Words often help us to understand world dynamics better! Nevertheless, I find that words are inadequate when it comes to conveying the vigorof Egypt’s despotism. To truly understand its magnitude, it is necessary to observe firsthand the State apparatus threatening citizens with fabricated charges, draining the nation’s resources and toning down its heritage.
Egypt’s single most effective ruling principle is its chaotic governance, which prompts individual citizens to base their actions on their gut feeling, thereby privileging the State with penalizing lawbreakers whenever it wishes, often politically driven, or turning a blindeye to their offenses in exchange for a handsome bribe.
Since his inauguration in 2014, President Al Sisi has managed to fuel the anger of the entire population toward himself due to his unjust orders, infeasible projects and bullying attitude. Don’t be surprised, this is how dictators often function; egotism prevents them from noticing their inadequacies and creates a tendency to blur the boundaries between their personal gain and national progress. Meanwhile, Al Sisi has managed to place the entire Egyptian population inside a well-sealed pot that prevents us from even hinting at our frustrations.
Al Sisi, who takes pride in his success in building new roads and bridges in a relatively short timeframe, has not exerted any efforts to fight corruption, reform our police apparatus or advance the judiciary system – the main causes behind Egyptians’ massive uprising in 2011. Quite the contrary, our president has significantly strengthened the autocratic ruling mechanism that he inherited from Mubarak, which certainly serves him better.
In democratic nations, freedom of expression works to broaden people’s minds, helping them to innovate, to stimulate their businesses’ risk appetite, backed up by effective rule of law. Whereas in autocratic nations such as Mubarak’s Egypt, the State worked to enrich cronies in return for reducing unemployment, and in Al Sisi’s Egypt, the State has been working to diminish the private sector entirely in favor of expanding the State economy. Al Sisi has successfully devalued Egyptians’ wealth and status; ironically, Egyptians nowadays appreciate Mubarak’s rule more than his.
A sycophant is a profession invented by Al Sisi who admires flattery – a number of ignorant citizens work to praise the president’s policies passionately and mindlessly, feeding false narratives to the entire population through Egyptian media channels. Meanwhile, the president likes to assert that Egypt is a poor nation and that our rapidly growing population is hindering his modernization plans.
In fact, Egypt is a resource rich nation with a myriad of historical tourist sites, nearly 3000 kilometers of sunny seashore and energetic youngsters that account for two-thirds of the population. We simply need a leader who knows how to stimulate people, recognizes our growing young population as an asset not a burden, offers equal economic opportunities to all people, and appoints executives with merit instead of sycophants.
The majority of Egyptians, both Muslims and Christians, tend to pray and fast regularly. However, citizens’ norms now include lying, bribing and misbehaving to survive, while government authorities seek to maintain power by imprisoning innocent citizens, practicing torture and seizing the assets of some, and radical Islamists claim to defend Islam by engaging in terrorist acts. Nevertheless, this hypocritical society inclusively claims to abide by religious teachings!
President Al Sisi, who likes to be both judge and jury, recently stated that Egyptians who want to express their opinions need to be well informed and to present alternative solutions. Fair enough – this disqualifies many members of his regime’s apparatus from holding their positions. Citizens, in essence, should be allowed to express their grievances regardless of how knowledgeable they are. Additionally, if Egypt were a scientifically driven nation, we wouldn’t be confronting the current economic and political crisis.
Moreover, western nations who often talk proudly about their values tend to compromise them in favor of their economic interests that are better served by autocrats. Cynical Egyptians argue that Al Sisi managed to advance his relationship with key European nations through arms sales deals. This leaves us wondering whether President Joe Biden will join this beneficial European club or advocate for democracy. In fact, since Biden assumed power, democracy advocates in Egypt and the United States have been urging him to work on promoting democracy.
Al Sisi has managed to alter the fabric of our society; he has trapped us into living an undignified meaningless life, intensifying polarization and spreading hatred of one another. The president, who keeps repeating the mantra that he is willing to leave office if Egyptian citizens want him to do so, needs to show us how we can pursue this demand peacefully – running prefabricated elections, forbidding citizens from expressing their opinions in public media, along with banning demonstrations, all give the president a false impression of his popularity.
During the Mubarak era, I doubted any kind of uprising could occur, believing that the security apparatus’ iron grip would prevent it – until Egyptian youngsters proved me wrong when millions of citizens took to the streets in 2011. Nowadays, although the iron grip is significantly harsher, the State is fundamentally fragile and people are extremely aggravated. Violence is the only path that the Egyptian State has left open to its citizens; a situation that was designed by the State itself and that will intensify chaos and drain our resources further.
