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[First post from our new Egyptian-American blogger Roqaya! - ed.]
I’m proud of the Egyptians for finally standing up for themselves, absent a foreign – specifically U.S. – intervention, demanding not so much a liberal democracy but a democracy that affords basic dignity to all classes of society.
And it’s not an “Islamic revolution” as our so-called policy experts have warned of – it’s a revolt by the average Egyptian citizenry.
As one Arab American put it, “They’re standing up not for a Pan-Arab or Pan-Islamic or socialist cause, but for a government that musters even a halfhearted attempt at a democracy imbued with dignity in its treatment of its citizens.”
Citizens of the highly-populated and extremely impoverished third-world Arab country have managed to put the United States in a Catch-22; the U.S. government cannot vocalize support for the citizen uprising because an oust of Mubarak does not fit into its political vision, but it also cannot, in good conscience and moral standing, speak against the Egyptian people’s fight for democracy given U.S. intervention in Iraq.
The reality is that the U.S. has made policy missteps in the past that force it to continue supporting Mubarak’s regime. “Egypt has been an ally of ours on many critical issues,” President Obama said in an address in late January. “They make peace with Israel. President Mubarak has been very helpful on a range of tough issues in the Middle East.”
White House Spokesperson Robert Gibbs said Jan. 28 that the issue “will be solved by the Egyptian people,” and yet the bullets and tear gas being used against the Egyptian people are paid for by the more than $1.5 billion in annual military aid given to Egypt by the U.S. – a decision that is only now being reviewed. Equally alarming are reports from within Egypt that Minister of Interior Habib El-Adli met with Ambassador Margaret Scobey prior to the use of brute force against the Egyptian people.
Ahead of a day dubbed “Friday of the Martyrs” – where massive protests were unleashed on Jan. 28 – NewsHour host Jim Lehrer asked Vice President Joe Biden if the time has “come for President Mubarak of Egypt to go,” as the Egyptians have been calling for him to do. Biden answered, “No. I think the time has come for President Mubarak to begin to move in the direction that … to be more responsive to some of the needs of the people out there.”
When asked if Mubarak should be seen as a dictator, Biden said: “Look, Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things and he’s been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interests in the region: Middle East peace efforts, the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing the relationship with Israel. And I think that it would be – I would not refer to him as a dictator.”
Apparently, democratic rulers turn off complete access to the Internet and mobile phones, arrest opposition leaders, and order police to dress in street clothes and cover parked cars with gasoline to give reason for arresting protesters; in addition to maintaining a continuous 30-year rule over a country and its people.
Thousands took to the streets on Jan. 29 in Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, Chicago and Houston, among other cities, in support of the Egyptian people’s struggle for democracy.
“All we want is for the people to be able to choose their own leader and work their way up just like this country did,” Angie Emara said to FOX News at the protest in Chicago.
In front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles, Moe Fakih of Redondo Beach, held a sign that read, “Mubarak, you get nada. This is the Egyptian Intifada.”
Simply put, if the Egyptians don’t want Mubarak – it’s time for Mubarak to resign.
Egyptians didn’t ask for Mubarak to fire his administration, they want him “to fire himself,” as Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian commentator based in New York, said on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, urging the media to “use the word revolt and uprising and revolution, and not chaos and not unrest.”
“I urge the U.S. administration to take the side of the people of Egypt, because that is taking the side of the future,” she said.
The determining factor of a governing body’s legitimacy is not that it fits the political vision and interests of the United States but rather that it is legitimized by the people it governs, and the litmus test for the U.S. is how it will react to a democratically-elected government that does not fit hand in glove with its own political agenda.
The U.S. is failing to realize that Mubarak’s corrupt regime drives many moderates into the arms of groups that think the Muslim Brotherhood is too compliant with the regime. The stability touted by many so-called policy analysts as a benefit of Mubarak helps fuel the rage that empowers anarchy, including the dispossessed Egyptian exiles who joined Al-Qaeda and fought against Americans in other regions of the Middle East, as said by Omar Masry, an Arab American from Orange County, Calif.
Any leader, entity, state or ideology that fails to recognize the dignity, worth and basic rights of man – regardless of ethnicity, religion or geographical location – may as well be obsolete.
Or, as Akram Lotfy, a 17-year-old boy from Alexandria, Egypt, wrote on his Facebook wall before the shutdown, “A government that is afraid of Facebook and Twitter should govern a city in Farmville.”
I is time for Santa Ana residents to do the change in santana also!
People want the same things: the right to choose their leaders, be informed by the news media, including the internet, the right to have decent food, water, and an environment where one can be free to pursue their interests and be with family. It’s good to see this universal urge surface. If the government doesn’t put the people before the governments’ agenda, that government must be exposed for all to see. We Americans should pay attention. It may be in the not-too-distant future in our own land that the downtrodden classes boil over and demand true representation and action from posturing demagogues.