Much has been - and I am sure, will be - said written of
the rights and wrongs of the past two years. And much has been and will be
said about who's to blame and what could have been or should have
been, if only this or that.
But with the political scene in Egypt as it is, with opposing
groups taking unbridgeable opposing stands, how this is relevant at this
dangerous juncture is beyond me. Who did what to whom and who to blame for what
is irrelevant.
Who is responsible now though, is very clear.
Responsibility lies with the President. The buck stops with him.
He who took it upon himself to guide Egypt into the future.
As things stand right now, that future is scary.
Not because the liberals may never unite and stop bickering and
get themselves organized; sooner or later, they probably will. And not because
the MB et al will turn Egypt into Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iran/Saudi Arabia; they
probably won't. Not even because we are moving blindly, but at full speed,
towards a more-likely-than-not soon-to-be-approved constitution which many are
unhappy with and which by most reasonable accounts is not what
post-revolution Egypt had hoped for and deserves.
All of the above is just more material for discourse i.e. not scary. More discussion, more
blame throwing, more endless eloquent lines added to each side's argument. It
doesn’t scare me.
What does scare me is the extreme and deepening polarization in my
country.
We are at a point where on one side some are calling for
boycotting MB owned businesses – yes, a la Israel-aimed Palestinian BDS
movement - while on the other, some are advising liberals who dislike the way things
are to leave - as if Egypt were their private club and not all of our
country.
This is not a sustainable situation. We have to learn to live with, talk to and (I dare dream) cooperate with each other.
The deeper these positions get entrenched - and all evidence
points in that direction - the harder it will be for them to get de-trenched.
And de-trenched they will have to be, regardless of who "wins".
The following five facts necessitate de-trenchment.
1. Neither side is going away any time soon.
What both sides seem to be thinking is that by "winning"
they will somehow eradicate the opposition. Just before the presidential
elections, happy rumours were raging among the Shafik crowd that as soon as he
wins, there will be a massacre of MB leadership and survivors
will be thrown back into jail "where they belong".
Likewise among the MB/Salafists many believe that
once the referendum is over (and they win), the liberals will just shut
up and/or disappear. As if the mere cosmetic of an approved constitution will
lead to change in people's minds and dreams.
You know what? It's not happening. We're all here to stay.
2. Both sides have sincere hopes and beliefs
Through a steady "demonization of the other" process, both sides now fail to understand that "the others" are sincere in their positions. Being lucky enough to have (and unlucky enough to
have lost a few) friends on both sides, I can assure you this is true.
On the one hand, the MB and their supporters have a sincere belief
that if only we were to have an Islamic constitution, things will get better
for all of us (there are strong theological - let alone logical - arguments
against this, but this is not the venue for them).
On the other, the liberals point to the prosperity of secular
nations and the failure of theocracies worldwide as evidence of the veracity of
their claims (again, there are many arguments against this line of thinking,
and again, this is not the venue for them).
You know what? It is as impossible to expect a Salafy to forget
about Sharia as it is to ask a liberal to forget about personal freedoms.
(Between you and me and imho, the two platitudes are just about completely
compatible).
3. This is Egypt! Accept it
Whether or not we like it, Egypt is home to both these sets of
Egyptians. The "MB can only win votes by handing out oil and sugar" mantra
may or may not be true, but its truth or lack of it are irrelevant. The fact is some 40% of the population lives on less than $2 a
day, and any time you give such a person a jerry-can of oil and a few kilograms
of sugar you're a good guy. Similarly the silly question "what ill has God
ever done to you that makes you hate his Sharia?" is equally irrelevant.
Many Egyptians want the freedom to decide their level of religiosity or lack of
it without it being mandated by law.
Egypt, as has been made crystal clear over the past 24 months,
houses us all.
4. The Economy is a Time Bomb
Of all the statistics that came out of the presidential elections,
the one that scared me most was the 50% of eligible voters who never even
bothered to go to the polling stations.
Think about this for a second please.
This was the first ever presidential election in the 7,000 year
history of Egypt and half those allowed to vote couldn't care less. Barring the
thousands (or hundreds of thousands) who decided to boycott, the rest of that
50% is people who are apathetic to the outcome.
This is the 50% who could care less
whether Sharia is applied or whether the constitution specifically mentions
Baha'i rights or whether the President is from the MB, the army or whether we
even restore the monarchy. They are living hand-to-mouth and so long as there's
enough in the hand to fill the mouth, they will neither participate nor, crucially, complain.
But, and here's the biter, the hand in these last couple of
years, hasn't been earning enough to fill the mouth and soon (I hope I am
wrong), those who cannot put food on their tables will become angry. Nobody
wants to see that.
More pragmatically, nobody will be able to do anything to stop
their anger should it erupt.
5. Morsy is an elected President
For better or worse, this is an undeniable fact. He may have won
by the slimmest of margins, and there are even claims of foul play, but the
fact remains. Dr. Morsy is our first ever elected President. The success of any
stupid adventure aimed at removing him without due process will be disastrous. I am happy to report
that to date his wisest opponents have not set this as their goal.
His being an elected President doesn't just mean we need to
respect the democratic process (flawed as it may have been) which brought him
into power.
What it means is that ultimately, he is responsible for closing the schisms which are widening by the day. He must offer confidence building
measures (yes we're flat in the middle of conflict-resolution linguistic
territory now) to his opponents. He needs to reach out to those who see him and his clan as tyrants in the making and reassure them with concrete steps.
Such steps might look like this:
A.
Given
the sweeping powers he has given himself, Morsy can and should alter the
acceptance threshold for the Constitutional referendum from 50% to 67%. This
is a constitution, 50.0001% just doesn't cut it.
B. Voting should be Chapter by Chapter rather
than wholesale take it or leave it.
C. Define what exactly the limits are on decrees he can make with immunity/impunity. He has already vaguely
hinted that they only include a certain level of decision. We need specificity.
D. Commit to and implement a bi-weekly state
of the union type address where he talks less and says more than he usually
does. We need a performance report. What is being done, why, what is the level
of achievement. Facts only please, no rhetoric
Such steps would go a long way to starting the dialogue which must
be started. Tough positions can and likely will be taken by the opposing
parties, but as President, Morsy needs to elevate himself above this conflict
and send all Egyptians clear signals of neutrality, wisdom, foresight and
levelheadedness.
