NOVANEWS
The problems of Egypt go beyond a single President or his VP.
And the rot goes much deeper, just considering two aspects should make that clear, State violence and economic power.
Violence against ordinary Egyptians has been a fact of life from before the time of Sadat’s repression in the 1970s/80s. There have been decades of violence, censorship and State interference. Most economic changes since the 1970s have benefited a very small minority of rich Egyptian families, the military, security services and their allies.
Fixing Egypt, and offering ordinary Egyptians a taste of freedom and more importantly a degree of financial security, is going to be very difficult.
I do not see it succeeding without a real and concious process of wealth distribution, from the corrupt elites to the people of Egypt.
That necessary change seems unlikely to occur.
For the moment the army is in charge, they have a conflicted role. On the one hand as instruments of change and on the other, how they propped up Mubarak’s repressive regime.
We should not forget they were the major backers of Mubarak and without them he could not rule.
So the question is, what now and will the Army manage to bring in any real change?
I am not so sure, as the vested interests in the ruling clique are against real reform, against real change.
They might usher in a new constitution with all of the trappings of bourgeois democracy, even initiate the first proper elections for over 60 years, but will that be sufficient?
The deep seated problems of Egypt go further than elections: endemic corruption, a lack of development, an almost non-existent welfare state and infrastructure, and generational poverty are just a few of those tangible issues that have to be dealt with.
Mubarak is history, and not before time, but let us wish Egyptians good luck with their struggles, the real problems facing Egyptians are ahead.
One thought on “It is More Than Mu-Barak”
For many years the British mandate authority in Egypt killed the brains of the ordinary Egyptian human being. The British poured Hashish and other narcotics into the hands of the ordinary Egyptian and turned them into Zambees.That is when they treated them like animals and they took it. Even during Sadaat and Mubarak things didn’y change much. I was in Egypt just last summer and things were the same as 50 or 60 years ago. Nothing has changed…! It will take a long time to wake up the people of Egypt. The “beoble” like the Egyptians will say. The letter “P” doesn’t exist in Arabic!