Still On Egypt And Democracy

The lingering crisis in Egypt over the unconstitutional removal from office of, the democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi should be an eye opener to chance personalities in the various armies in the African Continent on the essence of rules and laws and the dangers of acting on impulse.

In response to opposition induced street protests, Egypt’s high military command, in what has been randomly described  a palace coup, unseated the man who was declared winner of the June 24, 2011 general elections. Understandably, the protesters who seemed pained by the slow pace of democratic reforms naturally found, in the opposition, ready allies, and using the political platform of the National Salvation Front (NSF) penetrated the ranks of the military high command and indeed the country’s judiciary.

But as it turned out, protests alone do not and should not have been enough reason to unseat an elected government. If it were that easy, elections would be unpopular and instability will replace stability in every democracy.

The country’s laws are clear on the process of impeachment, if a given leader is accused of acts of high misdemeanor. Such civilised procedure is the only democratic path germaine enough to cut short the life of an elected government and not public protest.

Now, with the rejection by the Muslim Brotherhood, of the army’s indiscretion in handpicking Egypt’s Chief Justice Adly Mansour, the country has for sometime remained on war path, with many more Egyptian’s  joining the pro-Morsi protest on daily basis.

The question is, since it took a mere public protest for the Egyptian Military to sack an elected government, why cannot another protest of even many more Egyptians restore the elected government?

Often, adventurous military in Africa, misread and misinterpret public protest and yearnings of the people.   Often, they over-estimate their traditional duty to protect the sovereignty and boundaries of the various countries and dabble into politics.

Sadly, whatever the reasons the Egyptian High Military Command had or gave for the removal of President Morsi has been rendered worthless by the increasing and tireless protest by the same Egyptian people.  The slow pace of development, failure to open up the political space and inability to unite the various political interests were some of the reasons advanced for the coup.

But the question is, can the interim government, hand-picked by the military, among them, participants in the June 14 elections which President Morsi won, provide these needs under the prevailing circumstance?  With Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood rejecting any involvement in the interim government, can Egypt ever do it right and return to a progressive and united Post-Mubarak era of rapid development?

The fact remains that the coup has instead compounded Egypt’s problems rather than solve them.  By unseating an elected President, the Egyptian Army has pluned Post-Mubarak Egypt into yet another political unrest which end remains unpredictable; with frightening casualties.

On the last count, apart from four protesters killed last week, as many as 400 pro-Morsi protesters were arrested early this week,  and detained in various high security persons, while President Morsi himself has not been seen in public since his over-throw.  The situation calls for urgent attention and action by the global community.

This is why The Tide commends the African Union (AU) for summoning the required courage to not merely condemning the coup, but also suspending Egypt from the Continental Assembly.  The Egyptian Army should realize by now that no where in modern democracy are minorities allowed a way without proper lobby. It is the majority that does.

If the Morsi electoral victory and the raging protest that attended his unjust removal are any leads to go by, then it should be clear that the Muslim Brotherhood  enjoys significant support of majority of Egyptian people. Such a political force should not have been underestimated.

In which  ever way it is viewed, the opposition-induced coup amount to an attempt to snatch through the back-door what the National Salvation Front and other  opposition politicians, backed by the military, failed to get on June 14, 2011.

The right thing to do is to restore President Morsi to power or at least negotiate his ouster, if indeed his performance fall short, parliament could have considered impeachment or the opposition should have mobilized sufficiently for the next parliamentary election to rest power. That is how democracy works.

It is the abuse of rules by chance personalities in the military with the connivance of bad losers within the political class that near frequently plunge fledgind democracies in African countries into avoidable anarchy and paint a gory picture of African democracies.