The popular uprising in Egypt is going on its seventh day. Egypt is not a monarchy (like Saudi Arabia, where incidentally women have no voting rights). Egypt is a –sort of- democracy: a perverse system that has kept the same government in power since 1981 (in the US we’ve had 5 presidents since!). How to fake an election? 1- Ban opposition parties (such as the Muslim Brothers),* 2- and rig results, which invariably -and overwhelmingly- end up supporting President Mubarak's Party. 3- Use "terror" as a weapon of dissuasion and conformity. Mubarak has used the terror card of Muslim fundamentalism as a political weapon to rule out opposition. The formula reads: "If I'm not in charge, there will be terror" (in fact, many governments balk at the possibility that Egypt’s crisis could descend into a sort of theocracy like Iran's).
Yet, the democratic argument is that sovereign people should build their own political future at the polls (meaning that voting is free and anonymous, something that does not happen in many cases).
Revolutions are great moments in history, but they're also highly unstable. So the question for many is, will this Egyptian revolution bring greater democracy to its people or would it replace Mubarak's dictatorship with a different kind of despotism?
What do you think? Go ahead!
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*A part of the ideology of the Muslim Brothers is establishing an Islamic State based on Shari'a law and the rejection of Western influence. In this case, religion and the State are inseparable, as is the case in Iran. Recently, the organization has taken steps to incorporate greater pluralism, but many people are still skeptical of the true intentions of the organization.
I'm closing this post next Sunday, february 6th, at 11pm
