By Alya Essam
In an unforeseen move, Mohamed Morsy has decided to reinstate parliament. Previously dissolved by a Constitutional Court rule, today the Islamist-dominated legislative body is back up and running.
The move has sparked much debate. From day one, Morsy has vowed to cut ties with his Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and measure up to the expectations of many citizens to be the ‘president for all Egyptians’.
Today, it seems that the Muslim Brotherhood’s sugarcoated statements are beginning to taste bitter.
Many are asking if Morsy is challenging the Supreme Council of Armed Forces and the Constitutional Court by taking this decision?
Is he backtracking on his pledges to form a civil state?
Will he even work with the authorities that permit him to take this step?
After almost a month of preventing parliamentarians entering the People’s Assembly, Morsy has reopened its doors.
By doing this, he is accepting to enter a probable turf war, before even completing one month in office.
For many Egyptians, and almost all liberal and secular political powers, the parliament, which emerged from elections rigged by Islamists’ violations, must be re-elected.
Morsy’s move dashes the hopes of liberal political powers to re-establish a more representative parliament than the once-dissolved body. However, I wouldn’t call the initiative extremely unfair.
The president did say that new elections would be held once a constitution is in place, so the Islamist dominated parliament shouldn’t hopefully last for too long.
But the question here is how soon the new constitution will be born, when it is showing so many signs remaining to be hard work for the assembly?
On Tuesday, parliamentarians will enjoy sitting back in their old seats to watch the latest tit-for-tat power struggle between Morsy and his Muslim Brotherhood on one hand and SCAF and judiciary on the other.
SCAF’s room of maneuver has now been minimised as authorities have switched loyalties to Morsy.
If there is drama to be seen, it shall now evolve into elongated court squabbles.
Speaking about new parliamentarian elections, can we say that the president’s decision to conduct early elections compromises the court’s ruling that the Supreme Electoral Committee violated regulations?
Normal citizens are already oversaturated by a mood of confusion.
Is Egypt ready for yet another phase of political perplexity?
After the country has celebrated its first president who ended the dark 30 years of Mubarak, protests demonstrate against Morsy’s decision and signal possible instability once again.
For many, Morsy will never take off his Muslim Brotherhood outfit and will continue to back his group’s convictions and beliefs.
But this time, Morsy shouldn’t fail to remember the very high hopes that many Egyptians have during for his four-year term.
Couldn’t the president be more careful before heading to a further head-on clash?
