About Egypts Revolution of 25th January, 2011.

(1) A description of what happened :
There is a point at which a popular uprising, indeed, any popular
movement, must be described as a revolution and that is when it succeeds
in rallying huge numbers under its banner and when it produces effects and
brings about changes that impact strongly on the reality on the ground.
The first condition was fully satisfied in the movement that began on
January 25th, 2011: the number of Egyptian men and women who took to the
streets to demand change ran into the millions. While Tahrir square was
the scene of million-plus demonstrations in Cairo over many days, the size
of countrywide demonstrations ran to over ten million for several days.
Even taking into account the difference in the size of the population, the
numbers were proportionally far greater than those who participated in the
1919 revolution or those who took to the streets in support of the army
takeover on July 23rd, 1952. Indeed, they were far greater than the mass
demonstrations which toppled the socialist era in the countries making up
what was known as the eastern bloc. Thus the quantitative aspect attests
to the fact that we witnessed the largest popular movement in Egypt’s
modern history as well as one of the largest in the history of the world
over the last two centuries.
As to the second condition that qualifies a movement to be called a
revolution, namely, the effects it produces and the changes it brings
about, there is no doubt that what began in Egypt on January 25th, 2011
brought about (and continues to bring about) huge and radical changes in
Egyptian reality, the most important being the overthrow of the head of a
regime that ruled Egypt with increasing repression for thirty years,
attaining in the last ten one of the worst forms of an alliance between
power and wealth.
In addition to toppling its head, the revolution shook the regime to its
roots, even though many of its component elements not only still remain
among us but are actively engaged in fomenting what can only be described
as a counterrevolution. There is therefore no disputing the fact that the
events which began in Egypt on January 25th, 2011 were a revolution,
indeed, a great, even a glorious, revolution. It was also a “white”
revolution: the only blood spilt was at the hands of the regime and its
cohorts, including a number of loyalist business tycoons.
Thus the revolution of January 25th, 2011 deserves the praise heaped on it
by a large number of world leaders who did not stop at describing it as a
great revolution but went on to talk admiringly of its resolve,
dedication, brilliant organization and peacefulness. Some went as far as
to propose that the Egyptian revolution be included as a subject on the
curricula of their higher educational institutions.
(2) Background to and reasons for the revolution:
Although no one can deny that the first half of President Mubarak’s rule
(1981 -1996) was marked by political repression and economic and social
stagnation, there was no momentum for a revolution against the president
as long as he was ruling Egypt on his own. However, during the second half
of his period in power, his family, notably his wife and younger son,
began to take an active part in ruling Egypt, involving themselves in all
spheres of activity. The son established an oligarchy between some
prominent members of the political power structure and a number of
business tycoons. The influence and power of this coalition grew until it
became the real ruler on the internal front (leaving foreign policy to the
president). During those years, political repression and financial
corruption attained levels never before experienced by Egyptians in their
modern history. The coalition committed its fatal mistake in 2010 when the
president’s younger son helped the secretary-general of the ruling party
(the president’s party), Safwat Sherif, a man despised by all Egyptians,
and the wealthy tycoon Ahmed Ezz, the son’s close associate, to forge
election results twice. The first time was for the Shura (upper house)
elections; the second (and this was the more important) was for the
People’s Assembly elections, when they took over 98% of the seats for
their followers, leaving 2% for the rest of Egypt! As far as the Egyptian
people were concerned, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
To recap then: during the second half of his period in power, the
president succumbed to pressure from his family, specifically from his
wife and younger son, setting in motion a process that was to bring about
his downfall. He began by allowing them to participate with him in
managing the country’s political, economic, social, cultural and
educational affairs, gradually allowing them to virtually take over the
running of the country while reserving for himself the foreign affairs
portfolio. This led to the formation of an unholy alliance between power
and money that engendered corruption in all spheres of life for a full
decade and a half, culminating in the unprecedented rigging of the
parliamentary elections. A few weeks after this latest chapter in the
rampant corruption perpetuated by the coalition between power and money
under Mubarak’s rule, the flood gates of revolution opened on January
25th, 2011.
(3) Was the revolution expected?
As someone who has lectured at most of the major universities, academies
and centres of Middle Eastern studies in the United States and Europe, I
believe I am in a position to confirm that all the experts on the region
believed Egypt was headed for a revolution. However, all of them (as well
as the writer of this article) expected it to come either from the slums
or the mosques. This proved not to be the case. The revolution was
launched by young men and women of the middle class, most of them
university graduates and all of them adept in the use of modern
communications technology. Their grasp of this technology, notably the
Internet, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, provided them with a contemporary
understanding of two concepts. The first is citizenship; the second the
role of government. Most of the members of the computer generation have a
better understanding of the rights of citizens than previous generations.
