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| Egypt's latest revolutionary act was profoundly democratic | Egypt's latest revolutionary act was profoundly democratic |
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| The cover of the current issue of Time magazine labels Egyptians as "the world's best protesters" and "the world's worst democrats". The ignorance of this cover highlights a key question that is not – in the current climate of frenzied analyses of Egypt – being asked: is it more democratic to elect a dictator or to topple one? Democracy, at the very least, means having an independent judiciary, citizen rights, freedom of the press and transparent elections. Of those four pillars, Egypt only had the elections. | The cover of the current issue of Time magazine labels Egyptians as "the world's best protesters" and "the world's worst democrats". The ignorance of this cover highlights a key question that is not – in the current climate of frenzied analyses of Egypt – being asked: is it more democratic to elect a dictator or to topple one? Democracy, at the very least, means having an independent judiciary, citizen rights, freedom of the press and transparent elections. Of those four pillars, Egypt only had the elections. |
| Mohamed Morsi was elected because he was the lesser of two evils. He stood in Tahrir Square and promised he could deliver the goals of the revolution. Then his government imprisoned, raped, tortured and killed its citizens like every Egyptian government before it. And now he has fallen. | Mohamed Morsi was elected because he was the lesser of two evils. He stood in Tahrir Square and promised he could deliver the goals of the revolution. Then his government imprisoned, raped, tortured and killed its citizens like every Egyptian government before it. And now he has fallen. |
| Elections alone will never be enough because there is a historical and geographical context in Egypt that determines what is and isn't possible through the ballot box. | Elections alone will never be enough because there is a historical and geographical context in Egypt that determines what is and isn't possible through the ballot box. |
| The current Egyptian state structure is based on layers of colonial and military history, each building on the last to place the state above the people. Mehmed Ali ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1848, creating a system of private land ownership, Egypt's extensive bureaucracy and today's army. The French destroyed, redesigned and rebuilt villages to create, codify and entrench class strata. The British centralised gubernatorial and mayoral appointments under the ministry of the interior. Nasser and the "free officers" created a massive security apparatus to watch over their "revolution from above". Anwar Sadat's unregulated infitah opened up the country to outside investment, creating a new class of business elites who matured comfortably into the crony capitalists of the Mubarak years. Hosni Mubarak massively expanded the police state, removing direct power from the army but pacifying ranking generals with a system of "loyalty allowances". | The current Egyptian state structure is based on layers of colonial and military history, each building on the last to place the state above the people. Mehmed Ali ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1848, creating a system of private land ownership, Egypt's extensive bureaucracy and today's army. The French destroyed, redesigned and rebuilt villages to create, codify and entrench class strata. The British centralised gubernatorial and mayoral appointments under the ministry of the interior. Nasser and the "free officers" created a massive security apparatus to watch over their "revolution from above". Anwar Sadat's unregulated infitah opened up the country to outside investment, creating a new class of business elites who matured comfortably into the crony capitalists of the Mubarak years. Hosni Mubarak massively expanded the police state, removing direct power from the army but pacifying ranking generals with a system of "loyalty allowances". |
| And so, by 2011, 200 years of successive policies designed to concentrate power and suppress political possibility had evolved into an impenetrable and unaccountable cycle of money and influence between a handful of key institutions, soldiers and businessmen closest to the ruling family. How could democracy – when proposed by this machine of the deep state – arrive neatly with the ballot boxes nine months later? | And so, by 2011, 200 years of successive policies designed to concentrate power and suppress political possibility had evolved into an impenetrable and unaccountable cycle of money and influence between a handful of key institutions, soldiers and businessmen closest to the ruling family. How could democracy – when proposed by this machine of the deep state – arrive neatly with the ballot boxes nine months later? |
| Just as Egypt's economic, military and social structures were forged by colonial schema of oppression, so its position within the "international community" of countries and corporations is confined to one of neocolonial subjugation and collusion. | Just as Egypt's economic, military and social structures were forged by colonial schema of oppression, so its position within the "international community" of countries and corporations is confined to one of neocolonial subjugation and collusion. |
