It seems as if Egyptians are facing an armed forces-backed judicial coup against their mandate.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: Is history going to repeat itself? The West or regimes backed by it have often refused to accept the popular mandate in the Arab world. This happened first in 1991 in the case of Algeria and then when elections were held in the West Bank and Gaza. We also know that the result of such a policy was that resentment and anger against the West, in fact, grew in that part of the world.
One wonders whether the dissolution of the legislature in Egypt by its highest judicial court is yet another example of this phenomenon. It seems as if Egyptians are facing an armed forces-backed judicial coup against their mandate. The result of the court’s verdict is that it has practically given the legislative powers to the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces. Perhaps, the armed forces and judiciary nexus is looking forward to working with an incoming president who will have neither a parliament nor a constitution — and this will mean that, in effect, the status quo will continue.
Though Egypt’s military has pledged to formally hand over power to a new president by July 1, the fact of the matter is that this may be more of an academic exercise with real power still remaining with the generals. It’s true that old traditions of dictatorship don’t die in one day — let’s hope that this difficult time will pass without bloodshed on Cairo’ streets.
Masood Khan
Published In The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2012.
