Some Egyptians needed money. One shouldn’t assume that they needed it badly though. For when Egyptians put their president up for sale on eBay, an online shopping mall, they notified all that the item on sale had no value. As such, they requested buyers to bid in order to determine how much their president was worth. Trust a consumerist world which could bid for 6,000 years-old Egypt’s embalmed mummies not to be slow in bidding for President Abdelfattah al-Sisi. Bidding had stood at about $100,000 before the eBay site was darkened, never to be seen by potential buyers anymore. Some have blamed Sisi’s security operatives; they weren’t expected to see such an advert and laugh it off. This is typical of Egypt where dissention is frowned on, and unusually heavy hands are customarily laid on those caught in the act.
I had had occasions in the past to wonder if what Egyptians leader had done to their people down the decades could happen in Nigeria. I had concluded at the time that it was only in Egypt leaders could change laws as it pleased them for the purpose of ruling indefinitely, not in Nigeria. Egyptians had watched as Anwar El-Sadat got away with the authoritarian measures that kept him in power. For long they watched Hosni Mubarak get away with his political antics. Mohammed Mursi didn’t waste much of Egyptians’ time before they had him thrown out, giving support as they did to a military coup led by Sisi. I would have been surprised if Mursi had remained longer in power. Even while he lasted I had stated on this page (Playing ‘Mummy and Daddy’ in Egypt, December 7, 2012) why I thought some of his draconian measure would lead to his downfall. He was kicked out six months later. His style though characterized Egypt’s political life. Sisi’s season hasn’t been completely devoid of same, a reason his countrymen put him up for sale.
Egypt was once under a monarchy. It became a republic in June 1953 after the Egyptian Revolution. Mubarak who took office in October, 1981 was the fourth in the line of its authoritarian presidents. Mass protests forced him to resign on February 11, 2011, bringing to an end his fifth term in office. A constitutional referendum was subsequently passed; it reformed laws that had to do with the power and the election of the president. For the first time ever, the presidency was limited to two four-year terms. There were also other provisions that covered different areas of national life where Egypt’s dictators had previously curtailed personal liberties in order to remain in power for as long as they wanted. This is an aspect in any country that I have issues with. Some argue that the presence of strongmen provide stability inside and outside a nation. I argue that in order to ensure strongmen remain in office, personal liberty of citizens must be curtailed. For it follows that when a leader has more, his citizens have to have less.
Egypt’s leaders who rule for decades are largely seen by the international community as a good thing for stability in the Middle East. Nations such as US and Israel clap for these leaders. Ironically, these are nations where regular elections take place and their own citizens are free from the level of curtailment of liberty that Egypt’s sit-tight leaders tend to maintain. Incidentally, it appears that some Egyptians want such leaders because they feel internal challenges demand a leader who is seen to be ‘strong’. But the point is, where does being ‘strong’ stop, and where does the need to safeguard the liberty of citizens become desirable? When the figures and the extent of atrocities committed by strongmen against citizens come on display, wondering whether or not maintaining strongmen in power is worth it becomes inevitable.
After Mubarak resigned, Egypt’s presidential election of 2012 took place without a new constitution. Mohamed Mursi who won arrived office June 30, 2012, and he left in 2013. Sisi who took over in a military coup later got himself elected as president. Since then he has drawn praise and condemnation. He was elected at a time his countrymen were tired of an unstable economy following a period of political unrest. Under Sisi expectations were high that he would undertake fundamental measures to lift the economy. He has since been praised as having done what no other Egyptian leader has done in economic terms. Some 4.5 per cent increase in economic growth was recorded in 2015, for instance. That was partly due to an improvement in tourism, another way of saying the political stability that Sisi offered paid off. Also, more Egyptians abroad sent money home after Sisi was elected, and there was an increase in money that Egyptians deposited into banks, as well as investment in long term projects such as real estate.
Still on more positives for Sisi, since he came to office security had been his priority. Insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula is especially challenging but it has been noted that he meets demand as shown in Egypt’s military campaigns in the area. Even an amendment to the Egyptian penal code under Sisi has been commended by the UN that called on Egyptian authorities to ensure that women and girls in the country are better protected. At one point, the president instructed the country’s security apparatus to be mindful of how they treated citizens, adding that he apologized to every Egyptian citizen who had been subjected to any abuse. “I am accountable for anything that happens to an Egyptian citizen,” he had added.
But this has not muted the voice of activists who say Egypt’s police still act with impunity, that the president has too much powers, and that Egypt’s military is too much the boss of itself. These are long-standing grudges. But Sisi’s coming has failed to sweep them away. Critics state that Sisi’s administration has been at the centre of crackdown on dissents and rights abuses are rampant. The human rights community asserts that Sisi’s administration has provided near total impunity for security force abuses and has issued laws that severely curtail civil and political rights. Examples of victims in this instance are members of Muslim Brotherhood and Mursi supporters who have faced a government crackdown that has left hundreds killed in street protests and thousands jailed since Mursi’s removal from office. The UN too has had to urge Egypt to respect its human rights obligations after hundreds are sentenced to death in Egyptian courts where international fair trial guarantees appear to be largely ignored.
Furthermore, observers say Egypt’s military intervenes in the economy using its vast commercial holdings. The country’s anti-protest law has been criticized, and media personalities have questioned the level of media freedom. In 2014, Egypt ranked fourth among the countries with the highest record of crackdown on journalists, and this was not helped with the court case involving Al-Jazeera TV journalists that had been on every lip.
With regard to how some Egyptians say they want to have their president sold under this condition, I feel it is less a statement about sale, but more about their desire to have their nation turned sharply away from draconian rules that have characterised Egypt’s history. Egyptians have been living under emergency law since 1967, except for an 18-month break in 1980. Emergency laws have been continuously extended every three years since 1981. These laws sharply constrain non-governmental political activity: street demonstrations, unapproved political organisations. There’s also a ban on insult to Egypt’s leaders, or whatever that means. In the event, and for long, these restrictions have been violated in practice. I feel time has come for Egypt to turn away from promoting strongmen as desirable, and thus free its citizens from the mentality that they need strongmen.
Such promotion can never fly in Nigeria. For as the state curtails people’s rights, so it correspondingly grabs more powers in order to maintain the strongman in office. That’s moving in a circle; it leads to no beneficial destination in the longer term. The frustration in maintaining anti-people laws in order for Sisi to remain strong is a reason some to want to sell him. Egypt should repeal laws that unnecessarily curtail civil liberty. This should be the practice, rather than the deliberate violation of such laws by the people.
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