Panorama of the Egyptian Youths’ Revolution

March, Wednesday 3rd, 2011

Panorama of the Egyptian Youths’ Revolution

Life is not definable nor can it be precisely defined as it is something abstract that is distinguished by something concrete. We cannot think of or conceive life without thinking of living things which are completely different from life itself. Life is characterized by change and movement to a degree that both characteristics are mandatorily twined; in sense that there is no change without motion and there is no motion without change and life cannot be void of both motion and change. Life cannot be stagnant nor are living things and their systems. A state, as a social and political constitution with its elements people, place and time, is a living structure which should be alive and full of life, vitality and vividness in all its aspects if it is wanted to continue. Life can be seen either in a condition of frenzy or a condition of calmness, in a non-stoppable cycle that stems or is accompanied by endless motivation and aspiration for better standard and better means of living for its members and residents. Once a state (represented in its political regime) is stagnant or dead, a new one will sprout in a form of revolution that dispels all the old ideas and ejects the human resources of the old system. This is the way of life that can be compared to seas that eject their dead creatures on their shores to allow others to go on living. What we are concerned with is what makes a state alive and strong, what the factors of a state stagnation or death are, how life sprouts again amid this stagnation or death in a form of revolution or up-rise that seeks for reform, innovation and change in a world that muddles about stability and change.

A state, like any living constitution or structure, can pass through all the stages of growth as being born, young, youthful, old and dead. In each stage of a state growth there are minds and mentalities that secrete and give energy, motivation and enthusiasm to that state and frequently is a new blood pumped into its body to supply it with factors of strength. One of the most important factors that keep a state powerful and influential is its constitution and laws both of which are created not to be worshipped, but to achieve certain objectives within a period of time. Some of these objectives are basic and permanent like justice, equality, freedom … etc. while others are temporary, hence mutable like these of budgets and the ones concerning economic, educational, military or industrial objectives… etc. A very crucial factor that guarantees the coherence of the state structure is the independence of its powers, with a strict watchdogs and diligent personnel that scrutinize every behavior and performances of each power in accordance with the constitution and the laws which must be well and strictly observed. Again, an indispensable factor is also the change of personnel with what it brings of new ideas, new suggestions and new objectives that keep the wheel of the individual and the state running. And this explains why liberal western states maintain strong and vivid physique that feeds its members with love and loyalty to their country disregarding their individual conditions that are created by their own wills. Thus the enthusiastic personnel on the top of the state, whether leaders, executives, legislators, judges and even journalists and reporters can convey their enthusiasm to the normal individuals who are the basic workforce of the state. Finally, the most important factor of a healthy state is the clear secularism that gives her a pigment suitable to every resident to see their country as the most beautiful habitat for all fauna and flora. Secularism with its transparent attitude is a very important, safe and secure laboratory that can vouch for the healthy growth, sound change and steadfast steps towards progress and reconciliation with the other countries all over the world. True secularism is the only guarantee that can attest justice in issuing laws and amendments of laws or the constitution. Only secularism guarantees that all social organizations whether religious or theistic can coexist in peace.

On the other hand the case can be completely different as minds and mentalities give secretions that can degenerate, degrade, erode, decompose and demolish the body of the state government. There are some factors that lead to this result and indicate an explosion which will not relinquish under any condition. One of the factors that can lead to the erosion of the government body is the inconsistency of the articles in the state constitution that it appears to demolish itself by itself as its articles seem contradicted and conflicting. For example in the Egyptian constitution, Article 2 states “Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic its official language. Islamic jurisprudence is the principal source of legislation.” This article puts the government in critical situations all the time it tries to be in accordance with the international laws and international social civil organization. Again, this article 2 is contradicted with article Article 8: “The State shall guarantee equality of opportunity to all citizens.” How can this happen and the Islamic jurisprudence does not believe in equality among people of the same religion even though this religion is Islam. Again Article 11 “The State shall guarantee the proper coordination between the duties of woman towards the family and her work in the society, considering her equal with man in the fields of political, social, cultural and economic life without violation of the rules of Islamic jurisprudence.” This Article 11 is contradicted to Article 2 because Islamic jurisprudence does not believe in the equality between man and woman. What makes matter worse is that one article may bear the contradiction and hence its nil and null validation. Article 12 states “The society shall be committed to safeguarding and protecting morals, promoting the genuine Egyptian traditions and abiding by the high standards of religious education, moral and national values, historical heritage of the people, scientific facts, socialist conduct and public morality within the limits of the law. The State is committed to abiding by these principles and promoting them.” And the question here is that are all Egyptian customs and traditions in accordance with the high religious standards of religious education? Also see the contradiction between Article 2 and article Article 40 which states that “All citizens are equal before the law. They have equal public rights and duties without discrimination between them due to race, ethnic origin, language, religion or creed.” And the question is that does Islamic jurisprudence believe in this article? In the same way, see how Article 2 is contradicted with Article 41which states “Individual freedom is a natural right and shall not be touched. Except in cases of a flagrant delicate no person may be arrested, inspected, detained or his freedom restricted or prevented from free movement except by an or necessitated by investigations and preservation of the security of the society. This order shall be given by the competent judge or the Public Prosecution in accordance with the provisions of the law. The law shall determine the period of custody.” Does Islamic jurisprudence believe in individual freedom? The Article 41 is even contradicted with itself. Look at this statement in Article 41 “Individual freedom is a natural right and shall not be touched…. ….” and notice how it is contradicted with this unidentified and loose phrase mentioned in the same article “…..except by or necessitated by investigations and preservation of the security of the society” under which a lot of injustice practices are committed against the minority. Again Article 46 which vouches that “The State shall guarantee the freedom of belief and the freedom of practice of religious rites” contradicts Article 2 unless it means only just one religion and here the façade of the state government is outraged by its intentions and trends which are unveiled by its very reaction and its very behavior; yet if the government is sincere in applying this Article 46, it cannot be sincere in applying Article 2.