| Two brief examples. First, as a reward for signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, Egypt became the second-largest beneficiary of US military aid in the world. Vast sums poured into the military's budget in exchange for peace with Israel, the repression of the Palestinians and keeping the Suez canal open for business. In 2005, the Mubarak government began selling natural gas to Israel, supplying it with 30% of its total fuel needs at below market rates. This continued until last year, when the deal was suspended under intense popular pressure. Also in 2012, Egypt began importing natural gas for the first time to meet a rising domestic demand that is so heavily subsidised it consumes 25% of the national budget. But 93% of that is consumed by the richest fifth of the population. | Two brief examples. First, as a reward for signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, Egypt became the second-largest beneficiary of US military aid in the world. Vast sums poured into the military's budget in exchange for peace with Israel, the repression of the Palestinians and keeping the Suez canal open for business. In 2005, the Mubarak government began selling natural gas to Israel, supplying it with 30% of its total fuel needs at below market rates. This continued until last year, when the deal was suspended under intense popular pressure. Also in 2012, Egypt began importing natural gas for the first time to meet a rising domestic demand that is so heavily subsidised it consumes 25% of the national budget. But 93% of that is consumed by the richest fifth of the population. |
| So the state is currently spending more on subsidising the rich's fuel than it does on health and education combined. It has racked up $5bn of debt to at least 42 different oil and gas companies, and up to $15bn to banks and other ministries in the process. Egypt is now out of cash for imports and domestic alternatives are needed. Enter Dana Gas, a company whose headquarters are in United Arab Emirates, now fracking in the Nile Valley, a possible side effect of which could be the poisoning of the Nile, which 98% of Egyptians live alongside and depend on for their water. This causes tensions with downstream neighbours who have historically been unable to exploit the river as effectively as Egypt. Consequently, Ethiopia presses ahead with its Renaissance Dam project, whose as yet unknown effects have been the source of such a public outcry that Ethiopia became Egypt's main security concern in Morsi's final months in office, instead of Israel. | |
| Second, Egypt, blessed with fertile land, regular irrigation water and limitless sun, was a net exporter of food and textiles before British colonialists shifted crop production towards cotton to feed the mills driving their industrial revolution, and by 1914 cotton accounted for 92% of the total value of Egyptian exports. With the capitalist boom of the 1970s, the wealthier classes began eating more meat, domestic crops were diverted to feed livestock and an import-dependency on USAid began, to "feed the poor", whose bread was now being eaten by the rich's cows. Today, Egypt is the world's largest importer of wheat and lives permanently on the edge of a food crisis. | Second, Egypt, blessed with fertile land, regular irrigation water and limitless sun, was a net exporter of food and textiles before British colonialists shifted crop production towards cotton to feed the mills driving their industrial revolution, and by 1914 cotton accounted for 92% of the total value of Egyptian exports. With the capitalist boom of the 1970s, the wealthier classes began eating more meat, domestic crops were diverted to feed livestock and an import-dependency on USAid began, to "feed the poor", whose bread was now being eaten by the rich's cows. Today, Egypt is the world's largest importer of wheat and lives permanently on the edge of a food crisis. |
| To try to stave off a repeat of the 1977 bread riots, the state underwrites a vast, inefficient and corrupt subsidy system while continuing to divert domestic production away from staple foods towards export crops to produce hard currency to service interest payments on international loans taken out to buy grain in the first place. And if Egypt's $38.8bn debt wasn't burdensome enough, successive post-revolution governments continue to hold talks with the IMF in the hope of securing a $4.8bn loan, whose approval would require further "structural adjustments" towards export crops, such as cut flowers, for European markets. | To try to stave off a repeat of the 1977 bread riots, the state underwrites a vast, inefficient and corrupt subsidy system while continuing to divert domestic production away from staple foods towards export crops to produce hard currency to service interest payments on international loans taken out to buy grain in the first place. And if Egypt's $38.8bn debt wasn't burdensome enough, successive post-revolution governments continue to hold talks with the IMF in the hope of securing a $4.8bn loan, whose approval would require further "structural adjustments" towards export crops, such as cut flowers, for European markets. |
