Sunday
Jan302011
The officer
Issandr El Amrani
The man on the front page of today's al-Masri al-Youm is a national hero. He's an army officer who decided to join the protestors (he hadn't been part of those deployed in Cairo). I spoke to him about what he and the Egyptian people wanted — here's the video. Again, please translate it in the comments if you have time, but a summary is below.
His demands, in brief:
- The end of the Mubarak regime and its apparatchiks
- Constitutional reform
- Free and fair elections
- No more presidencies for life
- An honest police force "like any developed country"
Reader Comments (7)
Dude has a career in (biznillah, inshallah) the democratic politics to follow. Love how he reminds everyone that Egyptians have been cultured and orderly and so on for thousands of years. And also for those who are worried that there is not enough of a civil society in Egypt to deal with the transition, note how all protestors use the discourse of limited terms, free elections and so on that Kefaya did - that was one major achievement of the otherwise limited 2005 protests IMHO.
Keep it up Issandr, wish I was there.
Officer:
Right now, we have specific demands:
Number one - for the Mubarak regime to leave - completely - beginning with himself, and ending with the most junior person in his regime.
Interviewer:
In a peaceful way.
Officer:
Of course, in a peaceful way. We are a white [peaceful] revolution. Number two, God willing, an interim goverment will be implemented, through which we will change the constitution which was previously put together for particular purposes, to a constitution which is in line with the aspirations of the Egyptian people, God willing-
Interviewer:
Including changing the Emergency Law.
Officer:
And number three, to have transparent elections, to choose somebody that we want - subject to elections that one hundred percent transparent, and whover rules us will do so for a limited term, like any modern state. Nobody will rule us for his whole life, because he's no better than any one of us. To rule us for a specific period, to take us forward a specific step in our history, no further, like any modern state. But - a final comment - we appeal to the Egyptian people, if in the next period there is disorder, we are - we are respectable and well-behaved and civil, and have the best upbringing. God willing we will organise the traffic, we will clean the streets, we will serve each other. The police apparatus will not leave a vacuum [in their absence]!
This is awesome. What a great age of freedom and technology. To see primary source footage, unadulterated by a corrupt media, is a beautiful. I am an American father of a three year old boy. I am drawing inspiration from the people of Egypt and learning how to make *my* America a better place. Peace to all!
Ali - the voice is not the interviewer (which was me) but people around him interjecting.
Issandr, thank you so much for providing this incredible coverage. You are bringing the shaab to us. Thank you.
Great stuff. I saw this officer on Friday and was wondering whether he wasn't on the demonstrators shoulders against his will, as he didn't look very comfortable. But it seems not!
From Brazil,
The Egyptian people fill their Latin American friends of pride and hope. We count on your success in this which is the most important event of the century. We hope that even dictators enslave our Muslim brothers have an end to his reign and that freedom, apart from the tyrants controlled by the imperialist Americans and Israelis to reach you all. We wish her success.