Still on Ex-President Morsi’s administration of Egypt Mohammed Morsi was sworn in as Egypt’s first civilian democratically elected president approximately a year ago at an historic ceremony in Cairo, capital of Egypt. Few hours after the ceremony, he was greeted by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, leader of the military council that handed over power to him. Consequently, Morsi promised to restore the parliament dissolved by the military. In his speech at Cairo University, the Muslim Brotherhood politician promised that the army must respect the people’s will. Furthermore, he also promised to sort out a very difficult relationship with an entrenched military. He pledged to govern all Egyptians. However, he was manipulated by the Muslim Brotherhood that brought him to power; this has made him to be divisive and exhibited incompetence within a very short time as president. Thereafter, the streets of Egypt started boiling. Morsi’s administration became abysmal. In a statement, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-ss said the military had no interest in politics and was ousting Morsi because he had failed to fulfill “the hope for a national consensus”. The general specifically stood on a stage flanked by Egypt’s top Muslim and Christian clerics and a spectrum of political leaders including the Noble Prize-winning diplomat and liberal icon, Mohammed El-Baradei, and Galal Morra, a prominent Islamist ultraconservative or Salafi, all of whom endorsed the military takeover. It is on record that since 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak, Egypt has plunged deeper and deeper into economic mess. The rage that helped toppled Morsi was nurtured by the Arab Spring’s failure to deliver economic recovery. Mr. Morsi’s performance was abysmally low administratively and professionally. It is true that he inherited a collapse in public security, but instead of building the consensus needed to tackle it, he and the Brotherhood sought to monopolize power and won control of institutions such as the judiciary. In other words, the Brotherhood was operating a parallel government. This makes Mr. Morsi beholden to them rather than accountable to the Egyptian masses. Since the Brothers placed their trust in their own extensive welfare networks, there was less pressure to reform a wasteful fuel and food subsidy system that was bankrupting Egypt. Egypt, the biggest Arab nation, is a key US ally in the region as well as one of the few states in the Arab World to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. It is abundantly clear that Egypt is the gift of the River Nile and site of one of the world’s first great civilization. Egypt grew up under the rule of the Pharoah’s along the banks of the Nile more than 5,000 years ago. Most part of the country is dry, candy desert with a narrow; fertile strip which follows the river valley and widens into the delta. This is where the vast majority of Egypt’s population lives. Most of the people are Arab and follow the Muslim faith. The economy is dominated by farming, oil, tourism, income from ship passing through the Suez Canal and money earned by Egyptians working abroad. With a population of some 9.5 million, Cairo is the largest city in Africa and one of the fastest growing. The city faces terrible housing problems; new arrivals often have to live in dirty, over-crowded slums. Some live among the graves of the city of the dead. People also live on the roof of many high rise building in Cairo. It is crystal and abundantly clear that Morsi Mohammed failed to see his successful election and eventual swear in as a new beginning for Egypt. However, one can say that Morsi’s intention was not to see himself as life president just like the intention of former presidents, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. It is on record that Sadat’s tenure was marked by an emphasis on foreign policy. In 1972, he expelled Soviet military advisers, signaling an end to Egypt’s close tie with the Eastern Bloc. It is true to say that Egypt over the centuries has undergone foreign domination and exploitation only to reemerge as a powerful, cultural and political centre across wide areas of Africa and the Middle East. After three centuries as the centre of the powerful Ptolemac Empire, Egypt was conquered by the Romans who made it a province of their own empire and appropriated its agricultural surplus to feed Roman soldiers and citizens. On October 6, 1981, the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Sadat Anwar-al, and the predecessor of Mubarak Hosni presided over a military parade in Cairo. During the parade, a military vehicle stopped abruptly, and five soldiers who were later linked to an Islamic protest group leapt out and began firing machine guns and throwing hand grenades at the president. As a result, Sadat and six others were killed. Based on this, Sadat was succeeded by his vice president, Hosni Mubarak. It is no exaggeration to say that the poverty rate increased tremendously in Egypt from 39% to 45% under Mubarak. The gains of the economy had simply been appropriated by the oligarchy leaving millions of educated Egyptians in squalor. Mubarak’s frequent promise to introduce the much needed political and economic reforms never yielded any meaningful result thereby leading to frustration and anger in Egypt, and these caused demonstration by the Egyptians. Based on the foregoing, there is the need for future presidents to administer Egypt from a different progressive angle to ensure development and not tying the lives of Egyptians to any apron string.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 13:18:05 +0000
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