An update

Several weeks ago I posted about how responsible the Egyptian military had been while the Revolution of Tehrir Square played out.  Well, over the past couple of weeks we have been witnessing a very different, and at times diametrically opposite, face of the Egyptian military.
Mubarak has been ousted, but he has been replaced by a military regime.  Though the military government purports to be merely transitional, the Egyptian people have quite naturally been less than sanguine about the regime and the intentions of its constituent members.  And so, to ensure that this transitional government does not forget its mandate, crowds of protestors have continued to gather every Friday at Tahrir Square.  And as these protests continue with unabated intensity, reports have been pouring in of dissidents being imprisoned and tortured, journalists being obstructed and suppressed, and just today, we hear news of an Egyptian blogger being sentenced to prison by a military court.
So I fear that I spoke too soon, and was too readily wooed by the men in khaki.  The Egyptian military's supposedly-transitional government is now, by all accounts, a junta.
Vive le revolucion...

The world changed ever so slightly

I was listening to NPR the other day, and the panel of commentators and experts were discussing the labour and union-related protests in Wisconsin.  And as the discussion wound down, one of the panelists said something that gave me pause.  She said that the intensity of the protests in Wisconsin may not let up as soon as one might imagine, and that some of that endurance and resilience could be a direct result of the events in Egypt.  That the power of the masses was tested and proven half a world away in Egypt, and the people in Wisconsin drew strength from this.


Had I heard the mainstream media in America ever speak of events in the Middle East in such terms before?  Arabs had flexed their democratic muscle and how refreshingly odd it was to hear of Americans drawing inspiration from this.  I had become so accustomed to hearing of freedom and democracy as America's primary exports to the world.  But here the current of ideas and ideologies seemed to have changed direction in a way that I would not have predicted as possible a mere month ago.


Perhaps this is a temporary reversal of roles, and perhaps American presumptions about the rest of the world shall in the long term remain unaltered.  But the optimist in me would like to believe that something has changed for good, if ever so slightly.  For once, our gaze in America looks farther away than the limits of red, white and blue.  For once, there is an acknowledgement that the freedom of another people is not being won at the end of American gun-barrels; that the rage of a mass of bearded men is a just rage; that veiled women are women with will and women with voices that can and are heard; and that we who have been lulled into complacence by the warm and fuzzy ideal of 'inalienable rights' have been awakened from our stupor by the voices of men and women we presumed to be mute.


How can we go back to the way we were after all this? 

Egypt, 2011: The military amid the protesters

Protesters graffiti-ed tanks with anti-government slogans; the 

military did not stop them. This tank says, "Down with Mubarak"

and "No to Mubarak". 

The events of the past two weeks in Egypt have been breathtaking to say the least. Images of tens of thousands of people gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square, insisting that their voices be heard, have left us inspired, concerned, jubilant and hopeful.  This is the metaphorical public square reified.
But in all of this, I have been left stunned by the maturity shown by Egypt's military.  As the protests began some thirteen days ago, the one issue I was most curious and concerned about was what the response of the military would be to the situation .  Who would they side with? Would we see a brutal and bloody repression of the largely peaceful protests at the hands of the Egyptian armed forces?  If it were so, it would not have been the first time in the history of the modern world when the military had come to the aid of a regime that found itself in a precarious position.  
I certainly breathed a sigh of relief the day that I woke to the news that the Egyptian army had announced it would not fire on protesters.  How easy it would have been for the army to decide that these protests were disrupting a stable political, economic and social environment (which they are), and thus had to be repressed.  How uncomplicated it would have been for it to side with the powers that be.  But in all of this, the Egyptian military has not taken the easy and uncomplicated way out.  It has decided that its job is not to defend the Egyptian regime, but the Egyptian people; that it is a neutral entity when it comes to political stances and changes, and it is not for the military to decide which way the socio-political sands shall be allowed to shift.  

Over the past two weeks we have seen them act as arbiters of order, without ever attempting to muffle the voices of dissent in a sham of orderliness.  They have acted as a bedrock of strength amidst the throngs of protesters, without ever actively flexing its military muscle. There were moments when the seemingly miraculous balance achieved seemed to tip in the direction of violence - all it would have taken was one bullet fired by a uniformed soldier.  But the Egyptian military's promise to the Egyptian people has held.  
I can only hope that this maturity and foresight holds strong in the weeks, months and years ahead, as Egypt and its people undoubtedly face turbulent and uncertain times ahead.  I will watch, with baited breath, to see if the Egyptian military continues to respect its mandate as a defender of the nation's people, and not the brokers of power and authority.