Tens of people glued to the screens at the office, and millions across Egypt. Streets were deserted, phones went silent, social networks exploded. Apprehension topped with fear was slashing at the nerves of both Shafiq’s and Mosri’s supporters. Silence fell once t he announcement was being made, but Head of Presidential Elections Committee Farouq Sultan, started his seemingly endless speech, holding a stack of papers in his hands and continued reading for over an hour.
Then I suddenly realised that Egyptians would never go back to how things were. I remembered the school kids and college students chanting: Down with SCAF, in the past few months. I remembered the graffiti being repainted over and over on Egypt’s walls and buildings.
I am not sure what would be the difference if Shafiq had won, SCAF is running the country anyway. Their laws and decrees are enforced upon us in any case, we do not even have a parliament to say a word – regardless of the inefficiency of our former members of parliament. The fight for freedom began with the revolution and it will not cease.
The military coup is upon us and it is amazing how Egyptians seem not to notice that it really doesn’t matter who wins…SCAF won already. Since their tanks flocked into Tahrir Square in Feb 2011, they have won. I hope Egyptians do not put too much hope on the winner of the rat race, Dr Morsi. The Muslim Brotherhood is known to swim with the current and they are very good at it. Just as they made deals with Mubarak’s government before – and during – the revolution, they will make deals with SCAF, and this time with even more ground to get what they always wished to have: power to the brothers.
As of now, Egypt is on the verge of being a theocratic military state. The two scenarios that come to mind are the Turkish example and the Algerian one. Algeria’s example is way too dark and bloody, we certainly hope it does not come to that. The Algerian junta mass murdered Islamists when they managed to rule the country, and since then Algeria has been an unstable country.
Comes the – seemingly – brighter Turkish example, which was in our exact spot eighty years ago.The military was ruling Turkey, entangled in every aspect of their society, much like Egypt for the past sixty years. It took Turkey eighty years to merely loosen the army’s grip…but did it really? Did the Turks get any freedom? As far as human rights go, journalists are rounded up systematically in Turkey.
The Muslim Brotherhood will be grateful for the tiny piece of cake they got, but the question remains on what will the pro-revolution Egyptians do? When the day comes and they realise that the Brothers are not really democratic? When they begin crushing personal freedoms? When they fail to rule? Will Egyptians take to the streets again? Will SCAF crush them with tanks for the Muslim Brotherhood? Or maybe Shafiq and his supporters will bring them candy as he once suggested? Will Tahrir be a grave for the brave, or a big mosque closed in the faces of the freedom fighters of this country? It is all in the hands of SCAF, once again and for a while to come.
SCAF put all their power and force to tame the revolution, they did succeed, but this scene I see infront of me, of Egyptians glued to the TV patiently waiting for an hour of boring speech to know what SCAF decided to do with us, is the essence of the revolution success.
