Legitimising the counter-revolution

The acquittal of Hosni Mubarak on charges of inciting the killing of demonstrators is not only a painful blow and a stab in the heart of the families of the victims of state violence in Egypt. It was also a harsh knock for those who have suffered in prison cells run by tyrants across the Arab world.

This is the counter-revolution, and it has been legitimised and crowned as victorious, for the time being. It has triumphed over the voices of freedom and justice, as the people can only be oppressed by the acquittal of the criminal. There had to be another oppressor in authority in order for the former holder of the position to be acquitted; the military coup led by Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi was staged in order to criminalise the rebels and protect the interests of the old regime. Although this was not obvious to many before, it has become very clear today.

What occurred was not only the acquittal of Mubarak, but an attempt to exonerate Al-Sisi and those around him. Of course, this is no surprise, because the man who committed a massacre in Rabaa Al-Adawiyya Square under the pretext of eliminating religious extremism would see nothing wrong with the dark record of Mubarak’s regime. Ultimately, the new regime has outdone and surpassed the old in the race to kill, both in the number of crimes committed and the audacity to carry them out in broad daylight before the cameras and eyewitnesses.

We should not be longing for or reminiscing fondly about the Mubarak regime, as many do. What we are witnessing is the revenge of the old tyranny against the revolution that threatened its interests and shook it to its core; tyrants sometimes wear velvet gloves and the mask of a benevolent dictator, but counter-revolutions bare their fangs because they want to restore the state of fear destroyed by the revolutions.

Al-Sisi will try to don the mask of revolution once again in order to contain the people’s outrage. On Sunday, he issued a statement denying any responsibility for the decision to acquit Mubarak under the pretext of not interfering in the independent judiciary. He also issued orders to compensate the victims and announced unashamedly, “the commitment to the revolution and moving forward with building a modern state, based on justice, equality and the combat of corruption.” This means that Al-Sisi’s government is going ahead with aborting the revolution under the pretext of preserving it, gaining legitimacy from the elections, as if that gives him the right, without any accountability or responsibility, to do so. He believes that he is above the law and that the vote which brought him to power authorises him to deal in tyranny and injustice.

Egypt’s and other Arab governments caused panic amongst their citizens with talk of extremist organisations and has used the international coalition against ISIS to push through all his policies; fear silences millions. However, America has its priorities and Al-Sisi serves these priorities well. All he needs to do is to deal with the people’s outrage, which he clearly believes will be short-lived and that no one will object to him.

The confidence of Al-Sisi and those whose interests he represents in moving forward without any effective or true opposition is not baseless. He was able to garner the people’s votes, although he did so by using force against the Muslim Brotherhood. We have witnessed Egyptian and Arab intellectuals welcome him, many of whom consider him a “hero”, so what will stop him?

The counter-revolution has acted under the guise of enlightened secularism, the defence of the state and the fight against obscurantism. It has gained moral and intellectual legitimacy amongst many Arab intellectuals. However, the time has come for them to remove this intellectual and moral cover given to Al-Sisi, unless their hearts are too cold to sympathise with the tears of Khaled Saeed’s mother and the thousands of other victims of Egyptian state violence. If they don’t, they will be complicit in all of these crimes. To them I say, the choice is yours.

Translated from Al-Araby Al-Jadid, 2 December,2014

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