| These domestic and international regimes have created a matrix of control, corruption and inequality that cuts through every aspect of Egyptian life. The ballot box would not have given any new president the authority or the power to seriously tackle any of these issues. | These domestic and international regimes have created a matrix of control, corruption and inequality that cuts through every aspect of Egyptian life. The ballot box would not have given any new president the authority or the power to seriously tackle any of these issues. |
| Elections can be a tool through which social change is attempted. They can also be a very strong sedative. The decrease in voter turnout from 54% for the parliamentary elections in November 2011 to 33% for the constitutional referendum a year later is extremely telling. | Elections can be a tool through which social change is attempted. They can also be a very strong sedative. The decrease in voter turnout from 54% for the parliamentary elections in November 2011 to 33% for the constitutional referendum a year later is extremely telling. |
| Morsi's winning of the presidential elections gave him a degree of legitimacy. But legitimacy without consent is meaningless and the Muslim Brotherhood did such a disastrous job of governing that consent was lost within a year. Morsi broke specific electoral promises to build a coalition government led by a non-partisan figure, to write a consensus-based constitution and to make legislative reforms of the state. His cabinet of choice shunned initiatives and offers of help from civil society on labour issues, police reform, anti-torture work, the economy and energy. When Egyptians took to the streets in their millions it was a revolutionary act that was also, since it keeps coming up, profoundly democratic. The Tamarod movement was, in essence, a recall vote – something that might have been worked into the new constitution if Egyptians had truly been involved in the writing of it. | Morsi's winning of the presidential elections gave him a degree of legitimacy. But legitimacy without consent is meaningless and the Muslim Brotherhood did such a disastrous job of governing that consent was lost within a year. Morsi broke specific electoral promises to build a coalition government led by a non-partisan figure, to write a consensus-based constitution and to make legislative reforms of the state. His cabinet of choice shunned initiatives and offers of help from civil society on labour issues, police reform, anti-torture work, the economy and energy. When Egyptians took to the streets in their millions it was a revolutionary act that was also, since it keeps coming up, profoundly democratic. The Tamarod movement was, in essence, a recall vote – something that might have been worked into the new constitution if Egyptians had truly been involved in the writing of it. |
| The world is lecturing Egypt about democracy. But, as the American historian and activist Howard Zinn wrote, "protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it". | The world is lecturing Egypt about democracy. But, as the American historian and activist Howard Zinn wrote, "protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it". |
| Bread, freedom, social justice. It is possible. The solution, though, is not simply representative democracy. Egypt requires, at the very least, a radical overhaul of the state, the dismantling of the military's supra-state, the democratisation and decentralisation of local politics, extensive land reforms, co-operative partnerships with neighbouring countries, a progressive policy on Israel and a new set of international political and business relationships that begin with cancelling the debt accrued dishonestly by dictators. | Bread, freedom, social justice. It is possible. The solution, though, is not simply representative democracy. Egypt requires, at the very least, a radical overhaul of the state, the dismantling of the military's supra-state, the democratisation and decentralisation of local politics, extensive land reforms, co-operative partnerships with neighbouring countries, a progressive policy on Israel and a new set of international political and business relationships that begin with cancelling the debt accrued dishonestly by dictators. |
| These goals will never be achieved by the corrupt and compromised elite currently playing politics. These goals cannot be achieved in isolation – the domestic and international regime are so intertwined that everything has to be fought at once. The Egyptian revolution must join with the revolutions that began across the world in 2011 and are still going today. The road ahead is long and hard, but it must continue. | These goals will never be achieved by the corrupt and compromised elite currently playing politics. These goals cannot be achieved in isolation – the domestic and international regime are so intertwined that everything has to be fought at once. The Egyptian revolution must join with the revolutions that began across the world in 2011 and are still going today. The road ahead is long and hard, but it must continue. |
| • This article was amended on 18 July 2013. It originally stated Dana Gas is a US company, when its headquarters are in fact in the United Arab Emirates. This has now been corrected |