass killings and the repression of freedoms that followed the return of the Mubarak regime’s most prominent figures. This turn for the worse is what motivated Bilal Fadel to criticise the government harshly for its decision to appoint the former minister of defence as the country’s interim president. Fadel’s criticism was eventually banned in newspapers as well after he published a piece entitled “Political Marshal”, in which he ridiculed Al-Sisi’s decision to call himself a field marshal despite the fact that he never fought a single war in his life.

5. Amr Hamzawi

Amr Hamzawi is an Egyptian author and researcher, as well as professor of political science at Cairo University and a professor of public policy at the American University of Cairo. He was a former member of the Egyptian People’s Assembly during the 2012 elections and one of the Morsi government’s leading opponents. He accused President Morsi of political despotism and asked him to step down following the constitutional reforms of November 2012.

Hemzawi joined the Egyptian Salvation Front following the constitutional declaration crisis in 2012 and endorsed the June 30th uprisings and the July 3rd reforms. Yet, Hemzawi began to adopt a more neutral stance gradually after violent acts against Muslim Brotherhood supporters began to escalate and after Al-Sisi was nominated for the presidency. Hemzawi expressed his opinions on the political events in Egypt in a series of articles published in Shourouk Newspaper including his most recent, “For democracy’s sake… I beg you to answer the following questions”.

6. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh

Aboul Fotouh is a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, the President of Misr Al-Qawia party and a former presidential candidate. Many of Aboul Fotouh’s opponents as well as some of his supporters accuse him of being hesitant on many issues and they claim that that he always tries to stand in the middle ground as opposed to choosing a side.

Aboul Fotouh was among the supporters of the June 30th uprising and he called on Mohamed Morsi to hold early presidential elections. Following a statement issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and interim president Adli Mansour’s actions, Aboul Fotouh began to express his desire for a presidential election to be held within three months. He used Twitter as his platform where he expressed his refusal to arrest Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Aboul Fotouh called on Adli Mansour to step down after the Republic Guard clashes where dozens of people lost their lives. While he continues to criticise the current regime’s repressive policies, he has yet to take a firm stance or position regarding what happened on July 3rd.

He has since refused to participate in the upcoming elections, which he describes as a farce, “I refuse to participate in something that seeks to deceive our people,” he insisted.

7. Mustafa Al-Naggar

Both a dentist by profession and a member of the revolutionary youth, Al-Naggar was a member of the parliament that was dissolved after the revolution. He participated in the June 30th protest and was a firm supporter of the July 3rd declaration and its subsequent roadmap, which led to the repressive practices of the regime. As time went on and as the acts of repression continued to affect more than just the Muslim Brotherhood (the events of April 6th), Al-Naggar began to direct more and more of his criticism at the regime.

Al-Naggar published an article recently headed, “My fellow revolutionary, when will we see the fruits of our labour?” in which he states explicitly the mistakes carried out by the revolutionary youth, which inevitably allowed the military to return to power after January 25th.

“Let us first begin by criticising ourselves as members of the revolution. Have we not made mistakes? Are we not partially responsible for this stage that we now find ourselves in, that is are we not partially responsible for the revolution’s regression and the continued onslaught brought about by the counter-revolution? Were we not naïve to think that the old regime would take a back seat only to see that they would later enter from the same door they left from? Where we not overly self-absorbed when we declared that Tahrir Square would always be there and that we would return to our protests in the event of any deviation? Today, entering the square is considered a crime that is punishable by a number of years in prison… so what have we done? Were we not fools to believe that the enemies of the revolution would one day become its friends and that they would fight for it and raise slogans in honour of it? We believed them and now the masks have fallen off. Did we not provide a revolutionary and political cover to justify human rights violations? Now, the laws that we turned a blind eye to are the very ones that the authorities use to sentence us and throw us in prison.”

8. Khaled Daud

Daud is a member of the National Salvation Front and currently serves as the media spokesperson for the Constitutional Party. He began to criticise the regime and its practices after the Rabaa Al-Adawiyya massacre. He was attacked and stabbed by a group of thugs (baltagiyah) in October.

Daud expressed his criticism of Al-Sisi’s decision to run for president whereby he declared his practices to be repressive and beneficial to the security state apparatus. Daud currently supports presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, a decision that is in line with the Constitutional Party’s policy.

9. Alaa Al-Aswani

Al-Aswani is an Egyptian writer and novelist who initially supported Mohamed Morsi in the presidential run-off against Ahmed Shafiq during the 2012 elections. Al-Aswani then began to criticise Morsi, asking him to resign after the constitutional reforms and their aftermath.

