Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Egypt is rapidly spinning out of control, I don't know who to support

I had avoided talking about Egypt's revolution/coup, (even which one of those two words to use is controversial), because one: I don't know which side I favor, and two: things are happening and changing so fast that by the time I publish something, the situation may be far different than when I wrote it. But there have been a lack of interesting other stories to write about, so it is with great hesitation that I wade into this unholy mess of a situation.
Situation in a sentence: Mohammed Morsi, the first democratically elected president in Egypt's history, has been taken out of power by the military, and an interim government has been put in his place.

Revolutionaries camped out in Tahrir Square. 

Now, there's so much propaganda, BS, false history, blah blah blah so much crap going around the internet and news agencies that this is far as we can go without getting into controversy. It is very hard to isolate what is fact and what is fiction. This is far as we can go that everyone agrees with. I'm going to explain each side's argument and each problem I have with both of them, and then let you decide which side you want to support, or to support neither of them.

Pro revolution/Anti-Morsi argument: Morsi was creating a more sharply divided Egyptian society between Islamist vs secular, Muslim vs Christian, conservative vs liberal, etc. He was not including people from all segments of Egyptian society in his government. He was only serving the Muslim Brotherhood and didn't care about anybody else. He was grabbing power for himself, so many Egyptians feared that he was going to turn into another dictator. He wasn't doing enough to help the country's huge economic woes.

Problem I have with that argument: First: The president of the country is not responsible for how people view other type of people in the country. He's not there to baby-sit people. If some Muslim and Christians in Egypt believe the bigoted shit they hear or read and go at it, it's not his problem. Second: the nature of politics is to put people in power who like you, have similar views of yours, and will do what you tell them to do. When Republicans get into power, guess what they do, they put Republicans in power so they can get Republican-y shit done. When Democrats get into power, they put a bunch of Democrats in power so they can get Democrat-y shit done. Third: Egypt's economy is severally fucked up. It has been for decades. A combination of an Authoritative centrally planned economy, requisites for international loans, and several wars have completely wrecked the economy, which has the potential to be a very strong one. There's no way Morsi, or anyone else for that matter, could've fixed all of the economic problems in one year. They simply need more time.

Anti-revolution/Pro Morsi argument: Morsi was democratically elected, so the appropriate way to go at him is through elections, not overthrowing him. Overthrowing him, even with his flaws, is an attack on Egyptian democracy. The revolutionaries have been attacking pro-Morsi supporters and Muslim Brotherhood buildings, so they are hooligans and do not deserve to have power because of their violent actions. In the revolutionary ranks are many former Mubarak era politicians, which show the true nature of this "revolution," that they only want democracy for themselves. They are the ones, not the Muslim Brotherhood, who wants another dictator.

Problem I have with that argument: I don't care how someone came to power, the people always have the right to take him/her out of power if they feel he/she is not doing their job correctly. That is a fundamental part of democracy is for the people to have power over their government. So it is not an attack on democracy. Benjamin Franklin said we need a revolution at least once every 50 years to keep the government in check. Non-Egyptians, including me, don't have the right to tell Egyptians who to elect or what style of government to have. That is their right and their right alone. Same thing: Egyptians don't have the right to tell Americans who to elect. So if 22 million+ Egyptians felt that their president needed to be taken out, then that is in their right to do so, and who are we to tell them otherwise?

Conclusion
I hope this has cleared up a little bit of a very murky situation. Like I said earlier, I don't support one side or the other at the moment. I see the good and bad points in both sides. I need more time and information before I cast my vote.
The test of whether this revolution was pro-democracy or pro-dictator will be if they stay true to their word, and have free and fair elections in 6-8 months. If they do that, then their revolution has my support. If they don't, and simply appoint a strongman to power, then I will condemn their revolution as a subversion of democracy.        

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