Egypt, Not So Great

by Sami Jamil Jadallah

 
With little due respect, the past year and post June 30th shows there is nothing great about Egypt, not its military, not its police, not its Brothers, not its media, not its judiciary, not its intellectuals, not the Coptic Church, not the Al-Azhar, not secularists, not liberals, not leftists, not nationalist, not civil societies, not its young, certainly not its political and economic leadership. All are not great certainly they are all losers.
No matter what others may define it, what happened in Cairo couple of weeks ago, is a military coupe with the ugly face of religion, secularism, and Arab nationalism all over it? It is the coupe that killed the infant Egyptian democracy, and proved that the January 25 Tahrir Square uprising never was complete revolution and did not end military dictatorship in Egypt, and proved it is this Holy Cow that is milking all Egyptians.
Now I can see the many in Egypt who are angry with Morsi and the Brotherhood for failing to deliver miracle that can only happens in religious stories in the Bible, The Holy Quran and the Torah. Morsi in one year failed to fix the damage done by the military dictatorship rule for over 60 years.
In his one year in office, the incompetent failed miserable Morsi could not fix Egypt soaring national debt, could not fix the high birth rate, could not fix the unprecedented high unemployment, could not fix the long bread and gas lines that are the trade mark of Egypt, could not deliver a chicken at the table for each Egyptian family, could not fix the trains that never ran on time, could not fix the almost non existing infrastructure, did not end the corruption, did not recover tens of billions of unpaid taxes, did not recover millions of acres given away by the old regime for dirt cheap, could not end the rampant abuse by the police, could not fix the judiciary, could not fix the media, he could not fix any thing.
Poor Morsi, he is but an engineer and a Brother. May be the Egyptian thought they elected a miracle Jesus or a Moses, Oh yes, he could not snuff out Mubarak entrenched state institutions and the dozen or so family that rule the country and looted it for decades.
And for all the 30 millions (claimed) that went to the streets demanding his lynching and that of the Brothers he was an absolute failure. I guess it is Ok for Mubarak and his Oligarchs and the military to loot the country for 30 years and failed to fix all of these chronic problems having30 years to do it. All of a sudden the millions who slept through Mubarak regime woke up venting their revenge not against Mubarak and the military but against Morsi and the Brothers.
Ok, the Brothers failed to see and understand that the Egyptian who elected Morsi for president and voted for the Constitution did not vote for “Islam is the Solution” they voted for Morsi and the Constitutions, because they wanted a government by the people, for the people and not a government for the few by the few.
Morsi and his Brothers simply were not ready and unfit to govern a failed country like Egypt. They failed to understand that running a country like Egypt with endless chronic problems is unlike running the Brothers, with total obedience to the “Morshid”. Running Egypt requires seasoned politicians not a disciplined Brothers, and required balancing different and competing interest, managing different and competing ideologies, with governing institutions that remained loyal to Mubarak. Morsi and the Brothers failed to build an alliance with all those who made January 25th a landmark in the 7,000 years history that is Egypt They simply did not get it and for that they deserve to be losers.
Morsi could not fix a corrupt; incompetent politicized judicial system we saw in Mubarak tenure. Hundreds of thousands jailed on flimsy charges with sentences that made no sense at all. Morsi could not fix a corrupt judicial system that collaborated with the ministry of interior that presided over the torture of hundreds of thousands under Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak. He failed to fix a judicial system that overlooked the looting of the nation by the few and prosecutors who simply and deliberately lost cases because it was “politically correct”. The judiciary is big time loser.
It is hard to imagine that over a 1000 people killed by police and thugs (Baltagya) in the January uprising, as we saw on television, and prosecutors and police did not have enough evidence to make credible prosecution and seek justice for the victims and their families. We saw thugs riding camels and horses charge demonstrators yet neither prosecutors nor police could and chose and founded it necessary to dig deep and see who is behind all of this. Not Mubarak not Morsi will ever receive a fair trial in Egypt, never.
Over 26 people killed in Maspero (October 9, 2012) as military vehicles charged demonstrators and yet no prosecutions and no charges were ever brought against the military. No prosecutor dares to file charges against the military. Justice denied for all the victims and their families.
In the last few weeks, we saw dozens of Brothers headquarters charged by thugs, burned and looted as the police stood by making no efforts to stop the arson, looting and killing. Ah well I guess the good old Egyptian police is at its best. The police was and will always be so unprofessional in every way and they too are losers.
Now the military. Morsi and his Brothers and the majority of those who drafted the now abrogated constitution did not do the military or the people of Egypt a favor when they granted the military “special status”. This “great” Egyptian army is the only army in the world that drafts and set aside its own budget beyond the control of the parliament or the president. It can put civilians on trial in military tribunal without any oversight from any civilian institutions, not the president, not the parliament, certainly not the judiciary.
