Egypt: "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

From The Washington Post of March 26, 2014, an article by Abigail Hauslohner entitled: Egypt's Abdel Fatah-al-Sissi declares intent to run for presidency"

Excerpt: 

CAIRO — Three years ago, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi was a mostly unknown member of a council of Egypt’s top military officers. On Wednesday, the field marshal, whose image is now plastered on billboards and chocolate bars, declared what everyone in this nation was expecting — that he would run for president, a position he is virtually certain to win. 

Jagor's comment: 

Given that, in the over 62 years since the ouster by a military coup d'état of King Farouk in 1952, Egypt was ruled in 60 of those years by an unbroken series of military dictators--Naguib, Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak--it should come as no surprise to anyone that the tradition of autocratic, military dictatorships will be renewed when Abdel Fatah al-Sissi officially takes power later on this year.

The utter failure of the Arab Spring and the short-lived presidency of the religious extremist leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, who is now on trial and facing the death penalty along with several hundred of his co-religionists, should convince even the most die-hard proponents of western-style representative democracy as the only political system suitable for every country on the planet that they are dead wrong. 

For the record, Mohamed Morsi's "democratic" election actually proceeded thus: In the election of June 24, 2012, Morsi received barely 51.73% of the votes [his opponent, Ahmen Shafik, garnered 48.27%], but the turnout was only 52%.  Barely half the eligible voters even bothered to go to the polls. So, in reality, Morsi "won" the election with the votes of only 26% of the eligible Egyptian voters.  Some democracy!

 

What's worse, Morsi tried to rule in the same autocratic way that military dictators had ruled in the past, because that's the only Egyptians have been governed for the past 62 years. But Morsi didn't have the firepower and the infrastructure of the military behind him, so it's no wonder they threw him out.  Morsi's fundamental mistake was not that he was a Muslim extremist, but that he was extremely stupid.

Whether western ideologists like it or not, they must acknowledge the irrefutable fact that the system of government best suited for Egyptians is autocratic military dictatorship, because that is the system of government that the overwhelming majority of the Egyptian people want. 

Jagor's prediction: 

In the forthcoming election, Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sissi will be elected in a landslide by a colossal majority of the voters, grateful that, at last, things will be getting back to normal.  As the French say, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."