The American comedian George Carlin (1937–2008) was famous for his profound and ironic comments. On one of his shows he was explaining what he did first when he boarded a plane. “I locate my nearest emergency exit, and then I plan my route,” he said. “I look around for women and children, midgets and dwarves, cripples, war widows, paralyzed veterans, people with broken legs, anybody who looks like they can’t move too well.” If necessary he would push them all aside to reach the exit, and only then try to save the others, he added. The image illustrates how some people will do anything to stay alive or protect their own interests. Whenever I see the new foreign minister, Mohamed el-Orabi, I’m reminded of George Carlin’s words. Mohamed el-Orabi was one of those closest to Mubarak and his family, and has a long record of statements eulogizing the former president. According to a report in Al-Wafd newspaper, when Orabi was Egyptian ambassador in Germany he said, “I believe Hosni Mubarak is a leader of a kind never seen and never to be seen again in the history of Egypt.” He also said, “God loves Egypt because He has blessed it with a rare genius by the name of Gamal Mubarak.”
Orabi is now foreign minister in the government of a revolution that overthrew his peerless leader and threw that rare genius in prison pending trial. Orabi is not an unusual case in the Egyptian establishment. Many ministers were among Mubarak’s biggest supporters and they are now taking decisions in the revolutionary government. Dr. Samir Radwan, the current finance minister, was a member of the policies committee of the ruling party and a close associate of Gamal Mubarak, who recommended him to then Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali. Ghali made him one of his advisers in 2005 and Hosni Mubarak then gave him one of the appointed seats in the People’s Assembly. Radwan contributed to the economic policies of the Mubarak regime and he now wants to convince public opinion that he is adopting the ideas of the revolution. I can only look back to the way George Carlin planned his escape route from a crashing plane. The problem here is not only these ministers’ amazing ability to defend one thing and then the opposite with the same enthusiasm in order to stay in office. The problem is that the revolution overthrew Hosni Mubarak, but Mubarak’s regime did not fall. The police generals who helped Habib el-Adli torture and murder Egyptians and violate their dignity are still in the same jobs. The media officials who for years misled public opinion, flattered the tyrant, and justified his crimes are still in place. The judges who oversaw rigged elections are still at work. The State Security officers who committed heinous crimes against Egyptians remain in office, and in fact, some of them have been appointed governors in recognition of their efforts serving the regime. What should we expect from all these officials? They obviously won’t be able to understand the logic of the revolution and they will probably conspire against it.
The conspiracy against the Egyptian revolution is now blatant. Firstly, there are the slow trials for some of the leading figures of the previous regime, in order to gradually appease the people’s anger until they forget, distracted by their daily concerns. Why hasn’t Mubarak been tried yet? What’s the secret behind all these conflicting reports on his health? And why hasn’t he been treated as an ordinary prisoner? Where are his sons Alaa and Gamal, and why don’t we see pictures of them in prison? Why do senior officials in prison receive special treatment? Who allowed Hussein Salem to escape and why wasn’t Interpol alerted from the start? Why weren’t Zakaria Azmi, Fathi Sorour, and Safwat el-Sherif arrested until two months had passed—months during which they managed to hide or smuggle abroad as much as possible of the money they had plundered from the Egyptian people? Why was there no state support for those injured in the revolution and the families of the dead for a full six months? And why was the late Mahmoud Kutb left in Nasser hospital for six months without proper treatment, until his wounds started to suppurate and maggots started to crawl out of his mouth, whereas Sharm el-Sheikh hospital was cleared of patients so that Suzanne Mubarak could have her teeth fixed and the Egyptian government bent over backwards to bring in a German doctor to check the precious health of Hosni Mubarak? There are many questions and only one answer, which is well known and saddening.
A second element of the conspiracy against the revolution is the ensuring of a constant breakdown in law and order, with the police deliberately neglecting their duty to provide security, in order to frighten Egyptians, deter tourism and investment and give the impression that the revolution has been a disaster. There is also a constant attempt to portray those killed in the revolution as thugs and to portray the officers who killed them as heroes who were defending police stations. Trials have been delayed for months so that the officers accused (who are still in their jobs) can put pressure on the families of the dead to change their testimony and the officers can escape punishment.