The abrogated constitution granted the military the right to keep its business enterprises (30% of the Egyptian economy) that feeds and fatten the bellies and bank accounts of its officers and commanders while the soldiers are malnutrition living on tea and paper bread and are as shabby as ever.
The Morsi and the Egyptian people deserve what they got, because none of the political leaders, left, right and the middle had the courage and the will power to clips its wings and put the military in the barracks once and for all.
Morsi and the Brothers got what they deserve. They had their chance and they blew it. As it stands, the military proved once again, it could and will always interfere in the politics of Egypt, remove presidents, dissolve parliament, and dismiss judges as it chose. They are calling the shots. This military that never won a war, is a loser.
Then there is the Egyptian media. A media which I never had faith in from the days of “Arab Voice” and Ahmad Said. A media that lost all credibility’s way back during Nasser days. How can there be a credible independent media if the president of the country is the one that appoints editors of major national newspapers?
The Egyptian media, whether print, television or radio is a “coin operated” media just like a jukebox in an American diner. You insert the coin and you chose the song and dance. Lies, venomous and hate speech is what the Egyptian media is all about.
Hard to believe television presenters, talk show hosts behaving as a “cabaret performers” short of striptease, in bad taste, not different from the trashy television shows and films aired on Egyptian television. Thanks to Turkish dramas there is much less Egyptian trash on Arab televisions these days. The media is another loser.
Now there is the ugly face of religion as we saw on the forum decorating Al-Sisi announcement of his military coupe and revocation of a fledgling democracy, first ever in Egypt 7,000 year’s history. The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and the Coptic Pope have no place in this forum. They should be where they belong in the mosque and in the cathedral, not side by side by self-serving military officer. Both the mosque and the church are losers. And by the way they were never instruments of positive change or reforms. Always at command and will of the ruler. Both never subscribed to “liberation theology” justifying misery, hunger, humiliation and abuse by the state as God’s will, and they too are losers.
Finally all the “secularists” and “Arab nationalists”, liberals and leftists who always sided with military dictators in Syria, in Yemen, in Libya, in Iraq, and yes in Egypt, and always paid lib service to freedom and democracy, to human and civil rights. With the exception of the few, they were silent as hundreds of thousands were jailed, tortured and executed by dictatorial regimes all over the Arab world. They all stand silent as thousands are subject to arbitrary arrest., but then this was their practice all along. Any way Arab liberals, secularist and nationalist never had any credibility in the streets or among the Arab masses and they too are losers.
One would think that this alliance of liberals, leftists, secularists , nationalists, official religious establishment, would be the first to oppose the military coup. No they were the first to jump on top of tanks as the military “delete” the first ever-free election in Egypt. Hypocrisy at its best. But then and I dare say there are no genuine true Arab intellectuals with advocates of democracy and of the people, with a vision for the future. They too are “coin operated”.
What is so surprising even disgusting is the silence of Arabs and Muslims as the Egyptian military and police open fires on early morning worshipers near the Presidential Guard compound killing 53 persons in cold blood.
This is in contrast to the uproar all over the Muslim and Arab world when the American-Israeli settler Rabbi Baruch Goldstein opened fire (February 25, 1994) on Muslim worshipers, performing the early Morning Prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron killing 29 and wounding 125. I guess it is Ok when Arab/Muslim army kills worshipers but it is not Ok when a Jew kills Muslim worshipers. Please some one explains this to me.
Now the anti-Morsi secularists, leftists, liberals and nationalists are calling Morsi supporters “terrorists”. I guess they all need to hire Pam Geller, Daniel Pipe and Steve Emerson and Bibi Netanyahu to be their leaders. Shame all the shame on all of them.
Too bad for Egypt, too bad for the Arabs, for Muslims, for democracy, for freedom and the future, the Egyptian Revolution that inspired hundreds of millions around the world, came to an abrupt end by military tanks. One more reason to say there is nothing great about Egypt.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami, a Palestinian-American and a US Army Veteran (66-68), recipient of the “soldier of the month award and leadership award from the 6th Army NCO Academy, is an international legal and business consultant with over 40 years of international experience, in construction, hospitality services, conservation, and defense, in the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa. Sami is a holder of BA, MPA in Public and Environmental Affairs, Jurist Doctor from Indiana University. While at IU he was elected class president, student government president and chairman of the Indiana Students Association,

Active in peace movement as a co-author of the pre-amble for the One State for All of its people and voluntary service program SalamNation. A frequent contributor on national and international affairs. He resides in the United States.