“It is easy to imagine
the president from day one as walking a tightrope, on the other side is
survival, or at least as far as where his state stolen funds will take him when
the going gets tough, the audience watch with suspense some calling for
him to fall, some, reluctantly, encouraging balance, and the military
simultaneously encouraging him across while having a pair of scissors in one
hand and the other threatening to shake the rope”[1].
For all the faults of the Morsi
presidency from his less than democratic handling and drafting of the new Egyptian constitution
and his inability to bring stability to a country that has only known chaos for
the last two years, the likely event of Morsi getting ousted by the army after
it issued a threat imploring the president to either restore calm to the
streets of Egypt or face the possibility
of being ousted.
Upon hearing of this threat, Morsi rightly cited the fact that he was voted for and resolved to dig ion his heels linking his political legitimacy with his mortality. While my political sentiments are naturally with the millions of Egyptians who clogged the streets of Cairo and Alexandria to express their dissatisfaction with Morsi presidency, what must not happen is the military ousting Morsi from power effectively surfing popular sentiment.
While public confidence in
Morsi is low it does not legitimize the military effectively issuing threats to
its executive and while the majority observing the events taking place in Egypt
may like to see the country evolve into a stable and prosperous democratic
state, it cannot start its evolution with military led ousting a democratically
elected leader no matter how unpopular he is.
Being president of Egypt after
the revolution was always going to be tough proposition as the new president
was going to negotiate a well-funded and powerful military (thanks largely to
US funding who were less than cheerful about Morsi rising to power) by , a
tanking a economy and draft a constitution, all of which Morsi failed
spectacularly deal with effectively. If this job wasn’t tough enough, Morsi
just happened to be a prominent member of one of the most hated yet well
organized groups in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood which made all three
tasks all the more difficult.
Now with Morsi’s rule under
threat and a number of well-placed officials resigning in order to avoid the falling
axe, the real question left is who might take over should the military carry
out their threat (which at the time of writing, should take effect quite
shortly). It would be a disaster if the military took it upon themselves to
take power because they will not be any better at negotiating the three task
any better than Morsi and are more likely to use deadly force should anything
get out of hand. However, being the most powerful and most organized group in
the country bar none, it leadership is smart enough to see that role of the
president is now a role of responsibility, not power.
In sum, it would take a madman
to want to run for a position when you have a troika made up of the Egyptian
people, the military and outside forces that are all have more power than you
yet turn to you should anything go wrong. The next man who become president
should clearly address the power of the military by lobbying the US to lend it
hefty purse to projects that will enhanced a burgeoning democracy rather than
empowering a military that has way too much political power than any liberal or
democrat is comfortable with. Finally,
Morsi was done the moment he tried to hijack the drafting and discussion over
the constitution and has failed to negotiate the troika that has now sealed his
impending fate.
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