Anti-Morsy protests bring hundreds of thousands together

http://www.egyptindependent.com/

Although it appeared less crowded than Tuesday’s million-person rally, Friday’s protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and elsewhere gathered hundreds of thousands.

Protesters demanded the revocation of President Mohamed Morsy's controversial powers and immunity from judicial oversight, which the president bestowed upon himself on 22 November through a constitutional declaration.

Protesters throughout Egypt’s squares also denounced the new draft constitution – which opponents claim has been rushed through by Islamist parties which dominate the Constituent Assembly.

“The people demand the fall of the regime,” and “depart” - slogans used against toppled President Hosni Mubarak last year during the 25 January protests – came back to the streets against the new regime.

The Egyptian Social Democratic Party hung up a large banner in Tahrir reading, “a constitution for Egyptians…Down with the unconstitutional declaration.” The Constitution Party hung up banners around the square reading: “No to the constitutional declaration. No legal immunity for the Constituent Assembly. No to the monopolization of power. No to a new dictatorship. No to the bloodshed of Egyptians.”

Bloodshed has been feared following calls by the Muslim Brotherhood to organize pro-Morsy rallies in the vicinity of Tahrir Square. A planned pro-president rally on Saturday was eventually moved to the Cairo University area in Giza. 

The founder of the Constitution Party, former Chief of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei took to a stage near Tahrir where he addressed a sea of protesters. “This is an uprising for our freedom and dignity, this is an uprising to protect our noble revolution. This uprising is taking place in squares across the country,” he told the crowd.  

ElBaradei spelled out his demands to Morsy and the ruling regime: to revoke the constitutional declaration, embark on a national dialogue with opposition forces, dissolve the current Constituent Assembly and to establish a new and representative one.

“We will utilize all peaceful means to resist the regime’s injustices, and to realize the goals of our revolution: Bread, freedom, social justice, and human dignity” said ElBaradei. In response, protesters chanted: “Bread, freedom, down with the Constituent Assembly.”

Following ElBaradei’s speech, a middle-aged protester took to the stage and shouted, “Just like we deposed Mubarak, we will bring down Morsy’s Constituent Assembly and his declaration; And if he refuses to do so then we will depose Morsy himself.” Responding to his riling speech, the protesters chanted “batil”, the Arabic word for “Illegitimate.”

Female activist Kareema al-Hefnawi addressed the massive crowd asking: “Did anybody understand any of Morsy’s excuses during his (televised) address last night?” The masses replied “No!” Hefnawi denounced Morsy’s constitutional declaration and described him as a tyrant. “Dictator, dictator… Morsy’s (downfall) is next in line,” chanted the female activist.

Judge Ashraf al-Baroudi then took to the stage and said, “A constitution which does not represent all Egyptians is not worth being drafted in the first place.” The justice added, “it is the people who are the source of all authorities, not the president. In the past the people were conditioned to fear the ruler; but today it is the ruler who will fear the people.”

Layla Marzouk, mother of the deceased activist Khaled Saeed, known as the “torture martyr” briefly addressed the audience declaring that she is neither interested in Morsy’s compensation money, nor his presidency altogether. Marzouk commented that she only wants justice for her son “and justice for all the other martyrs, and their families.”

Clashes that had been raging for several days between protesters and riot-police by the adjacent Simon Bolivar Square came to an end after security forces erected a second concrete barrier on a street leading into the square last night. Nonetheless, tens of young protesters climbed the barrier and chanted slogans against security forces deployed behind it. They shouted: “Filthy government, you sons of filth!”

Tens of tents have been pitched across the square and outside the Mugamaa complex, with many determined to escalate the pressure to push for concessions from the ruling regime.

El-thaura gaya min gedid. La révolution revient.

Ces mots, relayés depuis plusieurs jours par les réseaux sociaux, ont pris une consonnace particulière hier soir après les décrets de Mohammed Morsi.

Certains font même passer le message que c'est "la dernière chance" pour la révolution égyptienne.

