ALL IT TOOK WAS ONE SPEECH

Feb 04, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Those behind the protests in Egypt should have consulted with certain local forces before embarking on their ill-advised course to call on their country’s President to step down. They should have restrained themselves and not get carried away with what was taking place in Tunisia. That part of the world is not ready for western-style – or even what is being touted as people’s-power – democracy.
What has ensued since last week has hurt the economy of Egypt and caused unnecessary harm and chaos in that country.
The terrible descent into violence is something that never should have happened, and for which western media corporations, and to an extent western governments, must take some responsibility, since it was the media that led the initial anti-government protesters to believe that they were in the midst of something historic.
And it was western governments which prematurely applied pressure on President Mubarak even before it was clear just what percentage of the population was supporting the Egyptian president.
Had those behind the actions spoken to their counterparts in Guyana who had tried to ferment instability and unrest in Guyana, things would have been different. They would have known, for example, that it would have taken more than one million to topple a regime in a country with more than eighty million.
How can under one per cent of the people in the streets force a sitting head of government to demit office? In Guyana, there were thousands in the streets after the 1997 elections trying to dishonestly achieve what they could not achieve at the ballot. They failed, because governments simply do not catapult to that form of wildness.
Guyanese would have warned them that it is one thing to take to the streets in protest, and another to take the people off the streets. Guyanese would have reminded the Egyptian middle class of its own example, when a certain trade union called a strike and when it was time to call off the strike, the leaders had to be scuttled to safety because their own workers turned on them.
All it took in Egypt was one simple address to the nation by an aging president for confusion to descend within the ranks of the demonstrators. Mubarak showed how wily a politician he was. The demonstrators may have been hoping that he would have been defiant, pledged to stay on, and thus the opportunity to have another day deluding themselves into believing that they were part of something historic.
They may have forced an early announcement from him that he would not run for re-election. But that was always on the cards, given his health and age. But there was no chance that under one per cent of the people could force such a powerful leader, a man who is a national hero, to step aside and allow his country to descend into further chaos because some persons, like those in Iran two years ago, got excited and believed that through social networks they could create some sort of revolution.
All it took is one simple speech by the President of Egypt, in which he made concessions, to throw the entire protest movement into total disarray.
And obviously pro-Mubarak supporters have taken to the streets to demonstrate their support for their president, and this has led unfortunately to terrible acts of violence which ought not to have happened. The anti-Mubarak movement – there is nothing pro-democracy about them – will now struggle to regain the momentum. One speech is all that it took and an entire movement is falling apart.
The struggle is over. Nothing that the international community can say, including appeals for a role for the opposition in the transition process, is going to make any difference.
It is hoped that before that country descends into further violence – which solves nothing – the security forces can secure some of the troubled spots, including the main square in Cairo, which has been the epicentre of the demonstrations and counter demonstrations.
If only those anti-government demonstrators had consulted with their Guyanese counterparts, they would have learnt an important lesson. That change is not brought about by people simply taking to the streets.
What results there is chaos, and Guyana had a lot of chaos which resulted in destruction in the past, and could have advised those in the streets to first organize themselves, find a suitable leader, and interact with the people before making the calls for the President to step down.
The protesters in Egypt have had their day in the sun. They have at least forced an old and sick man to announce what would have eventually been announced: that he would not run again. But that will change nothing in Egypt.
It will not create a western-style democracy, because even those who took to the streets demonstrated that they did not appreciate the sort of responsibility that is needed for political struggle, outside of creating chaos.

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