Aswani was initially a supporter of the June 30th demonstrations and the July 3rd declaration. He was also among the supporters of the constitution written after the coup; however, with the increasing number of violations, Al-Aswani has expressed his sense of regret on One TV, and Egyptian channel: “Unfortunately, I was one of the people who voted for the constitution and I called on other Egyptians to vote for the constitution as well.” Al-Aswani also pointed out that the current Egyptian authorities are violating the constitution on a daily basis, including the introduction of the laws on voting and demonstrations, as well as the rules on investment. “They are all a serious violation of the Egyptian constitution,” he claims. “If this is the case, then why did the Egyptian people vote in favour of the constitution and why is there no respect for the Committee of Fifty (Lagnaa Al-Khamseen), which laid the foundation for and wrote the constitution?”

Al-Aswani went on to question the credibility of the current authorities based on the constitutional violations that they are currently engaged in. He also considers the authorities’ attitude towards him to mean that he, as a writer, has no value or importance, noting that the mentality of the current regime is the same as if Mubarak were still ruling Egypt.

10. Khaled Ali

Lawyer and human rights activist Khaled Ali was a former presidential candidate in Egypt. He stood initially in support of the June 30th demonstrations but later changed his position following the Rabaa Al-Adawiyya massacre. His first anti-coup stance took place when he confirmed to a human rights agency that he would defend all the Rabaa massacre victims, both the wounded and the dead.

Ali expressed his disapproval of Al-Sisi’s candidacy for the presidency and also expressed his unwillingness to participate as a candidate in the presidential election, which he compared to a theatrical performance. Khaled Ali is now characterised as one of the figures that stand in opposition to the military coup.

At the Freedoms Committee conference at the journalist’s syndicate last week, Ali raised his tone as he criticised Al-Sisi, describing him as the leader of the counter-revolution.

“The forces of the January 25th Revolution will reunite after the presidential and parliamentary elections. Only then will people realise that Al-Sisi’s regime only has one ally and that is the Mubarak regime”, he stressed.

11. Ahmed Maher

Ahmed Maher, the founder of the April 6th revolutionary youth movement, was arrested recently on the charge of protesting without a permit and other violations that followed the infamous Shura council meeting. He was sentenced to three years in prison with fellow activists Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Doma.

Maher’s attacks against Al-Sisi took a new turn through his letters that were leaked from prison, including his most recent, “Yes to Al-Sisi for President of the Republic”. The letter stated the following: “Why should they [the military] continue to rule from behind the curtain? Why not have a genuine military fascist state… isn’t that what the people want? All right, then. Let them get a real taste for true military fascism and the military mentality in government. Get ready because we’re going out.”

“Let the journalists and media personalities see what journalism and freedom of expression will be like during the Al-Sisi era. Let every journalist who supported the military regime realise the extent of the crime that they have committed. Let every writer drumming along for Sisi’s dance see what they will be able to write under the limitations of this political era. Let us go back to playing the cat and mouse game we used to enjoy along time ago.”

The court recently ruled against any of the April 6th Movement’s initiatives and has since frozen all of their assets. The state’s new position against this movement presents a stark contrast from the group’s initial stance, which favoured the June 30th uprisings and the July 3rd declaration founded by Al-Sisi.

12. Alaa Abdulfatah

Alaa Abdulfatah is a political activist and blogger. He is the son of two famous Egyptian political activists. His father is Ahmed Saif Al-Islam, a lawyer and civil rights advocate as well as the director the Hisham Mubarak Centre for Law, and his mother is Dr Layla Soyouf, a mathematics professor in the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Cairo.

Abdulfatah was among the biggest supporters of the June 30th uprising and was one of the principal actors that called for the removal of both President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power. He also stood initially in favour of using violence to break up the Brotherhood protests on the basis that they were “armed demonstrations”.

Abdulfatah’s disagreements with the current regime began with the issuance of the law on demonstrations. At the time, a number of activists, including Abdulfatah, were called upon to protest in front of the Shura Council. The protest came as a demonstration of the people’s rejection of the law. They were met with tear gas and and water hoses. Forty people were arrested, including 24 girls. Abdulfatah responded with the following tweet: “I will turn myself in to the authorities under the pretext that I am one of the organisers for this peaceful protest in front of the Shura Council.” He was released shortly after and the case is still pending.

Abdulfatah’s criticism of the current regime increased after they banned the April 6th movement and after Al-Sisi announced his candidacy for the presidency. He participated recently in the Freedoms Committee Conference at the journalists’ syndicate last week, where he described Al-Sisi as a “butcher”: “Anyone who votes for Al-Sisi is voting for a butcher and is giving his or her consent to participate in his crimes.”

Abdulfatah’s recent sentiment on Al-Sisi was conveyed via his Twitter account where he wrote: “It’s quite natural that the phrase ‘down with the military’ bothers Al-Sisi. This man has nothing to do with the military. We should change our slogan to ‘down with the fool!'”.

Source: Rassd

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