It’s a pity that the Egyptian Army is again in control, thanks to the follies of Morsi’s misadventures.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: So, the inevitable has happened in Egypt — you can’t enforce a one-sided agenda on a pluralistic society as it will backfire sooner than later. And in Egypt, it got all reversed within one year. We all know that initially the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) was not part of the revolution which overthrew Mubarak’s dictatorship. It joined the winning bandwagon at a later stage and won the elections only because of better organisation.
As the MB was the only established seasoned political party while liberals were disorganised and couldn’t get under one umbrella, therefore, the result was obvious. But even then, Mursi won with a thin majority. He could have been acceptable to other factions of society, provided he had behaved as president of Egypt, not just as a devoted leader of the MB. He was in conflict with the military and the judiciary from day one but had he taken the media and liberal forces on board, he could have saved the day. However he preferred to engage himself in a four-pronged war against the military, the judiciary, the media and the liberal forces.
Now, the MB needs to understand that while the view of its founding members might have helped to spread extremism all across the Islamic world, Egyptian society is not willing to go by that route. The Mursi government’s agenda should have been to boost a faltering economy, reduce unemployment and deal with growing sectarian/religious conflicts, but it concentrated on implementing his party’s one-sided programme.
It’s a pity that the Egyptian Army is again in control, thanks to the follies of Mursi’s misadventures. But for liberals, it is not a time to celebrate. They should not allow the MB to become a political victim at the hands of the army because this may ensure its return to power with a larger majority. Also, it is time for the army not to dream of the old golden days — if a few-million strong crowd in Tahrir Square and elsewhere can bring down secular and religious dictators, then the new rulers should feel that they are sitting in a house of cards.
The ouster of Mursi should also serve as a message for right-wing governments in Pakistan, and that is, do not bank on PR stunts to survive, such as ordering inter-city buses to stop during prayer times and so on. Their only agenda should be to fight the menace of terrorism, not to appease terrorists, and to improve the economy.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2013.
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