Egyptian activists gather during a rally on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House on August 22, 2013 in Washington, DC. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)[/caption]
There are so many issues reverberating in the minds of many Egyptians as they try to cope with the supersonic speed of political events in Egypt. All of these are intertwined in a complicated web of power, propaganda, corruption, history and Egypt’s penchant for conspiracy. The “spying stork” perhaps best exemplifies the state of Egypt right now: something straight out of an over-the-top Hollywood blockbuster.
Amid all the politics and the arbitrary labels being tossed around—“Islamist,” “secularist,” “nationalist,” and so on—there are millions of Egyptians who are still living below the poverty line, and who do not care for labels when they and their children are starving.
Much video footage shot over past two years has shown members of the public crying out for the days of Mubarak, since he gave them a stability that included their daily bread. “There was a system,” they would argue, albeit a corrupt one. These videos were deemed sensationalist propaganda by ousted president Mohamed Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood, who argued that such testimonies only sought to undermine their time in power. People who did not support the Brotherhood also dismissed any attempts at whitewashing Mubarak’s thirty-year reign.
Not discounting these views as plausible or reasonable, there is the very real danger that we are too caught up in the politics of today to realize that phrases like “democracy,” “rule of law,” and “social justice,” are all long-term goals.
Last week, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) reported that more than 16 million Egyptians—20 percent of the population—are illiterate, as of 2012. We would do well not to immediately dismiss this figure as being an Upper Egypt problem, because according to CAPMAS, Cairo and Alexandria suffer from illiteracy levels of 17.4 percent and 16.5 percent respectively. Regardless of how long it would take to significantly lower that figure, those 16 million people have to navigate their lives without the ability to read and write. There are also 13.7 million who suffer from daily food insecurity, according to a UN report, and in all likelihood they are not interested in political manifestos and statements.
One of the tactics used by Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood before their fateful eighteen months of rule was to provide basic foodstuffs to Egypt’s poor. Items such as cooking oil and bread had also won them their votes and, in turn, the elections. Their opponents cried foul, saying that was akin to bribery and that it was illegal and immoral.
But somewhere in the middle of all this, there is a lesson to be learned. Democracy, whether anyone likes it or not, is a long and arduous process, and currently stands only as an abstract principle in Egypt. Just as Mursi’s opponents stated—correctly one might add—that elections do not necessarily make your country democratic, so too does a democratically elected president not necessarily spell an end to the country’s problems. Millions are starving, and having a democratically elected and fair president means nothing to a man with hungry children.
The argument is, of course, not that we give up on democracy and settle for a strongman to rule Egypt with the kind of impunity that Mubarak enjoyed. But millions of Egyptians are arguing for this—right now, for Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi—either directly or indirectly. That is hard to comprehend for many pro-democracy Egyptians. But who are those who can afford to carry on the fight for democracy to judge those who are desperate, when their living circumstances are worlds apart?
The biggest problem Egypt faced before Mursi’s ouster was the dwindling economy. All the wrong indicators were increasing and all the right ones were falling: it was going in exactly the wrong direction. However, the past three months have been all about politics, about whether or not what happened was a coup, street protests, and now terrorism—they are indeed historical shifts in Egyptian society. I am sure Mursi’s ouster on July 3 will be etched onto the memories of Egyptians forever, just like Mubarak’s ouster on January 25, 2011. But the economy remains the biggest obstacle to Egypt ever having a chance at real democracy.
If Sisi is the man able to deliver relief to millions of Egyptians living below the poverty line, then an opposition to his potential removal will be met not just by his army, but by those he feeds. Democracy will be put on hold. And if Sisi does decide to step aside and allow a democratically elected president to take office, whomever that person is, and however democratic and good their intentions are, they will not last long if they are unable to deliver quick results to the Egyptian people.
