September 06, 2013
I
am dubious about the common perception that the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist
politics in Egypt have been struck a deadly blow from which they may never
recover. I say this because in reality Egypt has experienced neither real
politics nor meaningful Islamism in recent years, but rather only superficial
caricatures of both of those phenomena. I suspect that what Egypt is
experiencing now is not the end of Islamist politics, but the start of its
first real test in the public political sphere that is still in the process of
being born in Egypt and other Arab countries.
The
combination of the mass populist demonstrations of June 30 against President
Mohammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule, followed by the army’s
intervention to remove Morsi and crack down on the Islamists with beatings,
arrests and killings, represents a wild swing of the pendulum to the autocratic
and anti-Islamist right that had long run Egypt. Before that, the Islamists
drew on their significant populist support during their catastrophic and
amateurish one year of rule; and before that Egypt had experienced bouts of
support for the military during the post-Mubarak transition, and the euphoric
moment of revolution that overthrew the old regime in January-February 2011.
Only
a fool would believe that Egypt will now settle permanently into a condition of
military rule that cracks down viciously on Islamists while allowing mass
attacks against Christians, and ignoring the reality of the millions of
citizens who repeatedly took to the streets to demonstrate against both
military or Islamist rule, or for democratic transition. The wild swings of the
pendulum of public sentiment continue to plague Egypt, because of the immense
mistake that was made in 2011-12, when parliamentary and presidential elections
were held before the citizenry had agreed on a constitution that satisfied the
vast majority.
The
consequence has been what we have witnessed in Egypt and some other
transitioning Arab countries during the past 30 months—the intensity and
recurrence of street politics in which hundreds of thousands of citizens take
to the streets to demonstrate for or against some political issue or group. The
street still rules today, because a credible and legitimate new governance
system has not been agreed upon or implemented.
The
street accommodates everyone, including Muslim Brothers, old guard fulul,
non-Islamist centrists, the armed forces, revolutionary youth, and many others.
The one consistent narrative since December 2010 has been the juxtaposition of
erratic attempts to forge new constitutional democratic systems of government
alongside impassioned public demonstrations that allow the citizenry to express
its views. The powerful birth and continued assertion of populist legitimacy
remains undefined, however. The immense force of “the will of the people” is
manifested in wildness on the streets, for it still has not been channeled into
stable governance mechanisms.
So
the pendulum keeps swinging among the many political actors, now joined by ugly
attacks against Christians, foreign journalists, Arab satellite media, and
other easy targets. Nowhere in this process of post-revolutionary change has
Egypt meaningfully experienced the birth pangs of genuine politics—that elusive
contestation of power through elections, civil society competition, political
parties, media activism, mobilized social movements, the courts, and other
civil means.
This
moment is special because it reflects the combined power of several forces that
have converged momentarily: the armed forces’ desire to maintain overall
control of the power structure, the mass disappointment and anger of millions
of citizens with the Muslim Brothers’ crude attempt to take over the state
democratically, and the fervent, speedy, and generous support of Saudi Arabia
and other Gulf monarchies for the armed forces’ crackdown on the Islamists. The
Gulf states may also hope that their support will limit the extent of the populist
democratization that so many Arabs seek, but this remains to be clarified.
One
thing is certain: The pendulum will keep swinging back and forth among the tens
of millions of Egyptians who supported the 2011 revolution, and the armed
forces’ transfer of power to elected civilians, and the elected Muslim Brothers
in power, and the 2012 constitution, and the removal of the Muslim Brothers by
the armed forces and mass demonstrations. This is what happens when street
politics and mob mentality rule in the absence of constitutional governance.
This will continue until one day, perhaps when the country is broke, broken and
scared, mature centrist leaders will emerge from within Egypt to harness the
common values that we have seen expressed so passionately by Islamists,
generals, revolutionary youth and many other citizens. Their yearnings for both
stability and legitimacy remain the ultimate determinants of the country’s
future. The Muslim Brothers, secularists, progressive nationalists, the old
guard, generals and everyone else will then have to decide how they will
participate in the process of politics that remains so elusive, yet so crucial
and enticing.
Rami
G. Khouri is Editor-at-large of The Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares
Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American
University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon. You can follow him @ramikhouri.
Copyright © 2013 Rami G. Khouri—distributed by
Agence Global