As soon as Al-Jazeera announced the broadcast date for its documentary “The Soldiers”, the pro-coup media in Egypt went into a frenzy, attacking and threatening, at the behest of the government, so-called “Zionist and treacherous” Qatar. The media began to label those who watch the documentary as traitors and unpatriotic; those who won’t watch it are thus honourable citizens.
The Egyptian regime has been hit by a state of hysteria, accompanied by a large-scale campaign launched by the media before they have even seen the documentary or reviewed its content. They are hoping to intimidate and scare Al-Jazeera into not showing it. However, Al-Jazeera is an internationally-renowned and professional channel that respects its viewers across the world and would not back down merely because of some barking from here or there.
We can only imagine what sort of regime quivers at the mere advertisement for a forthcoming documentary; it must be as fragile as a spider’s web. The resultant media campaign is actually the most effective marketing for the programme, as hundreds of millions around the world are now waiting to watch it with keen anticipation.
The film follows the lives of Egyptian soldiers in army camps and the humiliation and degradation to which they are subjected, especially during recruitment and for those who do not possess any qualifications. The latter covers most of the recruits, as they are salt of the earth people. The documentary shows the violation of their dignity and humanity and how they serve the senior officer, his wife and his children. Despite the severe humiliation captured by the film-makers, those who have actually experienced the recruitment process say that the film only shows 5 per cent of what actually happens. Recruits, they claim, are actually subject to various types of torture in these camps.
It is true that the film does not show anything new that we haven’t heard about before, but it confirms this knowledge and documents it for the whole world to see. It is a source of shame for the military regime in Egypt, to be added to its already long list of shameful activities.
Oddly, Britain’s BBC showed another documentary about a month ago called “Egypt’s Central Security Forces”, but the regime did not go into the same rabid state then that it has been in since the announcement of “The Soldiers”. A number of MPs have called for severing relations with Qatar and dismissing the Qatari ambassador. They have even filed a complaint to the Prosecutor-General against Qatar, demanding the ambassador’s dismissal.
This abnormal reaction has prompted them to show pictures in the media of soldiers sitting happily on couches. Looking at them, you’d think they are in a five-star hotel and that the soldiers are imported from Norway and Sweden.
As much as “The Soldiers” pains and saddens me over the state of our armed forces, it has also provoked my fears for the state of the country; if a soldier is humiliated and degraded by his own officers in his own country, how can he be expected to defend both? A country which allows such humiliating and degrading recruitment processes to continue unabated is no longer a country that welcomes, values and looks after its servicemen. It is, therefore, perfectly natural for them not to feel patriotic or affiliated with a country that violates their dignity and honour. In this there lies great danger and we are fools to ignore it.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.