At the same time, they know that governments are there to serve not to
rule, and can clearly see the difference between governments that serve in
advanced countries and those that rule in countries like Egypt.
(4) January 25th, 2011:
In defiance of state security arsenals and an interior ministry swollen
from one hundred thousand men in 1981 to over a million at the beginning
of 2011, despite extensive wiretapping and eavesdropping on all forms of
electronic and tele-communications and tight state control over much of
the media, the January 25th revolution was a well-organized movement from
the start. Armed with a steely determination, it succeeded in mustering a
mass following that was remarkably united across class, age and sectarian
lines. These features of the revolution deserve to be studied in depth.
They also deserve to be highly praised. When the police state shut off
access to Facebook and the Internet, then text messages on cell phones and
finally cell phones themselves, its attempts to abort the revolution
backfired as popular indignation sparked even wider protests. A
respectable state, one that respects its people, would never resort to
such shameful acts, and those who ordered the social media blackout must
be brought to justice.
Despite the regime’s best efforts, however, the revolution flowed on as
relentlessly as though following a detailed musical score. In the final
analysis, science defeated a primitive power structure out of touch with
the realities of the age. The leaders of the Kifaya movement told me of
their frustration over the years because of their inability to mobilize
even one thousand people for a demonstration. Then out of the blue, as it
were, the January 25th generation miraculously managed to organize a
1000-strong demonstration that swelled in just four days to a one-million
strong revolution in one square. The reason is simply that these
youngsters managed to break the fear barrier and that they believed in
themselves and in their message. At the same time, they knew that though
their enemy appeared strong it was in fact extremely weak.
(5) A revolution for freedom, not bread:
While no-one disputes the importance of ensuring decent living standards
for all citizens, ‘dignity’ and ‘freedom’, not ‘bread’ and ‘jobs’ were the
catchwords and triggers of the revolution. In fact, there is a dialectical
relationship between dignity and freedom on the one hand and bread and
jobs on the other that the revolution’s youth understood full well. The
failure to provide all Egyptian citizens with decent living standards is
the direct result of a political system that denied freedom to its people
and stripped them of their dignity. People who enjoy freedom with dignity
participate in political life; they can change their rulers and the rules
by which they are governed and eventually reach a stage in which all
citizens enjoy equal rights to decent living standards with all that the
term implies: housing, food, the right to marry and to found a family,
medical treatment, etc.
(6) The demands of the revolution:
The demands of the revolution were predominantly political - freedom,
dignity, participation and social justice. They were also limited to the
domestic front. The revolutionaries did not attempt to deceive people with
rousing slogans related to matters outside the national borders. Their
main concern was to reform the country, not the world. Prioritizing goals
and placing them in the right sequence is a sign of emotional maturity and
mental equilibrium.
(7) Secularism of the revolution:
From the very first moment until the overthrow of the head of the regime
the revolution was purely secular in all its aspects. On the few occasions
when some of the protesters attempted to raise religious slogans the
majority would shout them down with cries of “secular…..secular”.
Among the many achievements of this great revolution was that it exposed
the real weight of the government of president Mubarak, of the opposition
parties formed during his years in office and of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The revolution showed the whole world that although there can be no
denying the existence and influence of the Brotherhood, the regime
deliberately exaggerated its weight to frighten the world into believing
Mubarak was the only alternative to a takeover by political Islam.
(8) The days of the revolution:
Countless articles and books are sure to be written about the days of the
revolution and the incidents that revealed the admirable qualities of the
Egyptian people. However, as an eyewitness who was often in Tahrir square
during the revolution, I would like to record here those aspects of the
revolution that impressed me most. First, the Egyptian people focused on
their goals with an iron resolve and an unwavering determination that many
thought they had lost forever. Second, the prevailing mood in Tahrir
square was marked by a degree of camaraderie, solidarity, harmony and
warmth unprecedented in gatherings of this size and diversity anywhere in
the world. Third, the heroism of the revolutionaries in standing up to the
brutal force brought to bear on them by the regime, which attacked its
people with weapons, cars, hired thugs on horseback and camels, Molotov
cocktails and snipers. For close on three weeks the revolutionaries stood
firm against these unrelenting attacks, displaying fortitude as solid as
the granite so beloved by the ancient Egyptians. When the history of this
revolution is written it must record for posterity the crimes committed by
the Mubarak regime against the peaceful protesters, such as its attempt to
dispel them by launching a barbaric attack on Tahrir square using state
security forces, a large number of former convicts and rampaging horses
and camels normally used by tourists. The attack was orchestrated and
funded by elements belonging to the two wings of the power establishment:
the political and the financial. These people must spend their remaining
days in prison, after being tried before regular courts of law, not the
military tribunals the Mubarak regime used to try civilians.
