Various factions heard what the Egyptian Youth was against than what it is for. The uprising was to bring about the vague virtues of dignity and freedom without defining either one. So when they said to the Muslim Brothers “this is not the Egypt that we will settle for, our Egypt will be different and that everyone should be treated the same,” the West called that a “military coup,” and some countries continue to call it that way. These forget that Egypt invented the “Rule of Law” and several civic Institutions. Youth wants to resurrect Egypt’s glorious past but it needs to be told how. New serious leaders need to emerge, discipline the youth and teach it how to develop teams, listen to the opposing points of view, respect others, recognize one’s bounds, have the right attitude, develop a steady sense of direction, learn to use its brains not its emotions, quit believing and propagating conspiracy tales, become responsible for its own future and admit that building new habits takes time, effort and perseverance. To reverse the damage caused by decades of expediency and ignorance (if not malice) is going to be hard.
It never helps to have more than ninety parties in a country that reeled under autocratic or theocratic rule for decades. In such an environment the most organized wins. Unfortunately the Muslim Brothers and the Salafists are the best financed and most organized. It is not a great feat to relinquish what the youth died to accomplish for these ideology driven backward looking divisive groups. Sisi will come to power because Egyptians loathed the Muslim Brothers. We have to remember that the military has lots of independence granted by the new constitution, that many in the military did not want their leader to be in the line of this political fire and that El-Sisi is now losing some of his initial spectacular popularity. On the other hand most Egyptians believe that without a strongman, the country will not be able to deal with an increasing poverty, the prevailing chaos, a rotten education system, a creaking Health-care, a law system that was abused by many, and a vacuum of lack of civic Institutions or functioning political parties.
I get lots of e-mails saying that Sisi will have to put more Egyptians in jail to achieve stability and security in the country; we have to remember that perhaps as much as 20% of Egyptians belong to the Muslim Brothers, their sympathizers or other Islamist and Salafist groups. It will be a grave and very costly mistake to put that many in jail. Law-breakers deserve to be punished. However, it is my view that non-violent prisoners will have to be pardoned by Sisi. Silencing many will surely backfire and will serve as a reminder of the oppressive military rule of generations past.
As to the devout Copts (I am one of them) I say that we must shed the image of passivity and complaining even if our experiences continue to be painful. We should become the story of courage, perseverance and enduring hope even in the face of adversity. Persecution against Copts will not vanish overnight, and Sisi (the devout Muslim) appears intent at delivering fairness, equality and progress for all Egyptians. Religions never prevented Egyptians to love each other, enjoy the goodness of God’s gifts and be generous to each other. All of us have to lend a hand to El-Sisi as he embarks on this difficult journey.
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Professor Basta, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, FACP, FACC, FCCP, FAHA…