The day power was jerked away from him

November 11 came; the day they called on the people to take to the streets in a revolution they called the “Revolution of the Disenfranchised”. No one knows what force called for this revolution, especially since all the national parties and powers renounced it. This only increased the suspicions that the intelligence is behind it, evidenced by the fact that the government was not mindful of this call and floated the Egyptian pound and raised fuel prices, which caused the rise of commodity prices. Some have also claimed the government did so in order to hunt the rebels and pick them up off the street and frustrate the people, sending the message that it would be futile to protest against the rise of prices imposed by the brute forces that displayed their power across Egypt. This day was preceded by a widespread arrest campaign, armoured vehicles were dispatched to close the squares, the Tahrir Square metro station was closed, and they managed to provoke a state of fear and intimidation amid the people.

The Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement announcing it would take to the streets on this day, and if it weren’t for the political forces’ presence on the ground, then this day would’ve been empty, as the disenfranchised and poor did not show. It was as if there were no more poor people in Egypt and everyone suddenly became rich! All the political forces disappeared, all the left-wing mouthpieces that claim they advocate for the poor were silent, all the youth disappeared and instead posted on Facebook and Twitter.

The Muslim Brotherhood confirmed they were the only force on the ground and that they cannot be ignored or excluded from the political equation in Egypt, and indeed, they are the ones who saved this day with their great turnout. Their youth, men and women all proved they were heroes who do not fear death, but rather face death with bare chests.

This day was not spared the arrest of some youth and the day ended in a way that did not fulfil the wishes of the people sitting at home watching the events of the day on their televisions. They didn’t dare take to the streets and instead waited for the rebels to gain back their rights. They had wished that the revolutionary movement would continue in the streets until the coup is overthrown, like what happened on January 25. They forgot or disregarded the fact that the January 25 Revolution included all the revolutionary forces across the spectrum, from the far right to the far left. They were all united, Muslims and Christians and this is why it was a success. There is no way to reproduce the revolution given the current fragmentation of the revolutionary forces and the exchanged accusations. One says to the other you sold us out during Rabaa while the other responds you sold us out in the Mohammed Mahmoud incident and the Council of Ministers incident.

In short, the coup managed to deepen the division between them by employing the divide and conquer policy. This oppressive coup can only be faced if we rise above our differences, bandage our wounds and forget the painful past. This is what many political figures have been trying to do for years, but unfortunately they have failed to heal past wounds.

Although 11/11 did not bring about the desired fruit and effect that we were hoping for, it did act as a new starting point that renewed the popular movement after a long period of idleness. In addition to this, all the international media outlets reported this day and most importantly, the events of the day sparked fear within the government. This was clearly evident by the fact that the army and its tanks were deployed onto the streets in such large numbers, which exposed Al-Sisi and his elites to the entire world and revealed his government’s fragility. Perhaps this is enough to deem this day a success even though not everything we had hoped for was achieved. However, revolutions have a number of waves and we can consider this one of the revolutionary waves.

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