(9) The dramatic collapse of the Egyptian police:
The revolution’s early days witnessed a dramatic collapse of the Egyptian
police force on which the former regime spent tens of billions of pounds
and which it furnished with arms and equipment more suited to an army than
a police force. The regime also expanded its membership to over one
million officers, patrolmen, policemen and conscripts. As the revolution
unfolded, we saw the decline and fall of this colossal organization, whose
motto had been changed by its former chief, the deposed interior minister,
from “to serve the people” to “to serve the regime”. The brutality of the
police force against the men and women of Egypt was what brought it to its
knees. Still, I believe there were, and still are, honourable men in the
police force who genuinely want to serve the nation and its citizens to
the best of their ability. But the leaders of this organization (the
successive interior ministers appointed by Mubarak) and their leader
(Mubarak himself) changed the orientation of this national organization,
which shifted its main focus from security against crime to political
security under the leadership of a succession of mediocre men with corrupt
intentions.
I speak from personal experience, having come to know all the interior
ministers who served in the last thirty years. It was these men, with
their narrow vision and lack of any cultural dimension, who masterminded
the incidents that were attributed to sectarian strife. Moreover, they
used the emergency law for one purpose only: to protect the head of the
regime, not Egypt and the Egyptian people. Many of the top cadres in the
interior ministry over the least three decades helped the head of the
regime propagate the big lie of his presidency, viz, that his regime was
the only alternative to the Islamist bogeyman! Given the absence of a
cultural dimension in their makeup, and lacking a sense of history, the
police leaderships dealt with the Islamist threat they were brandishing to
frighten the outside world and their own people with a security mentality,
that is, through the use of police measures exclusively, without any
attempt to deal with the cultural or political dimensions of the
phenomenon. And even the police measures they resorted to were often
illegal, marked by excessive force, downright brutality and a total
disregard for basic human rights. To my mind, all the blame should be
directed against the head of the interior ministry, not its officers and
soldiers. They are sons of Egypt whose only fault is the policies,
orientations and objectives that governed them in general and Habib
el-Adly in particular.
(10) The coalition of power and money:
Much can and indeed should be revealed in detail to the Egyptian people
about the negative features of the past three decades at every level. But
I think the worst one of all, the one that impacted most negatively on
their lives, was the coalition formed in the second half of the Mubarak
presidency, that is, in the period from 1996 until January 25th, 2011,
between some members of the power elite and a number of wealthy
businessmen. In the first half of the former president’s years in power
the coalition did not exist; it only began to take shape on his younger
son’s return from Britain. The members of the coalition soon came to
monopolize the country’s political and economic life. They infiltrated the
ruling party and, in addition to their control over the party as a whole,
formed a powerful group within it that they called the policies committee.
They then moved on to infiltrate a number of vital sectors. In the space
of a few years, most banks were headed by coalition members. Their
tentacles spread to the media, with many of their members placed at the
head of leading press establishments and TV channels, thereby exerting no
little influence on Egyptian public opinion. At a later stage, the
influence of this diabolical coalition spread to other important
institutions, notably the universities. It was the curse that destroyed
the Mubarak presidency and engendered the revolutionary spirit in the
hearts and minds of Egypt’s youth, who rose to bring one of the worst
chapters in the country’s modern history to an end. No one can deny that
the Egyptian people are performing a great service for their country and
future generations by insisting on opening the political and economic
files of the ousted regime and pushing for a thorough investigation into
the many violations it committed which could, if the public prosecutor
finds grounds for legal proceedings, lead to the incarceration of their
perpetrators.
Anyone who violated the law in any way, anyone who plundered Egypt in any
way, anyone who spread corruption in Egypt over the last three decades
must be punished. In this connection, the definition of corruption must
extend to include fortunes made by reason of connections with the power
establishment.
