Week of unrest weakens Egypt's Morsi
2013-01-31 07:51
Cairo - Egypt's Islamist president has been significantly
weakened by a week of violent protests across much of the country, with his
popularity eroding, the powerful military implicitly criticising him and some
of his ultraconservative Islamist backers distancing themselves from him.
In his seven months since becoming Egypt's first freely
elected president, Mohammed Morsi has weathered a series of crises. But the
liberal opposition is now betting the backlash against him is so severe that he
and his Muslim Brotherhood will be forced to change their ways, breaking what
critics say is their monopolising of power.
Critics claim that Morsi's woes are mostly self-inflicted,
calling him overconfident and out of sync with the public. Now the relatively
high death toll - around 60 - the spread of protests and the use of excessive
force by the police are feeding a wave of anger at the Egyptian leader and the
Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which he hails and which is the foundation
of his administration.
Morsi did not help matters when he addressed the nation on Sunday
night in a brief but angry address in which he at times screamed and wagged his
finger. In that speech, he slapped a 30-day state of emergency and curfew on
three Suez Canal provinces hit the hardest by the violence and vowed to take
even harsher measures if peace is not restored.
In response, the three cities defied the president in a rare
open rebellion that handed him an embarrassing loss of face.
Thousands in the cities of Port Said, Ismailiya and Suez
took to the streets on Monday and Tuesday just as the 21:00 curfew went into
force. Underlining their contempt for him, they played soccer games, stores
stayed open and there were even firework displays - all while troops deployed
in Port Said and Suez stood by and watched.
Morsi was forced to back down somewhat and authorised the
local governors to ease the measures. All three quickly did on Wednesday,
reducing the hours of curfew from nine hours to as short as three.
Mounting woes
The main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front,
demands Morsi create a national unity government and rewrite controversial
parts of the constitution that the Brotherhood and other Islamists rammed
through to approval last month. A broader government, they insist, is the only way
to ease the violence and start dealing with Egypt's mounting woes -
particularly, an economy many fear is collapsing.
The liberals gained an unusual ally on Wednesday: one of the
main political parties of the ultraconservative Islamist movement known as
Salafis, the al-Nour Party, which has usually supported Morsi.
Morsi appears to see no need for concessions. On a quick
visit to Germany on Wednesday, he downplayed the significance of the week's
violence.
"What is happening now in Egypt is natural in nations
experiencing a shift to democracy," Morsi told reporters in Berlin.
There is no need to form a unity government, he added,
because a new government will be formed after parliament elections - expected
in April at the earliest.
Morsi's reply to critics who demand he widen the circle of
decision-making has been to invite opponents to a national dialogue conference
to discuss key issues. Almost all opposition parties have refused, calling the
conference window-dressing for Brotherhood domination. The conference has held
multiple sessions, mainly attended by Morsi's Islamist allies.
Morsi's supporters - and some of his aides - accuse the
opposition of condoning violence and trying to overturn the democratic results
of elections that brought Morsi and the Brotherhood to power.
Meanwhile, anger on the streets is mounting. Politicians may
call for a unity government, but a growing bloc of the protesters say Morsi
must go outright.
Future generations
The wave of resentment has engulfed the three Canal cities
along with Cairo, Alexandria on the Mediterranean and a string of cities to the
north and south of the capital. Protesters have clashed with police, cut off
roads and railway lines, and besieged government offices and police stations.
The fury has been further fanned by reports that the police
in Port Said at the northern tip of the Suez Canal randomly fired at
protesters, killing innocent bystanders. In Cairo, protesters are seething over
what they call the excessive use of tear gas and birdshot in clashes that have
left three dead and hundreds injured.
Some protesters now demand Morsi be tried for killing
protesters just as Mubarak before him was. Mubarak was convicted in June and
sentenced to life in prison for failing to prevent the killing of some 900
protesters during the 2011 uprising against him. On appeal, a court has ordered
his retrial.
"This man [Morsi] is responsible for the killings but
no one is trying him. Is he above the law?" said Ashraf Helmi, a protester
in Port Said.
In Cairo, protester Mabrouk Hassan Abu-Zeid, 26, said he
expected things to get so much worse.
"A failed state? I see much more than that on the
horizon. There could be a revolution by the hungry," he said near Tahrir
Square as fellow protesters hurled stones at police firing tear gas.
In comments to cadets on Tuesday, the army chief and defence
minister, General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, made what was seen by many as an
implicit warning to Morsi that he must do something.
He said if political forces can't end their difference over
how to run the country, it "could lead to the collapse of the state and
threaten future generations".
There was no threat, implicit or otherwise, of a coup in the
comments by el-Sissi, who many in Egypt suspected to have made a deal with
Morsi when the president appointed him in August.
Single faction
But military analyst and retired army general Hossam Sweilam
said they conveyed the "gravity" of the situation and the possibility
that it could a reach point where the armed forces could no longer stand by
without intervening.
"General el-Sissi understands the Brotherhood well and
they will not be able to play him," he said. "Even if he was loyal to
them at some point in the past, he is aware now that he is being closely
watched by his own men."
Egypt's military saw its reputation tainted in the nearly 17
months it spent at the helm following Mubarak's ouster, with rights activists
blaming the generals for mismanaging the transition to democratic rule and
widespread human rights abuses. The top brass handed over power to Morsi
following his June election, but tried to keep many of his powers.
Morsi struck back in August, forcing out the army chief and
replacing him with el-Sissi.
The military remains widely popular and revered as the
nation's protector. Some privately speak of their wish to see the military rid
them of Morsi, his Brotherhood and other Islamists, provided the army's rule is
short.
Now Salafis appear less willing to stand by Morsi, who has
relied heavily on their support. Salafis won nearly 25% of parliament's seats
in elections held in late 2011 and early 2012, in which the Brotherhood won
around 50%.
After his talks with the Salvation Front on Wednesday,
al-Nour Party leader Younis Makhyoun told reporters that Egypt must not be left
in the hands of "a single faction", a thinly veiled reference to
Morsi and his Brotherhood.
"There must be a real partnership," he added.
Domination by Brotherhood
It is not clear at this stage how durable any co-operation
would be between the Front and al-Nour, which are on the opposite ends of the
political spectrum.
Al-Nour and other Salafis were key in ensuring passage of
the constitution, which has a distinct Islamist slant and which liberals
vehemently oppose. Salafis also push relentlessly for strict implementation of
Shariah in Egypt, a mainly Muslim nation of 85 million people, and take a
hardline stand on the rights of women and minority Christians.
But Salafis, too, worry about domination by the Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood is so confident in its own strength it
thinks it doesn't need anyone's support, said Hamada Nassar, a spokesman for
the political arm of the onetime jihadist Gamaa Islamiya group.
"The popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood in the street
is eroding," he said, "but its leaders think that if they nominate a
rock to run for parliament, it will win".
- SAPA
