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State-owned Al Akhbar first page
Saf7one |
And at last Presidential Candidate
Abdel Fatah El-Sisi spoke to the public after leaving his position as minister of defense and declaring his candidacy. He spoke and we saw him. He spoke in TV and press interviews throughout last week. We saw him now as a presidential candidate or rather a president-in-waiting.
Yes he is a president-in-waiting , waiting only to be announced as the official president of Egypt next 5 June 2014 as far as I see it. He is being interviewed as a president already not as a presidential candidate. He is being treated as a president not as a Presidential candidate. Just watch his interviews and see how the TV
hosts are interviewing him or how they asked him and you will know that they look to him as a president already in fear and superficial respect.
He spoke not on air or to the public but rather in heavily edited interviews recorded at armed forces owned Al Masaa Hotel in Nasr City in special studios and halls. He spoke and his words were featured in the newspapers as a president in bold red and black headlines and fonts in the Front Pages.
He met with delegations of so-called representatives of the society whether women , businessmen , journalists , athletes , leftists and religious in a copycat scenes from the Mubarak’s era. It is like a new NDP-era in making with new as well old faces from that bloody era we thought that we ended. It is like 2005 all over again.
He spoke and he said the following in his interviews and meetings edited and revised by his campaign.
We should Forget about Freedoms and Democracy in his time , we will have democracy in Egypt after 25 years. Already Western democracy does not suite Egypt , needless to say nobody told him about the democracies in India , Japan and South Korea or in South America. Freedoms can harm the nation and so it is better to choose nation over freedoms.
As much as he said “I” in his published meetings and interviews , he ignored democracy. We do not know what he would do from political reforms but we know that he is from the same school of former PM Ahmed Nazif and late VP Omar Suleiman that believes the Egyptian people are not ready for democracy now.
He spoke with the editors in chief of major Egyptian newspapers and asked them not to criticize officials all the time and that it was better to unite our views and opinions in for the sake of the nation. Just like Putin , he would put an end to that chaos in the social media or rather the “Network” as he called it.
After all if you think about it 25 January and 28 January protests started as Facebook events after years of online activism in social media.
El-Sisi spoke and said that he would not cancel the unconstitutional protest law nor he would amend it. He won’t pardon any protester imprisoned because of that law.
Already the man believes that protest and strikes bring down the country despite the fact technically he is now running for the presidential position because of protests on 30 June , 3 July and 26 July 2013.
Forget about police and ministry of interior’s reforms or human rights , not time for them now as well.
As much as he ignored democracy in his talk , as much as he spoke negatively about freedoms , he spoke about the army where he belonged to and belongs to actually admirably and fondly. Sometimes he forgot and said “We”. Forget about the parliamentary supervision on the army according to the Constitution because the “army is a great institution and all Egypt should be like the army” as he said.
He believes that the military men should govern the borders governorates despite their fiascos when we speak about civil administration for decades. Despite the current constitution says that the governors should be elected , they will be appointed in his term as a president.
He hinted that the Egyptian army was ready to assist any Arab country in its war against terrorism hinting out over and over to Libya and then I realized that someone in the Egyptian armed forces forgot the lesson of Yemen war. He said it before that at least two generations had to sacrifice so other generations would live after.
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He said that he was a Muslim Egyptian who saved Islam in Egypt through ousting Mohamed Morsi. He believes that people should be disciplined and that a problem like sexual harassment will end if people are committed to the true Islamic teachings.
El-Sisi spoke and said that there would be No reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood , in fact there will be no Muslim Brotherhood in his time as a president. Of course he is not the first to say this , Nasser tried to do with this an failed because the MB is based upon thought.
It is worth to mention that that statement came after weeks of leaks in newspapers that he would reconcile with the MB after being elected as president.
Also it is fair to say that Hamdeen Sabbahi promised that there would be no reconciliation too.
El-Sisi spoke that there would be no Islamist political trends in Egypt anymore in his time in president. He gave one hell of a blow to
Al Nour Party after it announced its endorsement. The poor Pro-regime Salafist party was working hard since the days of Morsi and marketing itself in US and EU countries that it would be the next majority party in the parliament but what you know !!!
He said that there would be no more Islamist political parties in accordance with the Constitution and Al Nour Party claims that it could not be omitted from the political scene thanks to the second article of the Current Constitution.
1Ironically I remember that Western politicians whether from the United States and EU speaking day and night about the importance of inclusivity in Egypt and so on. I do not know if they know about his exclusion plans in Egypt or not. I presume he told Baroness Catherine Ashton that he would not let any Islamist political trends anymore in Egypt.
Jumping to economy , I do not understand what kind of economic policies he is going to adopt honestly. You may think that he is speaking about
open market system but then in his TV interview you will find him speaking about a direct state control whether in food supply or in projects.
Already according to El-Sisi if the government failed to do the projects in time , the army would jump to rescue !! The army again and its involvement in economy and civil life.
In his economic vision , the next president of Egypt who wears an OMEGA watch believes that Egyptians should adopt austerity attacking at the same time labor strikes accusing people of “Eating Egypt”. In the same vision he admits that he would continue to borrow aids from other countries. He will cancel subsidies and at the same time he warns from the hunger revolution !!
El-Sisi spoke and those who believed he would return Egypt to its glorious days where it would lead the Arab world and Africa if not the Universe under the rule of Field marshal found him praising King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia describing him as the great Wise man of the Arabs !!
Now neither Nasser nor Sadat would say that ever.
El-Sisi spoke and we realized that he is not Nasser or Sadat or Ataturk , he is the product of the Egyptian society and regime in the past 30 years of Mubarak’s rule with all its cons and pros. In the end He is an army officer who served in the Egyptian army , which technically a closed military conservative institution during 3 decades of Egypt’s ultimate social , political and cultural decline.
What I saw a man without a true vision for Egypt , all what I saw in front of me on the TV was a man who is trying to the old days of the status quo or rather the stagnation of the past 30 years searching to engrave in the history of that old country that saw all sort of rulers.
“Why to try again , we tried and failed” He said that in his ONTV/CBC interview.
I am worried on the future of Egypt and the future of the Egyptian armed forces so much especially that the army commanders are insisting to get involved more and more in politics.
Now with all that presidential cult growing madly , talk about military intervention in Libya “Another post” and end to freedoms and democracy officially , I feel that we are heading in to a disaster like a crazy uncontrollable train carrying a hydrogen bomb heading towards a cliff !! We are rewinding the same mistakes of Nasser whether the political mistakes or the military adventures and unfortunately we are in much worse position than in 1960s strangely and ironically.
We need a divine miracle without doubt.
Notes1.
The Islamic Sharia is the main source of legislation in Egypt
