CAIRO: Kefaya demonstrators carried a makeshift coffin, draped in black, with an image of the Maglis El Shaab (People’s Assembly) building on one side and a picture of President Hosni Mubarak on the other, as part of their march commemorating one year of active protesting.
The demonstration kicked off with roughly 100 people on the grounds of the Supreme Judiciary Courthouse, site of Kefaya’s first protest. The group, which expanded to include more than 500 marchers, ranging from devout activists to people who joined in from the sidelines, then proceeded to walk across downtown Cairo to the Maglis El Shaab headquarters.
Built primarily on the steam of anti-war and anti-Israel protests to take place in Egypt in early 2003, the Kefaya (Enough) movement developed as the result of several activists, some representing opposition parties – some of which gained recognition only over the past year, who worked to expose problems on a local level.
“The Popular Committee for the Support of the Palestinian Intifada was the first group to go on the streets without government permission, explained Gasser Abdel-Razek, an activist with the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and one of the founders of the Popular Committee for the Support of the Palestinian Intifada. “The largest demonstrations ever were organized by the anti-war movement, which consisted of mainly the same activists of the Intifada support committee, more than a year before Kefaya came into existence.There were between 20 and 50,000 demonstrators then.
The culture of protest caught on, but what Kefaya had that most other groups didn’t is a catchy slogan.
“The credit I would give Kefaya is choosing a catchy slogan, and with that slogan, getting straight to the head of state, Mubarak,which was being done, but never caught the ear of the public, said Abdel-Razek.
“Kefaya as a word – enough – you can say ‘Kefaya whatever!’ It’s actually a very intelligent name that communicates the emotional aspect of the political move, explained Khaled Galal, an advertising executive for Brand Culture.
The movement caught on and spurred several subgroups, including Youth for Change, Doctors for Change and Workers for Change. Kefaya itself has a students division which regularly participates in protests in full force. Members of political parties, such as the veteran Al Wafd party, the new El-Ghad party under Ayman Nour, currently on trial for the alleged forgery of election documents, Marxist Tagammu and the Muslim Brotherhood joined in as the Kefaya movement, while secular, summed up the overall message of the opposition.
“We broke this taboo surrounding the name of the president and we fought for the right to demonstrate on the streets without permission, said George Ishaq, leader of Kefaya. “We are celebrating one year of the right to demonstrate and, at the same time,we are protesting the fraud and irregularities that happened during this past election period.
Last May, protests turned violent following the referendum to amend the constitution allowing for multi-candidate presidential elections. Numerous reports of harassment, particularly against women and journalists, spawned weekly protests against the incidents which took place on “Black Wednesday, as it was called. Protestors wore black,held candlelight vigils and frequently demonstrated on the steps of the Journalists’ Syndicate. A women’s movement called “The Streets are Ours developed as outspoken women of the community demanded that their government protect them.
“There is a tyranny in this country and so together we march through the streets saying we will not stand for it anymore, insisted Mohamed Abdel Kouddous, Journalists’ Syndicate representative and Muslim Brotherhood supporter.
Many Kefaya members credit the movement for removing the barriers that previously limited the openness of the Muslim Brotherhood in past parliamentary elections. The banned but tolerated Islamists won a record 88 seats in parliament over the past month, and the group maintains that had there not been interferences from police and government, they could have won the majority.
As the diverse group which makes up the Kefayamovement marched the streets of Cairo yesterday – wailing at drums, chanting on loudspeakers,waving their trademark yellow banners with red inscription and singing songs of criticism – they admitted that the road to change is still a long ways away.
“We broke the culture of fear on the Egyptian streets, said Mohammed Oof, a reporter for El Shaab newspaper and active member of Kefaya. “Our message has sunk in to the soil, but there is still a lot of work to be done in Egypt. There are no freedoms here.
“I am here for my kids – because I don’t want them to live in this country if in 15 years, it is the same as now, said Rania Fahmy. “I think protests are not the only way we should be going about change, though.There should be community outreach programs.We should be more organized if we really want to accomplish something big.
“What we have accomplished is small compared to what the country needs, insisted Laila Soueif, a math professor at Cairo University. “Prisoners are still being tortured, there is long imprisonment without trial, deterioration of society, deterioration of the environment. Demonstrations without cooperation does not accomplish anything.