(11) The regime’s concessions in face of the tidal wave of revolution:
It would seem that two factors, namely, a stupefyingly long period in
power and a poor cultural formation, rendered the leaders of the former
regime unable to understand the reality, magnitude, orientations, strength
and determination of the January 25th revolution. This lack of
understanding made some of them believe they were facing “demonstrations”
that could be quelled through a carrot-and-stick approach. This meant
using security measures while making some concessions, like removing the
Nazif cabinet, then appointing a vice-president [to fill a post the former
president claimed that for a quarter of a century he had tried and failed
to find someone worthy of occupying], then announcing first that the
president, then that his son, would not be running in the presidential
election in September 2011, then removing the leadership of the National
Democratic Party [the most hated institution in the country], then
delegating some of the president’s powers to the vice-president. These
concessions attest to an unnerved regime’s failure to understand what was
happening. A revolution does not stop when a few crumbs, large or small,
are thrown its way. We must thank the president’s son for forming the
power/money coalition because had it not been for this particular outrage
the anger of the people would not have reached the critical mass necessary
to spark a revolution that seemed to go against the nature of the
Egyptians, who are noted for their resilient and fatalistic attitude to
whatever the fates throw at them. We must also thank those who failed to
understand what happened on January 25th, 2011. Because had they realized
what was really going on even more innocent blood would have been spilt.
This in no way makes the regime’s murder of more than three hundred
Egyptian men and women any less horrifying and those who committed those
crimes must be tried and executed.
(12) The former president’s speeches during the revolution:
The three speeches delivered by the president during the revolution were
very revealing of the way he thinks of his country and his people. The
speeches showed up an extreme stubbornness that can only be found in
people with limited intellectual abilities. They also revealed that the
president sees himself as a benefactor who deserves gratitude for the many
favours he bestowed on Egypt.
In all three speeches, he spoke down to the people, revealing an arrogance
that he had hitherto been careful to mask. The speeches showed an amazing
detachment from reality. Not once did he refer to what was happening as a
revolution; not once did he refer to the coalition between power and money
that led to the revolution; not once did he refer to the rigging of the
parliamentary elections, which was a slap in the face to the Egyptians.
Nor did he utter a word of apology to the people for the crimes committed
against them before and during the revolution. He did not apologize for
the more than 300 peaceful protestors killed by his regime. Moreover, his
speeches always came hours behind schedule, yet another sign of his lack
of respect for his people. The last speech he made 24 hours before
stepping down was the worst ever since he became president of Egypt on
October 14th, 1981. I am confident that analysts and commentators will
have much to say about the speeches and the lessons to be drawn from them.
(13) Incomprehension .. bluster .. stubbornness – downfall:
As the revolution unfolded so too did a soap opera, starring the regime,
play out in several episodes. The first was entitled “incomprehension”
which led to the second, entitled “bluster”. This was followed by
“stubbornness”, a quality the former president was proud to admit to. This
soap opera helped the revolution and the revolutionaries, who achieved
their first victory when they heard the former president announce he was
stepping down. I deliberately used the word first to describe this victory
because the revolution has other objectives, no less important than the
removal of the head of the regime, that have not been fully realized yet.
(14) The downfall of the head … the regime has been weakened not toppled:
There is no doubt that the January 25th revolution succeeded on two counts:
It brought down the head of the regime and dealt a debilitating blow to
the regime itself. But not all the regime’s symbols and officials have
gone away, nor has the spirit of the Mubarak era or the methods and aims
of state institutions. This might be the only alternative to chaos and a
political vacuum. But the next six months are what will determine whether
the regime, even greatly weakened as it is and with its head removed, can
spawn a new regime in the same mould and with the same characteristics or
whether the armed forces [the great hope of the Egyptian people] will
succeed in administering matters in a way that will lead us to the
beginning of an entirely new era on 14th October this year, an era in
which Egyptians will enjoy real political freedoms and participate in
shaping their present and future, an era in which corruption will retreat
and with it the dominance of the power/money coalition, an era in which we
will see a rotation of power, where leaders can be changed and held
accountable and governments are there only to serve the people.
(15) The armed forces:
There is no doubt that the armed forces protected the revolution and the
people as a whole from many evils the head of the regime and the leaders
of a number of his political and security agencies would not have
hesitated to visit on them in order to remain in power. The armed forces
protected Egypt from internal fighting and destruction and all their
decisions and actions testify to their patriotism and love for the people
as well as their determination to safeguard the public utilities and
wealth of Egypt. The hope now is that the army hand over power to a
president elected in free and fair elections and to a civilian government
of competent individuals so that we can start a new and better era, with
greater freedom, trust and transparency, an era in which everyone is
accountable.

In this article I have tried to paint a panoramic picture of the most
glorious revolution in Egypt’s history. It will be followed by another
article proposing a detailed prescription of what needs to be done during
this transition period.

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