Egyptians Fear army rulers acting as new Mubaraks

Malta Independent Thursday, 21 July 2011, 00:00 Last update: about 14 years ago

The soldiers shouted, Raise your head high, you’re Egyptian

It was one of the most inspiring chants by young protesters during Egypt’s revolution, encapsulating the newfound pride of a people rising up after a lifetime of humiliation under authoritarian rule.

From the soldiers, it was a taunt.

They barked it over and over at an activist lying belly down on the ground, stripped to his boxers, his hands and right leg tied behind his back. Each time Ramy Issam obeyed, he said, a soldier would stomp his head back onto the marble of the courtyard in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

To the youth who led the protests and to a growing number of Egyptians, the secretive council of top generals that now rules the country is looking too much like the regime it replaced — authoritarian, ready to use brutal tactics and out of touch with the nation’s aspirations.

The military, which was greeted with cheers when it pushed out longtime president Hosni Mubarak in February, has proclaimed its embrace of the revolution and democratic elections later this year. But protesters have returned to Tahrir Square, holding a sit-in since July 8, to complain that the military has hijacked the transition and has been reluctant to purge members of the old regime.

Reported abuses add a darker undertone to those complaints. There have been multiple reports of torture of detainees. To an unprecedented extent, the army has also been bringing civilians before military courts, notorious for their swift rulings with little chance for defense. In five months, more than 10,000 civilians have been put on military trial, including protesters, activists and at least one journalist who wrote an article critical of the army, according to rights groups tracking the detentions.

The irony of Egypt’s revolution was that it put one of the pillars of Mubarak’s regime in control of the process of dismantling that regime.

The contradiction has caused much of the friction since Mubarak’s Feb. 11 fall, as the young activists who led the uprising push for dramatic democratic change in the face of what they see as resistance from the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, made up of generals in their 60s to 80s, all appointed by Mubarak.

The council says it is committed to change and that it consults frequently with all political factions. But the council has rarely amended its transition plan or moved against former regime figures without the pressure of new street demonstrations — and even then its concessions have been partial.

And an attitude seen as paternalistic has rankled revolutionaries whose uprising was in great part against the “we will tell you what’s best” tone of Mubarak’s regime.

In response to the new protest camp in Tahrir, council member Maj. Gen. Mohsen el-Fangari went on state TV last week to repeat vows to hand over power after elections. But he also sternly warned that the military will not put up with “deviations” by protesters that “harm the nation’s interests.” As he spoke, he wagged his finger at the camera.

The scolding brought open ridicule. Newspaper cartoons depicted parents using the general’s speech to frighten naughty children.

Few believe that the council, led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, wants to directly rule beyond the election. But protesters suspect it aims to keep as much as the old regime in place as it can and preserve the military’s own status as the ultimate arbiters in the country.

Since the 1952 army coup that toppled the monarchy, the military has suffused Egypt’s regime. All four presidents in this country of 80 million have come from the military. Generals were given lucrative and important jobs on retirement, including as provincial governors, mayors, heads of state-owned companies and ambassadors.

Other forces dominated the state’s workings, particularly Mubarak’s ruling party and the powerful internal security forces. The military stood above the fray, content with its perks, including billions in US aid. Criticism of it was unheard of — any news article about it had to be cleared by military censors, so most media stopped trying to report on it.

After Mubarak’s fall, the military council declared itself the “protector” of the revolution, capitalising on its decision not to fire on protesters during the 18-day uprising.

But as the country’s politicians debate what the status of the military should be in the new Egypt, activists warn it isn’t necessarily a force for democracy.

“We are repeatedly told that the army in Egypt is great because it does not do what the armies of Syria and Libya are doing to regime opponents there,” said activist Mona Seif el-Islam. “It is not true. The army here is just as dirty but in a different way.”

Amar Bhidé is a professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and author of A Call for Judgment.