Under such a constitution, no government can stand upright or go on straightforward as it is really torn between a lot of pro-article groups and anti-article ones. Thus, this disintegrated and inconsistent constitution cannot support any government nor can any government protect such a constitution. And if the government cannot observe the constitution and the other integrating laws, a state of corruption, chaos and anarchy will prevail all aspects of life and all the practices of all the powers and their systems disregarding any religious teachings or moral codes. This will curtail the roles of all powers (whether executive, legislative, or judicial) in collecting as much money as possible by both selling the public estate and by imposing more taxes which weighs heavy on the destitute majority of people. Powers can never be just or fair in such circumstances and as a result they all practice corruptions in all forms, from social security through economic fraudulence and practicing religious rites to carrying out simple services. This makes the state systems frequently take course to raising sectarian crisis among its people and to insure their existence they create scarecrow to frighten the majority and the minority so that all remain loyal to the government and the regime. This explains the contradicted attitude of the government towards the Islamic Brotherhood as a banned group publically practicing its full activities from publishing books and spreading its ideology to competing the ruling party in the parliament elections while the secular trend that guarantees the progressive civilization of the state is repressed by the government by banning their literatures and their publishing.

Notwithstanding the wide range or class of people (youths ranging from 30 to 40 years) who are marginalized if not totally neglected and ignored, neither the opposition parties (including the Muslim Brotherhood), nor the regime with all its systems has ever thought of a plan to merge them in a certain political attitude or another. Besides, most of these young people, if not all, have not attended the 6th October War so they do not feel they owe anything to the head of the state, in sense that he is not their idol. This is why these young people are accused by their elders of being spoilt, careless, ignorant, uncultured and disloyal. Their only loyalty, care and focus are their being football fans and internet sitters. However, despite the high unemployment rate, these young people have their own small businesses and are forcing their ways successfully through life despite bureaucratic difficulties, hindrances and obstacles they face every day. Besides, their wide range of social communication on the internet that has opened their eyes on societies enjoying freedom, justice and equality, they all dream of having a home where they really belong, a home that can respect their humanitarian attitude, human dignity and prestige especially those who experienced humiliation when illegally travelled abroad as they were badly treated because they are only Egyptians. Thus, their global loyalty has brought about their nationality as local loyalty which involves their own Egyptianity as they themselves have imaged or imagined it.

On the contrary to this youths’ awareness of their case, cause and their global openness to the liberal world, the government and the entire regime are arbitrarily sluggish and dormant about the effects and influences of this global communication although the system or the regime has seen indications to the youths’ loyalty to their country, not to the regime, during the football events, especially when the Egyptian national football team played against the Algerian national football team in late 2009. The regime itself has always been blind and unaware of what is happening around it. And I think all the reports that have been handed to the head of the state have been hypocrite and misleading in a way that has alienated, separated, isolated and insulated the head of the regime from the wide class of his people if not all his people. No one has ever thought of making research in the political effects of the internet on its users. Even though these youths have no leader, they are so organized and focused to a degree that has tantalized some opposition movements, like Muslim Brotherhood, to jump over the events but the youths are so aware that they have looked over what Muslim Brotherhood has done and have negated any claim of any political party or movement representing them or talking on their behalf.

With all these injustices, inequalities, repressions, oppressions, corruptions, greed, fraudulence, pressures and contradictions under which people are adapting themselves to all kinds of mishaps, we can never expect anything except explosions which started on the Jan. 25th 2011 encouraged and inspired by the Tunisian up-rise which began as a social protest and developed into a successful feat in removing the Tunisian regime. Still does the revolutionary accelerated wave sweep the Arab countries one after one that we can say we have had seven countries that have been swept by protesting waves within almost two months for the sake of reform that requires a radical change. We cannot claim that what happens in the Arab countries can heighten up or rise up to the sublimity of revolution. All what happens in the Arab world seems to be actions and reactions directed to personnel rather than thinking or intellectualities. Most of the protesters in the up-rises that sweep the Arab world ask for just and fair social conditions that can keep them on living. We cannot claim that there are philosophies or philosophers behind any emotional up-rises because the protesters have no inclination or attitude towards how reform can be achieved except by changing the personnel and some articles in the constitution or creating constitutions for the country that are run without one.

However there is some logic in what happens there. It may be a sort of rebellion or psychological explosion resulting from monotony and pressure practiced by regimes that have lost their creativity and contact with their subjects and depended only on hypocrisy and lies forgetting a very simple rule that “the greater the pressure is, the greater the explosion is.” In 21st century with the great advance in means of communication and free sources of knowledge and information, our youths need to learn much about philosophies and philosophers behind intellectual, social and political revolutions. The most important thing now is that our youths do not need any custody or custodians to take over their feat. Let them mistake and learn from their mistakes. All what they need is to learn much from intellectual revolutions of enlightenment that led to political revolutions. At this transitional stage, it is the role of enlightenment thinkers and intellectualism promoters to provide the youths with what activates theirs principles and what crystallizes their cause, aims, objectives and ways of achieving them. All what happens in the Arab world has some roots not in religious thinking but in democracy, liberalism and secularism that give hope for vivid, stable and peaceful life.

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