Discovering MENA and other thoughts

"The #MubarakTrial is a wake-up call for all revolutionary factions in Egypt" Saturday November 28th was a bleak day for Egypt. What had already been called the "Trial of the century" winded up with celebrations inside the Cairo Criminal Court and tears of impotence throughout the whole country. Mubarak was brought to the defendants' cage on a gurney and, as always, wore dark glasses and a navy blue cardigan. He looked both impassible and more distant than ever. The judge was unambiguous and tried to appear neutral when declaring: “it is not suitable for a former President to be taken to a Criminal Court.” And just like that, the dictator who ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years and whose ouster sparked chants of joy and idealistic dreams - both inside and outside the country - was cleared of all charges linked to the killing of protesters back in 2011.

Stefan Zweig said that "those who announce they are fighting for God are always the less peaceful men on earth." This is a quote that might well help many to understand the role religion plays in today’s Egyptian political scene. Religion had a lot to do with the July 3, 2013 coup: one of the pillars of public dissatisfaction the Army used as an excuse to overthrow Mohammed Morsi was fear that Egypt could become a theocracy at the behest of the Muslim Brotherhood. Religion is being used since then as a "weapon of submission" to the new regime: the new Constitution retains Article 2 of previous texts, according to which the principles of sharia are the main source of legislation prohibiting, though, the existence of political parties based on religion. After the 2013 coup, General Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi proclaimed all of that had been necessary to "save Islam and Egyptians from the Muslim Brotherhood."

Dijo Charles Bukowski que ” la diferencia entre una democracia y una dictadura consiste en que en la democracia puedes votar antes de obedecer las órdenes”. Una vez que unas cosméticas elecciones presidenciales proclamaron vencedor al nuevo héroe nacional, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Egipto bien puede definirse a sí mismo como democracia, una en la que no obstante las órdenes ya tenían que ser obedecidas antes de las urnas, y ello en un entorno de completa arbitrariedad. El golpe de estado del 3 de julio de 2013, seguido por las masacres del pasado mes de agosto, llevó a muchos a hablar de un retorno a la casilla de salida, esta última representada por la Plaza Tahrir que un puñado de jóvenes revolucionarios decidieron ocupar el 25 de enero de 2011, sentando las bases para una Revolución que inspiraría a jóvenes y no tan jóvenes a lo largo y ancho del planeta. Precisamente de Ucrania, un país en donde millones de idealistas nos han vuelto a recordar el peso de los valores y pr...

Now that both the EU and the Carter Centre have announced they will not be electoral observers ( except that the EU will finally be ) in the Presidential vote scheduled in Egypt for May 26th and 27th (coincidentally, elections will also take place around these days in the EU itself, Ukraine and Colombia), the tone is set for murmuring and gossipping. Although both organizations have cited different reasons behind their decisions, the truth is that many others seem to have pop up in our minds:

Sometimes, it seems as though the only factors which contribute to sketch the future of the Middle East, most of them I laid out in this article , are out of the control of the citizens: sectarianism, repression, foreign intervention, coups (or non-coups)... However, and even though democracy may (still) not be seen as the key strength of the region, several elections are taking place in many of its countries. Concretely eight, nothing less, and in what many consider key countries that do have a say in regional - and often international - issues. This is why, although many may feel tempted to dismiss those events as procedural or even cosmetic moves, we all should take a closer look at the previous steps and the outcome of these votes.