What did the rulers of Egypt want after the land became theirs and they owned everything? Their grip has returned and their influence is bigger than it ever was before January 2011.
What do they want now after they posed themselves as the necessary choice? They succeeded and took the reins again. The state now decides according to their desires.
Why do they insist on imposing the pre-2010 circumstances? We now have an opposition-less parliament like before. Do they want to repeat the scenario of 2010 with some amendments?
What they do to the youth and Egypt is unacceptable. The youth will become more frustrated facing their tyranny. But this time they may succeed with the hands of youth who rejected all old symbols that may have deceived them once in the past.
Who told you that Mubarak’s mistake was giving a small space for freedoms and that if he had kept suppressing opposition, he would have remained president? Who told you that the West set up a plot to overthrow Mubarak through a tight plan that begins with giving freedoms and ends with taking them away?
Mubarak failed because he unleashed his imagination and wanted to bring back a kingdom to Egypt masked as a Republic. Mubarak failed when he failed to bring social and economic advances to Egyptians. He failed because he let security personnel do what they want without holding anyone accountable. Mubarak failed because he let corruption grow and nepotism thrive, while people lived under the pressure of need and fear and so they had to stand up.
Mubarak failed because he did what you are doing now: wholesale arrests, endless trials and condemnation of death sentences, kidnapping and torture in the most egregious ways, corruption, which you admit but refuse to counter, and the loss of autonomy in the executive, legislative, and judicial authorities. It is the same scene repeating with different faces. Mubarak has failed because he exhausted his last chance and moved too late. Where are your lessons from history?
You have driven the crowds into a state of internal revolution, results you may not see soon but inevitably they will happen. The street will not be assuaged once it erupts. You will then have no choice but to run or await your doom. If another revolution happens, you will not be spared.
Your chances may be slim but they do exist. Your chance to improve the people’s conditions, to allow freedoms, to bring back migratory birds, to secure space for honest opposition, to unite under the state’s flag, and to work for its best if you are honestly working for it. Your chance is there and the helm is yours. Let the youth work freely; let them express their opinions, and guide them if they need guidance. Call upon your supporters and face ideas with ideas, not with rumours and accusations.
Your chances are slim but they exist. Work on improving the living conditions; put corruption back into its rightful place as an exception rather than a rule. Chose those who can help you build Egypt; act befitting the Egyptian revolution. Raise yourself up and flee the wrath of history. Do not wait to end like your predecessors. You may think we are the weaker link but so were we in 2011.
