Sisi's rule... 100 days in prison

At this time two years ago, hundreds of young revolutionaries were protesting in Tahrir Square to hold the then President Mohamed Morsi accountable for his actions during his first 100 days in office. By this time last year he had been overthrown by a military coup. His successor, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is totally unaccountable for what he has and hasn’t done in his first 100 days. Now, indeed, the revolutionary youth attend their court hearings in wheelchairs and no one can even reach Tahrir Square.

Today, we don’t see whole TV programmes turned over to analysing what the president failed to accomplish during his first 100 days; nor do we find special guests with bulging veins speaking passionately about the goals of the revolution that have not been accomplished. We certainly won’t find anyone accusing Al-Sisi of causing an electricity crisis due to its export to the UAE. Instead, we have programmes dedicated to talking about the president’s legendary achievements and guests smiling while they talk about his success in confronting conspiracies and his resolution in the face of America’s Obama and Turkey’s Erdogan. You will, though, certainly find people accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of plotting the electricity crisis in order to embarrass President Al-Sisi.

One hundred days have passed since he came to office, and the result is that thousands of people have been detained in prison unjustly; hundreds of crimes, including kidnapping, armed robbery and murder have been committed in broad daylight, which wouldn’t have happened had there been a professional police force that protected the people and not only the president; and there are dozens of problems that no one demands that the president should solve, because he is busy with the war on terror, in which he has made great progress. Even the national project he adopted is on the verge of failing because he left it to the wrong people, forgetting the fact that he has actually left the Ministry of Defence.

We are now living in a state of complete insanity. Nothing is subject to the standards of logic in light of the fact that logic itself is not subject to standards. One hundred days into Al-Sisi’s rule, we are now beyond history, living in a phase seen in most civilised nations over a century ago; we are living in a time before civilisation, development and justice.

If you say something that upsets the state, you are arrested by the police with a ready-made list of accusations that subject you to prosecution, putting you before a court without even hearing your statement. You are then put in front of a judge who issues a ruling for your imprisonment before your defence lawyers get a chance to speak. Then you try to explain the injustice committed against you to the media, but you find that most journalists are cosying up to the state; and when you tell the people your story, they are surprised by the ruling made against you and blame the judge for not giving you a death sentence.

Ahmed Douma entered the courtroom, where he is being tried, in a wheelchair. He is barely 30 years old, but seems to be a thousand years old, with a thousand questions on his mind: why am I here while all those who are guilty of killing demonstrators, participated in the Battle of the Camel, and seized state funds are all walking free? Why does the state hate us and like them? Is it because they are honourable people or because the state is corrupt like them?

Douma’s wife sent a message to the president, appealing to his paternal instincts, urging him to intervene and rescue her husband because he did not steal, kill or commit treachery. Nourhan is waiting for an answer, but it still hasn’t come and is unlikely to come. Douma’s crime is unfortunately very serious, as he participated in the Cabinet clashes, the victims of which the state consider to be martyrs of the counter-revolution. He is also accused of burning down the Scientific Complex, and since the state has prosecuted those who burned the MS Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 ferry, the Bani Sweif Cultural Palace and the Shura Council, it’s now time to prosecute the individual accused of burning the Scientific Complex.

In a state that still hasn’t held accountable those who burned Cairo and killed Fatma Shajarat Al-Durr, and still does not know whether or not Gamal Abdel Nasser was murdered, or if Abdul Hakim Amer committed suicide or if his throat was slit, Ahmed Douma must die because he is accused of burning a building that no one would have heard of if it weren’t for it being burned.

Mohamed Soltan went to his court hearings on a mobile bed due to the effects of the hunger strike he started nine months ago in protest at the length of time his was held in custody; the charges against him are serious and his release from prison is a major threat to security. His “crime” is that he is the son of a Muslim Brotherhood official named Salah Soltan, and this is a significant charge in a country where imprisonment is handed down to the sons of prisoners, just like a job in the prosecution, police and judiciary is inherited by the children of such civil servants.

In a state where many of its people have lost their honour, I do not believe that many will be sorry or will grieve if Mohamed Soltan died tomorrow as a result of his hunger strike. News reporters would probably wish that all the other hunger strikers would die as well.

What is this strangeness and oppression? Why is everyone antagonising young people who haven’t sought authority or incited disobedience; who only asked for a free, dignified and fair life? Why do the authorities want to expel the people of the revolution from their village just because they have dreams? If the people of the state are antagonising them to preserve their authority and positions, then why are those who live like zombies antagonising them?

Do not bother too much with searching for an answer for there are precious few answers in Al-Sisi’s Egypt. His first 100 days in office has been like 100 days in a prison for too many people.

Translated from Arabi21, 18 September, 2014

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