En effet, hier soir, alors que les négociation entre Israël et la Palestine étaient terminées, Morsi, le président égyptien issu des Frères musulmans, était attendu pour parler de la situation intérieure en Egypte. Et il y avait de quoi dire: entre dimanche et lundi, on a déploré 60 morts (de jeunes enfants) dans un accident de bus à Assiout, 4 dans des affrontements entre des paysans et l'armée sur un terrain militaire squatté (chiffre officiel, il y en avait probablement plus), et 1 rue Mohammed Mahmoud, où les affrontements entre police et manifestant-es ne cessent pas depuis lundi. On s'attendait donc à ce que Morsi fasse au moins des annonces sur la situtation sociale du pays.

Et bien ce qu'il s'est passé hier soir est bel et bien un coup d'Etat: il s'est octroyé des pouvoirs très étendus, qu'aucun président égyptien n'avait eu jusque là, a assuré l'immunité de la Cour Constitutionnelle, qui travaille actuellement à l'écriture d'une nouvelle constitution et est dominée par les islamistes, a viré le Procureur général du pays, qui lui était défavorable, en s'octroyant au passage des pouvoirs judiciaires, et a laissé entendre qu'il pourrait bien ne pas y avoir d'Assemblée nationale de sitôt, et a déclaré que les décrets présidentiels ne pouvaient pas être remis en cause par d'autres institutions que le Président lui-même....

En gros, il s'auto-proclame dictateur et dissout toutes les institutions qui pourraient lui être hostiles.

Les Frères musulmans ne se sentent évidement plus de joie, et manifestent depuis hier soir pour montrer leur soutien à leur président. Mais en ce nouveau "vendredi de la colère", des milliers de manifestant-es, dont d'anciens candidats à la présidentielle (Mohammed El-Baradei et Hamdeen Sabahy) sont attendu-es de tous les quartiers du Caire pour se rejoindre place Tahrir, où les attendent police et armée...

Actuellement; c'est encore la prière, et les manifs ne partiront qu'après, à voir comment la journée va se passer...

Dans la catégorie du gros foutage de gueule des politicien-nes, la nouvelle annonce du ministre de l'intérieur égyptien de mettre en palce des caméras de vidéo-surveillance au Caire, soi-disant pour lutter contre le harcèlement sexuel. on nous l'avait pas encore sortie celle-là.

petites remarques en passant:

- il y a DEJA des cameras de video-surveillance dans les rues du caire (notamment à Mounira, Maspero, Heliopolis...)

- la video-surveillance comme outil de prévention ne marche pas. par contre pour mettre en place une société de contrôle totalitaire, c'est une bonne étape.

- mettre des caméras, c'est le moyen le plsu facile de faire croire qu'on fait quelque chose alors qu'on ne fait rien

- lutter contre le harcèlement sexuel ne passera pas par des outils techniques, mais par un travail de fond de remise en question du sexisme dans notre société..... pas sur que ce soit le créneau des frères musulmans...

Source: Afrik.com

Lu dans le Wall Street Journal:

Egypt's Liberals Try to Unite

Divided Parties Consider Banding Together to Defeat Powerful Islamists in Parliamentary Elections

By MATT BRADLEY

CAIRO—Some of Egypt's fractious non-Islamist political leaders are trying to get past the clash of egos and ideologies that has divided them and join forces against the Islamist political machine that increasingly dominates the country's young democracy.

At least three separate efforts are under way to build coalitions to present a unified challenge against the better-established, better-organized religious conservatives in parliamentary elections expected within months.

In one recent effort, potential partners met late into the night, taking advice from consultants who specialize in corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Secularists were trounced by the Muslim Brotherhood's party in the last parliamentary elections, but will have a second chance in the coming months after a court order dissolved the Islamist-dominated legislature in May.

