The world currently watches with curiosity and a lot of fear at what is happening within Egypt. With the protests that happened earlier this year ushering in a schizophrenic military regime aimed at sustaining peace in the country and holding back turmoil whilst looking to eventually hold elections. The Supreme Council of Armed Forces has been bent on keeping peace and resenting pressure to hold elections and take into account public liberties, instead cracking down on those within Egypt wanting to criticize the slow pace towards elections. According to Jackson Diehl at The Washington Post, there have been a number of actions by the regime which include bloggers being threatened for criticizing the military council and thousands sentenced to prison by military courts. It seems that individual freedom of speech to a given extent has been challenged, whilst Egypt continues to make steps towards elections planned for November this year. All this leaves me wondering to what extent the illiberal nature to Egypt's pace to democracy might turn Egypt's future as a democracy rotten. But first let me explain, what do I mean when I say 'illiberal'?
Freedoms that are often associated with democracy, have in the past to a given extent been discussed as though they are an inherent attribute of democracy, like suddenly holding elections makes your society liberal. As Fareed Zakaria wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs back in 1997 however, the application of democracy can still leave a country without liberalism, particularly if a countries transition to democracy doesn't bring forward individual freedoms before rather than after elections are first held. As he puts it, the process to pursue freedoms after an election can be tedious, with those in power unwilling to give it up to the people, particularly in a constitution. This kind of logic could translate over to Egypt, with a military regime handing over power to a parliament and/or president whom remains uninterested in acknowledging individual freedoms, like those of free speech and peaceful protest to a full extent, with the want instead to counter economic and civil turmoil in protests. This isn't the only way that elections could hurt civil liberties however. If elections result in a divided parliament where power resides after elections, then the writing of a constitution could become difficult with parties unable to agree on what a constitution should include, leading to a stale mate and again halting progress. All this concern raises a further question: What steps should be taken to keep Egypt on track to a bright democratic and liberal summer, with the acknowledgement of social and civil liberties and elections.
The Egyptian people have plenty to be frustrated with, with Amro Hassan for WORLD NOW noting that protests have again rocked Cairo as people express their frustration with the military. The military has been trying to meet push for shove however, threatening those that protest. However those whom have been protesting, have been demanding social justice and acknowledgement of individual freedoms, as AFP reports. If the current military leadership of Egypt sees threatening the people as a means to sustain the path to democracy, then it would seem that the the Supreme Council of Armed Forces lacks a strong conception of liberalism. The Supreme Council of Armed Forces needs to acknowledge that in light of the current protests, holding elections in November isn't going to magically get everyone off the streets and back to work. The demands of the people are not just for elections. Egypt needs a strong notion of freedoms of the people, and a notion of where power will reside following elections before elections, not to risk a mess either from the whomever gets elected, or from the Egyptian people who will challenge the legitimacy of whomever is elected because of the lack of civil liberties before elections. The Supreme Council of Armed Forces needs to change its behavior and mind set if it wants to get the Egyptian people off the streets.
I think that what Egypt needs right now, isn't a constitution necessarily, but the notion that it has an invisible one, where the current Supreme Council of Armed Forces and whoever comes to power after, understand that the current revolution pends on the idea of freedom, upon many others. Any leadership that ignores freedom is going to find that the revolution won't move from the streets, and will remain, to the pain of any economic and political progress for the country. Therefore, to bring about a summer in Egypt, leadership in Egypt needs to take steps to bind the rights of the people into all actions they take, and set an example for future leadership in Egypt to follow. This should include a notion of what freedoms the people should have that can soon be written into a constitution in the future - when the time is right. Egypt has made so much progress already, even with the current backlash from the Supreme Council of Armed Forces. Egypt now has a much more free press, and a number of different civil groups pinned to the idea of democracy, but also political and economic progress in the country. It needs to utilize this passion, and part of that will come with democracy but part of that also comes with acknowledging the voice of the people, to as full an extent as one can. If any Egyptian leadership wants to avoid a cold dark winter from the Arab Spring in Egypt, they need to embody the change the people of Egypt seek, before an election, as much as after.
