By Rania Al-Malky
CAIRO: As I dropped off my 75-year-old father near the back of the Egyptian Antiquities Museum on his way to attend the “Friday of Victory” gathering at Tahrir Square, scenes from the seismic three weeks that changed the face of Egypt’s history hit me: hundreds of thousands demanding in unison the end of a corrupt regime; masses of peaceful protesters brutally attacked first by riot police, then by regime thugs on horseback and camels; successive concessions made by the ousted president, until on Feb. 11, 2011, in a dramatic and swift end to this Egyptian saga of pain and perseverance, the president was gone. But this was only the beginning.
What a long way we’ve come. Only four weeks ago the very notion of such great numbers congregating in a central public space was not only inconceivable, but life-threatening. The all-too-familiar scenes of police and plainclothes thugs beating protesters or attacking them with teargas and water cannon, were commonplace. As push came to shove and protesters overwhelmed security in numbers and resolve, the rubber bullets and snipers using live ammunition appeared, collectively claiming the lives of over 350 Egyptians and injuring over 5,000.
But on Friday morning, there was none of that. Whole families flocked to the epicenter of our valiant youth-driven revolution to remember the martyrs, knowing that their safety was no longer at stake, that a new dawn has lit up Egypt’s skies and that the fear has gone. The organizers also reiterated their demands to free Egypt from the clutches of an unelected cabinet and to release all political detainees, among other demands.
On my way to Tahrir, I also saw the birth of a new spirit of volunteerism and community cohesion, with teenagers, both boys and girls, cleaning the streets and even painting the pavements.
While such scenes have become common, unleashing an immeasurable willingness to participate and rebuild Egypt immediately after Mubarak stepped down, other scenes of chaos and anger have also emerged over the past week.
It was only natural that sector-specific protests would break out in the days following the toppling of Mubarak and everything his regime stood for, with the hitherto downtrodden, marginalized class of civil service employees and laborers emboldened by promises of reform and an end to corruption, finally speaking out.
The question is: how far are these protests serving the political goals of the revolution? And what’s more, as one member of the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution told BBC Arabic radio, how far are these synchronized, even violent protests targeting vital sectors like the banking sector, an attempt to tarnish the revolution, or even contribute to the birth of a counter-revolution by elements whose very existence thrived on maintaining the status quo?
Although it’s understandable that underpaid employees would seize the moment to make their demands, the way some have gone about it is not only suspect, but inappropriate and will ultimately backfire on the society as a whole.
Employers must organize themselves, choose their leaders and address their management in an orderly, lawful fashion, creating committees to monitor their respective employers’ responses and escalate their action if nothing is done within a specified time-frame. The whole idea that everything must change overnight and that we’ll wake up in the morning to a prosperous, developed country, free of corruption and a haven of social justice is a myth.
For Egypt to change in the direction we want it to, and to ensure that this noble revolution is not aborted, we must each play our part to guarantee that the economy does not collapse, while at the same time supporting those who led the revolution in voicing our political demands and in maintaining pressure and monitoring progress on the fronts of political and constitutional reform.
This is the time to work harder than ever to rebuild our country. It is the time to evoke the work ethic that has been dormant in our national culture throughout years of apathy and despair (understandably caused by a deep-seated feeling of indignation) to the extent one CEO told Daily News Egypt in a previous interview that a 2010 survey on absenteeism in the garment industry revealed that 10 to 12 percent of the workforce was absent on normal days and up to 18 percent in pre-seasonal days.
These attitudes must change a new Egypt can only emerge by the hard work of new Egyptians; Egyptians who will continue to fight for their political and social rights but at the same time rebuild their country and sustain the momentum of the revolution to bring about complete reform.
Rania Al-Malky is the Chief Editor of Daily News Egypt.
