Thursday, July 4, 2013

The Fickle Egyptians

One year after the first democratic presidential election in Egypt, President Mohammed Morsi has been ousted by a military coup. The first freely elected president of Egypt was overthrown by the Egyptian military just one year in office by protests similar to that of the Arab Spring uprising.

If that prove one thing, it is the fickle nature of the public. Just 2 years ago, the 2011 Arab Spring toppled longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. In the free elections that followed, the Muslim Brotherhood handily won it. Just one year ago, Mohammed Morsi won the presidential election; another free election won fairly by the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Now the people in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, are cheering as the Egyptian armed forces announced they had dropped the Islamist leader in a coup. They also suspended the newly-drafted constitution which had been put in place by the Egyptian parliament after the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, took control of state media, blacked out TV stations operated by the Muslim Brotherhood, and arrested the head of the Brotherhood's political wing. Now all under the cheers of the people in  Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Cheering a military coup for ousting a freely elected President who won a election which almost everyone admit was free and fair. Yes, saying the Egyptian people are fickle is not only correct, it might be an understatement. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are oversimplifying. The reason for the anger is firstly due to Morsi's attempt to change the constitution to to give the presidency wide ranging powers without sufficient checks and balances. Then of course the economy in Egypt has been tanking too. I wouldn't just put it down to fickleness.

Anonymous said...

and wp's gerald giam wrote on his blog in 2011 that he wondered (wished ?) if what had happened in egypt in 2011 could also happen in SG ....

Ghost said...

Why shouldn't President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood be allowed to rule the way they want to? They won almost every election of note since 2011. They also won the election that was to elect the parliament tasked to write the new constitution. Of course they were going to write it to their advantage. Which idiot wouldn't?
Also the economy cannot be blamed on Morsi and the Brotherhood. Remember, the bad economy was already bad under Mubarak.
So yeah, I would put this coup down to fickleness.