February 18th, 2011 by Kyle

Bahieddin Hassan, Director of the Cairo Center for Human Rights, wrote in a recent editorial that although Mubarak may be gone, “the textbook police state which he built up over the years, and that wasn’t much different from that of Tunisia, is still with us.”  Hassan believes that the main task of the transition is to “dismantle the pillars of this police state and to lay the foundations of a secular and democratic regime that respects human rights” which he argues can be achieved by dismantling the institutions and constitutional amendments that helped to legitimize the state. Hassan calls for the constitution to be entirely re-written and states that elections should not take place immediately, because Egypt needs to foster a democratic environment capable of electing leaders who will support a democratic future in Egypt rather than “neo-Mubarakism.”

Posted in Egypt, Elections, Freedom, Human Rights, Reform |