Shortly after Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi succeeded in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, for which he received international acclaim, Morsi stunned both Egyptians and Western leaders by declaring that, until the new Egyptian constitution was ratified, his decisions were not reviewable by the Judicial courts. The U.S. State Dept. issued a statement saying, “The decisions and declarations announced on Nov 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community.” Opposition figures in Egypt decried the decree as a blatant power grab. Western media breathlessly reported on street demonstrations in Egypt by comparing them with the million person demonstrations that led to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. (See here) I think that the reality is much more nuanced.
We should remember that Morsi has previously used this tactic. Shortly after his election, there was much concern that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) would refuse to relinquish power. Morsi aggressively stripped SCAF of political power and eliminated its influence over the constitutional assembly. In the end he compromised and allowed the military leaders to gracefully retire.
In the case of the judiciary, Morsi was faced with much the same problem. The judiciary is largely made up of holdovers from the Mubarak regime. Some are well respected legal figures, but many are Mubarak era political hacks who would like nothing better than return to the “good old days”. The have previously disbanded the elected Parliament and the Constituent Assembly tasked with writing a new Constitution. Morsi seems determined to get a Constitution ratified, to get Parliament elected and to move on. He has compromised with the judiciary while at the same time moving aggressively to bring the new Constitution to a vote. While not everyone likes the result of constitutional process, the people will get a chance to speak.
An examination of the street demonstrations shows that they are nothing like the 2011 demonstrations which represented all segments of society. The current demonstrators are protesting Morsi’s power grab and the Islamist tone of the Constitution. Peter Hessler, the New Yorker Cairo correspondent who interviewed many demonstrators, describes them as including “a large number of affluent and educated people; it was common to see women whose heads were not covered.” Many “were as practiced as an army—a group of kids whose education has been shaped largely by the violence around Tahrir.”
In the Parliamentary elections, the Islamist parties received 75% of the vote and the secular liberals less than 10%. It seems to me that the secular liberals are trying to win in the streets what they couldn’t win at the ballot box. I expect that the Constitution will be quickly ratified and a new Parliament elected so that Egypt can move forward in addressing its problems. If not, there will be a real crisis.
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