Three years ago today, Egypt shocked the world when a populist revolt forced Hosni Mubarak from power. The people of Egypt accomplished what many skeptics thought was impossible — a democratic revolution.
The Egyptian Revolution will become one of the major moments in history to define the millennial generation.
Fast forward three years, and Egypt is almost back to where it was before the revolution. But democratic institutions have awakened that didn’t exist before.
The revolution embodied the hopes and dreams of the world’s Muslims, Christians, liberals and secularists. The April 6 Youth Movement — a labor-based liberal movement — organized the early demonstrations, but the Muslim Brotherhood quickly gained significance, especially after Mubarak’s fall.
In the aftermath of the revolution, the military took over with the full support of the Egyptian people.
After the revolution, the people passed a constitutional referendum which didn’t make the major election reforms the public wanted. It catered to the Muslim Brotherhood instead of the broad revolutionary coalition. The 2011 constitution also didn’t curb the power of the military over public policy, which leftists wanted.
The Muslim Brotherhood betrayed the liberal revolutionaries. The Left boycotted the presidential and parliamentary elections, but the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists jumped in and ran.
As a result, the Muslim Brotherhood and the far-right Al-Nour Party swept into power and took over the parliament. Mohammed Morsi became president.
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood betrayed the spirit of the revolution and chose power instead of change. As expected, Morsi, who before entering power spoke about freedom of speech and protest, started to jail journalists, satirists, activists and liberals who opposed him on the streets. He had criticized the dictatorial power of Mubarak, but once in power he passed presidential decrees that placed himself above the law.
Mohamed ElBaradei, who was the main leader of the liberal opposition, said Morsi had “usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh.”
On top of the brutal repression of the regime under Morsi, the economy continued to slip further into turmoil. This made the lives of ordinary Egyptians continually worse.
The liberal opposition to both the military and the Muslim Brotherhood began protests, and civil unrest began to brew much like it had before Mubarak fell in 2011. The same April 6 Youth Movement led a coalition of leftist and liberal groups to Tahrir Square again, except this time it was directed against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Major protests broke out on June 30 in Tahrir Square and other cities. By the time July 1 rolled by, the protests grew into millions. This forced the military to act against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. On July 3, General Sisi led the coup d’état against Morsi and announced that Adly Mansour would be the interim president until new elections are held.
I supported the controversial coup because the military needed to respond to the grievances of the massive protests.
The military threw Morsi under the bus just like they did with Mubarak. In the aftermath of the coup, the military crushed the Islamist protesters in the streets, killings thousands. The total body count surpassed both Mubarak and Morsi, which in turn led to resignations of the newly appointed Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei and other interim liberal figures.
Today, it appears Egypt has gone full circle from military dictatorship to new democracy and back to military dictatorship. That conclusion is true yet misleading.
Egypt has democratic institutions that were either nonexistent or a joke previously. A new presidential election is scheduled for this spring, and the world will see if the Egyptian people can prove that revolution can lead to democracy in the Middle East.
Joshua Hajiakbarifini is a 24-year-old political science and economics senior from Baton Rouge.
Three years ago today, Egypt shocked the world when a populist revolt forced Hosni Mubarak from power. The people of Egypt accomplished what many skeptics thought was impossible — a democratic revolution.
The Egyptian Revolution will be one of the major moments in history that will define the millennial generation.
Fast forward three years, and Egypt is almost back to where it was. But democratic institutions have awakened that didn’t exist before.
The revolution embodied the hopes and dreams of the world’s Muslims, Christians, liberals and secularists. The April 6 Youth Movement — a labor-based liberal movement — organized the early demonstrations, but the Muslim Brotherhood quickly gained significance especially after Mubarak’s fall.
In the aftermath of the revolution, the military took over with the full support of the Egyptian people.
After the revolution, the people passed a constitutional referendum which didn’t make major election reforms the public wanted. It catered to the Muslim Brotherhood instead of the broad revolutionary coalition. The 2011 constitution also didn’t curb the power of the military over public policy, which leftists wanted.
The Muslim Brotherhood betrayed the liberal revolutionaries. The Left boycotted the presidential and parliamentary elections, but the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists jumped in and ran.
As a result, the Muslim Brotherhood and the far-right Al-Nour Party swept into power and took over the parliament and Mohammed Morsi became president.
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood betrayed the spirit of the revolution and chose power instead of change. As expected, Morsi, who before entering power spoke about freedom of speech and protest, started to jail journalists, satirists, activists and liberals who opposed him on the streets. Morsi, who once criticized the dictatorial power of Mubarak, passed presidential decrees that placed himself above the law.
Mohamed ElBaradei, who was the main leader of the liberal opposition, said Morsi had, “usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh.”
On top of the brutal repression of the regime under Morsi, the economy continued to slip further into economic turmoil. This made the lives of ordinary Egyptians continually worse.
The liberal opposition to both the military and the Muslim Brotherhood began protests, and civil unrest started brewing much like it did before Mubarak fell in 2011. The same April 6 Youth Movement led a coalition of leftist and liberal groups to Tahrir Square again, except this time it was directed against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Major protests broke out on June 30 in Tahrir Square and other cities. By the time July 1 rolled by, the protests grew into millions. This forced the military to act against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. On July 3, General Sisi led the coup d’état against Morsi and announced that Adly Mansour would be the interim president until new elections are held.
I supported the controversial coup because the military needed to respond to the grievances of the massive protests.
The military threw Morsi under the bus just like they did with Mubarak. In the aftermath of the coup, the military crushed the Islamist protesters in the streets, killings thousands. The total body count surpassed both Mubarak and Morsi, which in turn led to resignations of the newly appointed Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei and other interim liberal figures.
Today, it appears Egypt has gone full circle from military dictatorship to new democracy and back to military dictatorship. That conclusion is true yet misleading.
Egypt has democratic institutions that were either nonexistent or a joke previously. The presidential election is scheduled for this spring, and the world will see if the Egyptian people can prove that revolution can lead to democracy in the Middle East.
Joshua Hajiakbarifini is a 24-year-old political science and economics senior from Baton Rouge.