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(I have heard from a very reliable source that Anthony Shadid's heart is
in the right place.)
NY Times February 4, 2011
Discontented Within Egypt Face Power of Old Elites
By ANTHONY SHADID
CAIRO — It was proclaimed as “the Friday of departure,” but neither the
demonstrators who proved their staying power as a force for change nor
their nemesis, President Hosni Mubarak, left. Now a prolonged collision
is shaping up between a staggering but entrenched old guard and an
outpouring of Egypt’s discontented over how fast and how deep the
changes will be.
In a contest of image, perception and power, the rebellion pits those
disenfranchised by Mr. Mubarak’s government against a still formidable
array built around the military and security apparatus and a fabulously
wealthy clique enriched by connections with the governing party.
Both revolt and reaction have offered their narrative — change and chaos
— with the Information Ministry fanning popular discontent over an
uprising that has devastated Egypt’s economy. But a revolution is not a
referendum, and in an 11-day battle that has seen momentum shift almost
by the day, each faces the resilience of the other.
Even as it sheds some of its support, the government remains determined
not to surrender what it deems its prestige. Mr. Mubarak’s leadership is
one symbol of that, but even if he leaves, the old guard may well dig in
to obstruct open elections and true civilian rule. The government
retains a monopoly on armed violence, the state’s arsenal in its hands.
But despite organizers’ own lurking fears, the uprising has proved its
ability to turn out thousands into the streets, in a remarkable show of
steadfastness that has left the government no option but to engage it.
“There are a lot of Fridays left,” said Tayssir Ibrahim, a protester in
Tahrir Square here.
Egypt’s revolution is far from decided, but the country will never be
the same. As the government begins to fall back on itself, inciting
fears of foreigners, mobilizing provocateurs and cracking down on its
opposition, it faces an ever fiercer revolutionary fervor, with ever
more sweeping demands.
“It’s in the streets now,” said Omar Ghoneim, a businessman. “It’s the
people of Egypt protesting. We have no future. Either we die, or this
regime goes completely.”
Since a group of officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew the
monarchy in 1952, its corpulent king leaving behind a vast collection of
pornography, the government has sought to claim the mantle of peasants
and workers. Especially in the past decade, it has shed that pretense,
concentrating its power around the military — long beyond criticism in
the Egyptian media — as well as the loathed Interior Ministry, a
governing party skilled in patronage and a clique of the very wealthy,
many loyal to Mr. Mubarak’s son, Gamal.
Since the revolt, the military has surged to the forefront, emerging as
the pivotal player in politics it long sought to manage behind the
scenes. The beneficiary of nearly $40 billion in American aid during Mr.
Mubarak’s rule, its interests span the gamut of economic life — from the
military industry to businesses like road and housing construction,
consumer goods and resort management. Even leading opposition leaders,
like Mohamed ElBaradei, have acknowledged that the military will have a
key role in a transition.
The protesters’ demands have grown, in part, in a reflection of the way
the state’s other pillars are staggering. The police have collapsed,
only gingerly returning to the streets, and unlike a week ago, its
forces made no attempt on Friday to block the protesters’ way.
“Its security apparatus is not an immediate player,” said Khaled Fahmy,
a professor at the American University of Cairo who was at the protests
on Friday.
More striking is the way the government has begun shedding the business
elite that surrounded it only months ago. Officials have announced the
freezing of assets and a prohibition on travel for Ahmed Ezz, a hated
steel magnate and leading member of the governing party, and for Rashid
Mohammed Rashid, a former minister of trade and industry, Ahmed
el-Maghraby, a former housing minister, and Zuheir Garana, a former
minister of tourism. (The travel ban meant little for Mr. Rashid; he was
in Dubai when the announcement was made.)
“We decided on eliminating all businessmen,” Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq
said Friday of his cabinet in an interview with Al Arabiya, an Arabic
satellite channel, in a gesture toward protesters who have made Mr. Ezz
a symbol of everything corrupt about the state.
“Scapegoats,” Ali Moussa, a leading businessman in Egypt and former
chairman of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, said of the ministers (though
not Mr. Ezz).
“It’s a sign of weakness, a well-known game that happens all the time,”
he added.
A dirtier struggle has played out in the streets, where the vision of
protesters has collided so viscerally with the oldest tactics of an
authoritarian state that, as Mr. Shafiq made clear, has begun
retrenching itself. The military police have arrested 30 human rights
activists, and an office of the Muslim Brotherhood was raided Friday.
Government supporters, some wielding machetes, kitchen knives and a
Cairene version of a shank, attacked scores of foreign journalists.
The protesters tried to offer a counterpoint to the government’s
aggressive image on Friday, in what seemed a growing struggle to define
the way that people would be led in the transition. “We’re sorry for any
inconvenience we’re causing you,” guards said as they frisked people.
What is so striking about Egypt’s tumult is the ardor that protesters
have brought to an idea of community. In some ways, Egypt’s revolution
has already happened.
In a country made miserable by the petty humiliations of authority,
Egyptians were welcomed to the square with boisterous greetings. “Thank
God for your safety,” men organized as guards declared. “Welcome,
heroes!” others cried. “Come on and join the square.” Most poignantly,
they simply chanted, “These are the Egyptian people.”
Throughout the day, by accident or intention, tens of thousands of
people seemed determined to disprove every cliché that the elite has
offered to justify its repression of a people that Mr. Mubarak, as
recently as an interview on Thursday, insisted would descend into chaos
without him.
No one pushed unduly as they waited to pass concertina wire strung by
the military across the entrance. They waited as men prayed, bowing
their heads on Egyptian flags that served as prayer rugs. The menacing
harassment of women was nowhere to be seen. Volunteers ferried in bread,
cheese, honey, juice and milk, along with medicine, some of which was
provided by a pharmacist who gave a 20 percent discount for the cause.
Guards at the barricades wore helmets — actually, kitchen bowls
converted for a fight — that bore the slogan “The government of the
revolution.”
“God is great,” people chanted, “and the revolution is growing.”
In a way, the contest has begun to pit two perceptions of power:
sanctioned or imposed.
Protester after protester made the point that the government’s prestige
was broken, most remarkably by the young men in Tahrir Square who for
two days fought off government supporters once routinely deployed to
intimidate voters in sham elections and small crowds of protesters.
“Heroes,” they called the young men.
“The people are stubborn now,” said Nasser el-Sherif, a 24-year-old
student, sitting near a grandmother, Um Ibrahim Abdel-Mohsin, who had
ferried rocks to the barricades for two days. “You want to beat us up?
We’ll kick you out, and it’s our right.”
“We’re not compromising our freedom anymore,” Mr. Sherif added.
Near him was scrawled graffiti. “Victory is with the patient,” it said.
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