Late November has seen continued mass protests in Egypt. However, this time the protest movement is directed against the current president Mohamed Morsi, and not against Hosni Mubarak, as Egyptians accuse Morsi of wanting to “usurp power” and carry out the “return to dictatorship.” “The Muslim Brotherhood has stolen our revolution!” and “The Muslim Brotherhood is a bunch of liars!” are the battle cries of the thousands of Egyptians who have come to the famous Tahrir Square, where the Egyptian stage of the Arab Spring started, which culminated in the overthrow of Mubarak.
Many protesters want to force Morsi to cancel the new Constitutional Declaration, which many consider to be, in effect, “a declaration of a new pharaoh’s accession to the throne.”
Al Jazeera TV channel estimates that the anti-Morsi protests have been attended by over 200,000 Egyptians. One person died from heart attack, and dozens were injured as a result of clashes with police. Another channel, Al Arabiya, reports that the Muslim Brotherhood’s offices in Cairo and nearby cities have been attacked and set on fire, and calls the protests “the largest mobilization against the president so far.”
The Day contacted the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies Oleksandr BOHOMOLOV and asked him to comment on the current situation in Cairo and accusations that Morsi was becoming “a new pharaoh.”
“The Arab Spring seems to be turning into an ‘Arab Winter.’ The Muslim Brotherhood, an unrecognized opposition movement for a long time, has become a part of the country’s establishment, but their struggle with the old regime continues. The current government is trying to make the presidency strong again, while other institutions, remnants of the old regime, interfere with these efforts.
“Morsi is trying to regain Egypt’s position as one of the world’s leading powers. He had some success in that direction by reaching a truce between the Palestinians and the Israelis. However, many segments of Egyptian society do not see him as their president. Trying to consolidate his power, he recently decided to launch court proceedings, as they say in Arabic, against ‘the symbols of the old regime.’ However, he was not entirely successful in that area and was eventually forced to choose a compromise position on the issue.
“Morsi is called a pharaoh in the heat of polemics. Using the word ‘pharaoh,’ a term without any meaning in the Egyptian constitutional law or any other branch of law, is a statement of opinion. It has very negative meaning in the Muslim culture. Pharaoh appears in the Qur’an as a satanic force oppressing the faithful. Besides pharaoh having very negative connotations in general, there are some specifically Egyptian ones. Presidents Sadat and Mubarak encouraged local nationalism which saw the (Ancient) Egyptian heritage as a national treasure. In this context, ‘pharaoh’ sounds like an allusion to Morsi restoring some practices of the old regime. His opponents use the word deliberately.”
How the confrontation between Egyptians and the president will end?
“The Muslim Brotherhood does not want to relinquish power. The current battle is over the shape the compromise between the ruling elite and society will take. Both sides are very powerful. Obviously, it involves the military, too. However, I see the presidency surviving this battle and Morsi probably retaining his office. The only question is how it will come to that. Tension is fed by two problems that are in limbo today. On the one hand, the Egyptian constitutional process has not finished yet, while effective post-revolutionary national consensus is that Egypt needs a new constitution.
“On the other hand, the Egyptian parliament, which was in effect ‘dissolved’ by the previous military administration, has not been convened so far. Morsi himself is in no hurry to do it, despite his promises to hold parliamentary elections as soon as in four months. When it comes to his emergency powers, he says that they are for a limited time only. This is very reminiscent of the military administration’s rhetoric. This leads many people to see Morsi as a case of ‘new boss, same as the old boss,’ only this time with a new flavor. The construction or reconstruction of a new Egypt depends on it becoming a somewhat different country that will place new emphases in its foreign policy and have a different composition of the nation itself.
“Egypt has a lot of various problems and issues to be resolved. The country suffers from a high level of poverty, and its economic situation has worsened. However, political battles will continue. First term will surely be a difficult one for President Morsi.”
