Just like in the bad old days

Jérémie Lebel

Cairo’s Tahrir Square was the central gathering point of the highest-profile protests agains Mubarak, and the scene of wanton brutality and killings. During the last weekend, this blood-stained history became all too familiar again, one short week before the upcoming parliamentarian elections. During the weekend, tens of thousands of protesters invaded the square; some were Islamists, others secular, all there for the “Friday of One Demand”. The protests began on Friday but only took their stride on Saturday in response to police brutality. Police forces used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters. According to the Egyptian Health Ministry, the toll as of Monday Morning is of at least 20 dead and 2000 wounded.

Activists and doctors claim the police deliberately aimed at people’s faces with rubber bullets, and also used live ammunition in a few cases. Rubber bullets are best defined as “less-than-lethal” ammunition, since they can mete out serious injury or death if they strike vulnerable areas of it they’re shot from too close.

Behind the protests is a clear loss of confidence towards the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has held effective power since the ouster of Mubarak. In a constitutional proposition made on the 2^nd of November, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Selmi laid out a frame in which the Armed Forces would exert total power upon their budget and their functioning, as well as having a mandatory right of regard in declaring war. According to this plan, the SCAF would also appoint 80 out of 100 members of a new Constitutional Assembly. The actual roadmap for transition envisions a total passing of powers to civilian authorities within a 2-year horizon, with the Army having a strong role in drafting the new constitution.

Egyptian parliamentary elections are to be held on November 28th. Nevertheless, power will lay in the hands of the SCAF until the election of a president, which is due to happen at the end of 2012 or even in 2013, a scenario that doesn’t resonate well with protesters.

Political parties’ reactions have been relatively united, albeit with differences in tone. The Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing, Freedom and Justice, denounced the violence but stopped short of asking for the SCAF to step down. Salafist party Nour reasserted the right to protest, while simultaneously accusing some protesters of wanting to create chaos, and reaffirming its support for the established electoral calendar. Wafd, the oldest liberal party of Egypt, joined the chorus, but stroke an unclear note by mentioning “enemies” inside and outside Egypt of seeking to thwart the revolution.

Egypt’s democratic transition is thus quite far from over. Taking down the wall of impunity protecting both the police and the army will take much time; so will conceptually abolishing the Regime-State confusion that is still found in the military rulers’ discourse. Indeed, SCAF public figures like to repeat that protesters should limit themselves to using legal means – when legality is suspended. One thing is clear, though: the old ways just won’t cut it anymore.