In the Egyptian coup, democratic hopes were snuffed
out
By TIM BLACK
Back in February 2011, as angry crowds thronged Tahrir
Square in Cairo, calling for President Hosni Mubarak to call time on his 30
years of military dictatorship, Western political leaders, accompanied by an
assortment of the nominally liberal and sort-of leftish, could barely contain
their democratic urges. This wasn’t just the Arab Spring, it was Western
politicos’ spring, too. In the jubilant overthrow of decrepit, hair-dyed
tyrants, they saw a chance to pose as champions of democracy.
As Mubarak stumbled from power, American president Barack Obama beamed: ‘Egypt
has changed, and its future is in the hands of the people. Those who have
exercised their right to peaceful assembly represent the greatness of the
Egyptian people.’ The European Union’s foreign-affairs chief, Baroness Catherine Ashton, was similarly
quick to pen her message of support. ‘I have called on the Egyptian authorities
to embark on a transition towards genuine democratic reform, paving the way for
free and fair elections’, she wrote in the Guardian.
‘The challenge is to lay down the roots of deep democracy; there, too, the EU
stands ready to help.’ Even Mubarak’s mate, the ex-British prime minister, Tony Blair, was prepared
to admit that ‘this is a moment of huge opportunity, and not just for Egypt’.
Pundits from the left side of the tracks were also
eager to issue their undying approval of the Spring-time Arabs. A New York Times columnist wrote
that ‘democracy is good for Arabs as it is for Israelis and Americans’. In the Observer, an op-ed
began: ‘It must be bliss to be alive, young and Arab in this dawn of
revolution.’ Laurie Penny, the faddish embodiment of middle-class leftism,
enthusiastically proclaimed her solidarity with protesters in Tahrir Square.
The difference between protesters overthrowing degenerate despots in the Middle
East and 150 anti-cuts protesters stood outside Camden Council offices on
Euston Road ‘is one of scale, not of substance’, she waxed.
But in June 2012, something terrible happened – at
least in the eyes of Western politicians and pundits. The Egyptians, enjoying
the freedom to vote in the first free presidential election in Egypt’s history,
did something wrong. They voted for the wrong candidate, the one the West
wasn’t keen on. The election of Mohamed Morsi of the conservative Muslim
Brotherhood, with 52 per cent of the vote, was too much for those in the West
who, just 16 months earlier, had been the biggest cheerleaders of democracy.
The Arab Spring was no longer to their liking; democracy was not yielding the
right results.
Yet the downbeat reaction to Morsi’s election was
nothing compared with what happened in July this year. After days of anti-Morsi
protests in Tahrir Square attacking the president for his Islamism and his
economic failures, the army moved in and deposed Morsi. Morsi supporters
launched counter protests, but they were crushed by the military. As it stands,
hundreds of Morsi supporters have been beaten, tortured and killed, and Morsi
now faces conspiracy charges and, if found guilty, he could be executed.
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