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09 February 2011 By Saeed
Qureshi There is a basic flaw in mounting
the prodigious protests at
Egypt's
Tehrir Square and elsewhere. This flaw or the
underlying reason for the protests not being
efficacious and result oriented is that the protestors
have refrained from storming the presidential palace
where the villainous president resides and is
directing the counter measures. A person who claims to be a past
master in obstinacy and having done a PhD in
stubbornness would not bow out even if the entire
Egypt goes up in flames. His defiance to the will of
the Egyptian people must to be broken at all cost. He
is unmoved despite many deaths and casualties, not to
mention the colossal economic downturn.
The
French Revolution (1789) triumphed
because the charged protestors attacked the Bastille
prison and engaged in a violent battling with the
government troops and ultimately prevailed. The attack
on Bastille was followed by sporadic yet consistent
ransacking and pillaging of the mansions, palaces and
well fortified citadels of the aristocratic and elite
members. The replica of the degenerated French society
can be seen in the present day Egypt, in the garb of
democracy, lorded over by a most morbid and brutal
military junta in tandem with parasitic wealthy
sections. The historic
French Revolution had four challengers
namely; monarchy, feudalism, papacy and aristocracy.
These three exploitative institutions were obliterated
through a relentless and sustained assault launched by
a truly mass movement. In the case of Egypt it is
primarily the military straitjacket that has to be
broken to be replaced by a genuine and unadulterated
democratic order chosen by the people. It suits the beleaguered despot
and his cunning cohorts to see the protestors wear out
by a prolonged agitation ultimately resulting in the
fatigue and weariness not to continue the movement any
further. The signs of fatigue, disheartening and
perhaps disenchantment bordering on dejection are
visible by the shrinking number of protestors holding
on at the Tehrir Square battleground. Those who resisted their hunger
and thrust and sleep for ten days now are seen asleep
with the same attires and dresses they were wearing
when they entered the arena bubbling up with a new
hope and jubilation for a stupendous change that
seemed to be around the corner. The leadership of the crusading
protestors seems to be lacking the guts as hard and
uncompromising bargainers. They appear to be deficient
in the fire of rhetoric, the thunder of a high
sounding hyperbole, resounding eloquence and the
oratorical bellicosity to propel and keep the tempo,
momentum and dynamism on the boiling point. The movement that started with a
big bang is now dissipating with less zeal and gusto
that if kept alive on high pitch and sustained
vibrancy could keep fueling the fire of rebellion and
revolt against a diabolic regime. The assemblage of the protestors
has no central leadership or conspicuous figurehead
leader who can coordinate and marshal the demands and
aspirations of the revolting people of Egypt in a loud
and aggressive manner. The disparate groups raise
slogans and keep motivating and stimulating the
courage and passion and fury of the enraged
protestors. Yet that is not the substitute for a
transitional council or body of the frontline leaders
and commanders who can keep the spirits and stamina of
the protestors in the highest gear and save it from
falling to the lower degrees. The crux of the masses movement
against a highly incompetent, murderous and corrupt
coterie of rulers is that it should be replaced with a
civilian transitional or interim government of the so
called national unity government. Before it can be
done, the mastermind of all the sufferings and
degradations inflicted upon the wonderful people of
Egypt,
Hosni
Mubarak must vacate the presidency.
Along with him the entire military paraphernalia
including the ministers most of whom are the former
army generals must resign and leave the power. As being misleadingly dished by
the official circles, there will not be a power vacuum
with the dismantling of the sitting government. In
simple words it should be the civilian leadership
taking over from the military leaders. That
arrangement would pave way for a complete break from
the gory or bleak past that have made Egypt as an
outpost for safeguarding the interests of colonial
powers most notably
Israel for
the past three decades. Egypt under Hosni Mubarak has
ignobly singled out itself as the protégé, or the
client state of both Israel and for the sake of forces
inimical to Egypt. For a paltry retainer of over one
billion dollars Egypt let loose a reign of unspeakable
terror and relentless intimidation upon its own people
in order to silence them. As an Egyptian himself, Hosni
Mubarak has been treating his own people like the
colony of slaves and fugitives to be kept under the
specter of fear, brutality, repression and torture so
that no one talks of fundamental human rights, a civil
society, a home grown vibrant economy and a political
culture based upon the popular will and sanction
through the free ballot. As a selfish and power hungry
dictator and with unabashed aggression, he has been
steam rolling public opinion, muzzling every
discordant element and leveling off all divergent
voices. So if one sows the wind, he has
to reap the whirlwind, as the adage goes. And that is
what is happening in Egypt. A tyranny exceeding the
bounds would entail a backlash of the corresponding
severity. The law of retribution works in nature. The
mills of God grind slowly but these grind exceedingly
small. It is foregone that any way, the
loathsome cronyism of Mubarak and his sold-out Cabal
could not have lasted longer. It would have remained
vulnerable even if Mubarak would have kept his throne
intact till his death or he was succeeded by his son.
The society is not a static phenomenon. It is always
dynamic and keeps moving forward. The systems of
governance and paradigms of societal behavior under go
changes with the time passage. The downtrodden and repressed
Egyptian masses desersve a right to be living in a
civil society and enjoy the benedictions of freedom
and dignity. The "D Day" is predestined and no
aggressor or tyrant how crafty and ferocious he may
be, can stop or rollback that march towards a world
free of parasites, monstrous autocrats running islands
of totalatarianism and mercenary dispensations. Even
the foreign regimes with colonial mindset cannot stop
this onward journey of human civilization. The world media has mercifully
assumed the laudable role of a redeemer for the bonded
societies as the Egyptian society is. The media is a
collective voice of such people who are struggling for
an equable status with their counterparts living in
civil societies, who have freedom,
openness,
civil liberties, rule of law, national
freedom, representative governments and right to
choose their leaders. The writer is a Dallas-based journalist and a
former diplomat. Email: qureshisa2003@yahoo.com |
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