Egyptians impatient for their “revolution” to progress are occupying the squares and streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, Suez and other major cities with the aim of forcing the generals, who have assumed presidential powers, and the government of Essam Sharaf to meet key demands.
Protesters were not impressed with the resignation during Tuesday's mass rally of Deputy Premier Yehya Gamal, a hold-over from the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak. They regarded his removal as an empty gesture: too little, too late.
Fresh innovative actions combined with mass protests can be expected.
In Cairo, activists shut down the Mogamma, the huge administrative complex located on Tahrir Square, the cradle of the revolution. In Alexandria, protesters staged a hartal at the local branch of the Egyptian stock exchange and, in Suez, demonstrators cut a main road to the Suez Canal. A few activists have begun hunger strikes. Protesters vow to remain in place until they receive satisfaction after five long months of waiting for the military and the government to deliver.
Resentment peaked last week when Suez rose in fury after a court granted bail to seven police officers accused of killing protesters during the 18-day uprising in January-February. Thousands of angry supporters joined the families of victims demanding justice. The only police official so far convicted of murder during this period was a low-level figure tried in absentia because he had gone into hiding.
Protesters are calling for the resignation of Interior Minister Mansour al-Issawi who refused to fire 400 police officers accused of killing 846 people during the uprising. Sharaf announced a cabinet reshuffle, suggesting the departure of Issawi. But the reshuffle was postponed.
Activists understand that he needs to consult with the generals who are accused of protecting Mubarak and his entourage from prosecution for corruption, abuse, and murder. The generals are also charged with trying to undermine the “revolution” which, organisers argue, has achieved only 10 per cent of its objectives.
Accountability is the most urgent of these objectives. Egyptians demand open trials for former officials, policemen, and other regime backers responsible for torture, killings, corruption, and other crimes. While 20 former ministers and leading personalities of the Mubarak regime are in prison and several have been tried and sentenced, the proceedings have been held in closed courtrooms and sentences have been handed down for corruption rather than capital crimes.
Egyptians are particularly furious over the 12-year sentence imposed on former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly for money-laundering and profiteering. He has not so far been put on trial for ordering police officers and internal security agents to open fire on protesters. Most were shot in the head or chest by snipers.
Egyptians also insist that all senior officials of the Mubarak regime should be purged and that officers of the former ruling National Democratic Party should be barred from public office for a specific period. Activists seek justice for the 7,000 Egyptians arrested and jailed by military courts since the beginning of the uprising, revocation of rulings by such courts against civilians and their referral to civil courts. Egyptians also want fair compensation for the families of those killed and injured during the uprising.
The democracy camp demands that the authority of the ruling military council should be reduced and more power assumed by the interim government. The generals, however, insist they will maintain their power until they can had over to an elected civilian authority but this could happen only after a presidential election which has not yet been scheduled.
Social justice
The main objective of the Egyptian “revolution” is social justice. The immediate demand is for the military-approved budget to be replaced with a budget tailored to help the poor rather than benefit the 40 per cent of Egyptians who live below the poverty line. Under this budget a previously announced tax break for Egypt’s lowest paid workers was dropped while government dropped property and capital gains taxes that benefit the rich, thereby depriving the country of $400 million in revenue.
The return of the “revolutionaries” to Tahrir Square and to mass action has reunited disparate movements, groups and individuals who launched the uprising.During the five months since Mubarak was toppled, they have split into sparring factions. They have carried out contradictory campaigns, established competing political parties, and, with the aim of garnering votes in the coming parliamentary poll, formed unlikely coalitions – like that between the secular Wafd, Egypt's oldest party, and the moderately fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s second oldest.
Unity in Egypt’s squares and streets masks disunity and total confusion on the political scene. If and when the democracy movement achieves its main objectives, the fractious factions might be able to come up with clear political programmes, ending some of the confusion.