Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 08, 2013 Editorial
“Democracy” is an omnibus term: it contains such a wide array of meanings that its usage, much less its institutionalisation in any society is bound to be contested.
We know this from our experience in Guyana, but as is frequently the case, perspective is sometimes lost when we are too close to the action. Events unfolding in Egypt may help us gain a more impartial view on our local situation.
Egypt has had a tortured political history with French and then British colonial control of their monarchical rule during the 19th century. The Egyptians rebelled after WWI and in 1922 were granted independence by Britain. In 1952, the army overthrew King Farouk and Egypt got its first President who was succeeded by Maj Gaml Abdul Nasser in 1956.
Under the new constitution he promulgated, Egypt was placed under a Presidential system of government after the Muslim Brotherhood had been banned in 1954.Nasser ruled with an iron fist until he died in 1970 and was succeeded by his deputy, Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981, two years after he had signed a peace agreement with Israel under the auspices of the US under President Jimmy Carter.
This marked the beginning of a massive multi-billion dollar aid programme by the US to Egypt, predominantly to the military, which had already become the dominant institution. Sadat was succeeded by his representative Gen. Hosni Mubarrak, who remained a strong ally of the US and an implacable enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Thirty years later, in 2011, he was swept away by the popular uprising when the army decided that discretion was the better part of valour in the face of the demand for democracy and change.
But what is inevitably playing out today, are the different interpretations as to what exactly must be changed to inaugurate democracy in a land that has never really experienced it by any definition of the term. Most Egyptians had agreed that the long authoritarian rule of Mubarak served only the interest of the army and the US.
The “liberals” are a vocal but small minority who are inspired by the tenets of the western liberal tradition in which the state is supposed to be secular and responsive to the “voice of the people”.
The majority of the population, however, is strongly influenced by the Islamic tradition that the state is guided by the principles of Islam, encompassed in the Sharia. Within this group there are several strands of thought which one can categorise from very “conservative” (where the country would be ruled explicitly by the Sharia) to “liberal” (Islam would be dominant but not exclusively so).
In the elections held a year ago, and a year after Mubarak was toppled, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) under the leadership of Mohamed Morsi won a majority of the votes, running against the favoured candidate of the army. The liberal candidate Mohamed ElBaradei withdrew from the race.
While there was no explicit requirement for “shared governance” in the deeply polarised country, it was expected that the MB would be inclusive. But their appointments were almost all from within their ranks, and coupled with shortages in basic foodstuff, it brought the liberals along with Islamic groups such as the more conservative Salafis, out in massive protests.
The army removed Morsi on the substantive democratic charge that his government reneged on the “inclusivity” requirement of substantive democracy, but on the other hand, they ignored the procedural imperative that the majority of votes carries the day.
The army picked the unknown jurist Daly Mansour as the interim president but the announcement that ElBaradei was to be Prime Minister had to be rescinded after the Salafis balked.
The lesson of the Egyptian political drama playing out is that each society will have to draw its social contract between the governors and the governed to institute “democracy”, based on their own specific circumstances. It is unfortunate that violence has broken out as the Egyptians create their model. Guyana must avoid this route at all costs.
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