Another Islamist victory would give the Brotherhood a dominant role in crafting legislation that would build the foundation of Egypt's emerging democracy. From the perspective of the Brotherhood's opponents, such a loss would mean "that the Islamists are going to change all of Egypt into an Islamic country and it will take 50 to 100 years to win Egypt back," said Mohammed Abu El Ghar, the leader of a push to unify disparate secular-leaning Egyptians behind Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

 

Hamdeen Sabahi, center, is lifted by protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in June after ousted leader Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison.

Yet even the latest attempts at unity have fallen victim to something that has divided Egypt's non-Islamist opposition for generations: competition among leaders to capture the title of Egypt's great liberal uniter.

"The problem is ego," said Shukri Fouad, a leader in the secularist Constitution Party whose stated goal is to offer a big tent to house opposition to the Brotherhood.

"Everyone thinks that he is popular enough or that his party has the chance to have more seats in the Parliament than what he was given within this coalition," said Mr. Fouad, who hasn't yet registered his party for the election.

While the Muslim Brotherhood has religion to unite its followers and a decades-old grass-roots network to organize them, in Egypt's non-Islamist political field, debates about ideology have divided potential leaders from each other and from the voters they hope to represent.

In the latest efforts at forging coalitions capable of defeating the Brotherhood, at least three separate camps offer competing ideologies and boldface names, including former presidential candidates.

One group, the Egyptian Conference Party, is led by former presidential candidate and Arab League head Amr Moussa and made up of several prominent politicians.

Another, the Popular Current, is led by leftist presidential runner-up Hamdeen Sabahi. Mr. Sabahi told local media his outfit has 10,000 membership applications so far.

Messrs. Abu El Ghar and Fouad aim to build yet another liberal coalition. In recent talks led by Mr. Abu El Ghar—with some M&A experts' advice—the six parties reached a tentative formula to determine which candidates would compete in which districts.

Mr. Fouad said he hoped such planning would avert the last election's collapse. Then, plans for a unified party list originally attracted as many as 14 liberal political groups; on the eve of the election, the untested coalition broke down to just three parties amid political infighting. Upstart parties, including those headed by youth leaders whose activism helped spark Egypt's revolution, were left almost entirely unrepresented.

In the end, the liberal bloc took only about 9% of the vote, according to Bassem Sabry, a secular-leaning blogger and commentator.

In a shift from last year, Mr. Abu El Ghar, the head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, said he would even welcome parliamentarians from the ousted ruling party to help beat the Brotherhood, as long as they are first vetted for corruption charges.

Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's Brotherhood-backed president, has pledged to hold elections two months after the Egyptian public votes on a new constitution, which is expected to be completed this fall.

Non-Islamist politicians said the time is ripe for a liberal comeback. Polls showed public disillusionment with the Islamists' in Parliament before the high court dissolved it.

Until Mr. Morsi moved to push the military from power last month, the role of Egypt's armed forces stood as a major point of contention among liberals. With the military sidelined, many hope the groups will have more reason to unite.

Mr. Abu El Ghar said the presidential elections showed that 50% to 60% of Egypt's 83 million people harbor secular-leaning sympathies—even though Islamists won three-fourths of parliament's seats in the last election. Mr. Morsi, despite his backing by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood in June's presidential election, was only able to eke out a narrow victory against a member of the ousted former regime.

Since Mr. Morsi was elected, he has sought to assert power over the once-ruling military and moved to restrict the country's media. Liberals hope that voters will want to check the group's expanding authority by denying it a parliamentary majority.

Yet in a country of religious conservatives, where "secular" is often construed as a byword for immorality or Western interference, many politicians who describe themselves as secular in private eschew the term in public.

If liberals or secularists hope to win, they would do better to shift the political discourse away from religion rather than present themselves as little more than a nonreligious opposition, said Khaled Fahmy, a history professor at the American University in Cairo.

"The liberals are trying to stray away from the identity of the Egyptian people. The people sense this and then reject them," said Mamdouh Ismail, a former member of Parliament for the hard-line Salafi Islamist Authenticity Party. "They are theorists more than they are practical people who work on the ground."