Furthermore, there have been attempts to polarize the revolutionary forces and nurture the conflict between the liberals and the Islamists by giving the impression that since the revolution Egypt has fallen permanently into the hands of extremists. Remember how the newspaper Al-Ahram, in the time of the former editor, came out with a front-page picture of a man with his ear cut off and a banner headline saying that the Salafists had cut off the ear of a Coptic man. Remember how the media lionized Abboud al-Zumur as if he were a national hero. That may help us understand why hardly a week passes without an attack on Copts or churches as the police look on, while the Islamists are always accused so that the revolution’s image is tarnished at home and abroad.
Lastly, there have been exaggerations of the extent of the economic crisis and repeated talk about how Egypt is on the brink of bankruptcy because of the revolution. The fallacy here is complex, because Hosni Mubarak left Egypt in a wretched economic state, with 40 percent of all Egyptians living below the poverty line and with unprecedented unemployment. Suffice it to say that one in three Cairenes lives in the slums. The Mubarak regime—not the revolution—is responsible for the misery of Egyptians. Besides, the revolutionaries have not been in power to take such a responsibility. If there have been crises since the revolution, it is the fault of the military council, which holds presidential powers, and of the government that the council appointed.
What happened in Tahrir Square last week is very significant. Thugs were unleashed to start riots and attack the Interior Ministry to give the police a justification for attacking the demonstrators. That shows how bitterly some senior police officers feel about the revolution. What is it that made one senior officer drive around in a vehicle with a loudspeaker, specifically to insult the demonstrators? What is it that made a senior detective in Agouza police station insult the mother of Ahmed Zein el-Abdin, one of the “martyrs of the revolution,” kick her in the stomach and then kick her son Mohamed in the head, give him electric shocks, arrest him and send him to court martial?
These shameful attacks by police on the families of the dead have gone hand in hand with a strident black propaganda campaign of the old style, created by security service sleeper cells in the media—a group of journalists, broadcasters, and producers who still receive orders from State Security, which has changed its name to National Security. As for Mansour el-Eissawi, I doubt those conspiring against the revolution could hope for a better interior minister, since he considers it his duty to defend his officers no matter what crimes they commit and is strangely detached from what is happening around him, to such an extent that we cannot take what he says seriously. The events in Tahrir Square are just the dress rehearsal for a major conspiracy that is being prepared in order to abort the revolution once and for all.
The question is: did the Egyptian revolution make a mistake? Yes, the revolution made two mistakes. The first time was on February 11th, when Mubarak was forced to step aside and millions of Egyptians celebrated victory and went home. The revolutionaries should have stayed in Tahrir Square and chosen people to speak in their name and negotiate with the military council until their demands were met in full. The second mistake was that the revolutionaries fragmented before achieving their demands. Instead of declaring that Mubarak’s constitution was defunct and calling for a new constitution, the military council preferred to adopt Mubarak’s proposal to amend some of the articles in the old constitution and then hold a referendum on the amendments. When the referendum result came out, the military council went way beyond its mandate and announced an interim constitution of 63 articles. This referendum (of dubious utility) has helped to split the revolutionaries into two camps: the liberals and the Islamists. The two camps have engaged in a long argument, with the liberals calling for a constitution first and the Islamists calling for elections first. The two camps have spent their time attacking each other, forgetting that the system that the revolution aimed to overthrow has not yet fallen. What’s the use of elections if they are supervised by an interior ministry run by Habib el-Adli’s aides and disciples, and by judges who took part in election rigging and are still in their posts? What’s the use of a constitution written by law professors if for years they used their legal knowledge to serve a tyranny?
The Egyptian revolution is going through a critical stage, a real crossroads. Either it triumphs and achieves its aims or, God forbid, it is defeated and the old regime comes back, albeit in a different guise. So what is to be done now? We have to remember Hosni Mubarak before the revolution. Everything was in his favor. He enjoyed the support of Israel, the Western states and most of the Arab states. No one imagined he could be removed from power, but the Egyptian people, by the grace of God, managed to force Mubarak to step down. Only those who made the revolution will protect it. That’s why the demonstration on Friday (July 8th) is so important, to correct the course of the revolution. We must forget our ideological and political differences and go back to the way we were during the revolution: Copts with Salafists, Muslim Brothers with leftists, women in veils alongside those without veils. We will not demand a constitution or elections. We will demand that the system be purged of the remnants of the Mubarak regime. We will demand fair and thorough trials for those who killed protesters. We will demand an end to military trials for civilians, for whatever reason. Hopefully we will go out on Friday prepared to pay the price for freedom. We will be, as we were in the days of revolution, prepared to die at any moment. Our lives cannot be more precious than those of the hundreds who gave their lives willingly for the sake of Egypt’s future and the dignity of Egyptians.