The Generals Are Back It would be criminally unfair to judge Mohamed Morsi as a dictator or a right wing fundamentalist without analysing the political processes and the role played by the coalition of opposition parties during the last one year, says Shaheen KM By Shaheen KM in Commentary In Robert Ludlum’s The Aquitaine Progression, the story begins with protagonist Joel Converse meeting a man he has not seen in 20 years, dying violently at his feet whispering his final words “The generals…they are back”. These dying words seem to be a fitting tagline to the tumultuous events that have dominated the most populous Arab nation over the last couple of days. Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president was unceremoniously removed in a military coup and detained by the all powerful Egyptian military. Arrest warrants were issued for leaders of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and the Muslim Brotherhood(MB). All media outlets supportive of the MB were shut down and journalists covering pro-Morsi rallies were detained. Post Revolution Egypt It would be a grave misnomer to use the term post-revolution in case of Egypt. Apart from the exit of Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, the numerous minions he raised to positions of power and influence over the last 30 years in the feared interior ministry, the security and armed forces, the judiciary, his partners in crime in the media and big businesses all remain securely dug in. The power structure, systems of control and business lobbies all remained virtually intact amid the euphoria following Mubarak’s overthrow. This was overtly evident in two instances, the first being when a court ruling enabled Mubarak’s handpicked Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik to contest the presidential elections to the dismay and protests of the general public and secondly, when the police refused to protect the Brotherhood’s offices in Cairo and elsewhere when anti-Morsi demonstrators began to burn and loot the party’s headquarters. To add insult to injury, Morsi’s minister of interior Mohammed Ibrahim announced in advance of the protests that the police would not provide protection to the Brotherhood’s offices. One could just imagine the spate of reactions in India, if Molotov cocktails were hurled at the Prime Minister’s office or if the offices of the All India Congress Committee on Race Course Road were attacked, burnt and looted. Winning the presidential elections by a narrow margin of 2 percent, Mohamed Morsi inherited Egypt’s floundering economic growth which had fallen to 1.8 percent in 2011, an inflation rate of 11 percent, an official unemployment rate of 12 percent, deficits to the order of $6.1 billion and a loss of $20 billion in foreign exchange reserves. Perhaps more importantly, the Egyptian economy had major structural weaknesses, such as deteriorating public finances, a distorted financial system that was not small business friendly, large and widening income and wealth inequalities, and a rigid labor market that constrained the private sector in creating jobs. Morsi’s predicament as President is best summed up in the words of the eminent legal expert Dr Richard Falk, “In responding to Morsi, the appropriate outer limit of reasonable complaint are allegations of incompetence, inexperience, combined with a series of mistakes made under the most difficult of circumstances, including inheriting a bureaucracy that was still beholden to the Mubarak style of politics and committed to its abundant private sector allies.” It would be harsh from an economic standpoint to claim that Morsi’s financial policies were a disaster. On the positive front, the Nahda (Renaissance) Project, a 20-year social and economic blueprint was designed to be an alternative to Mubarak’s capitalist system and serve as a guide for economic policy. Massive development projects were initiated in cooperation with China in the Suez region which was supposed to create 700,000 jobs. A $2 billion loan was discussed with Russia including collaboration for a nuclear power plant construction. During his visit to B
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 07:49:06 +0000
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