“ Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.”
I’ve been examining the whole situation (for lack of an adequate word) going on in Egypt with a bit of divided perspective. On the one hand, I feel the way I’ve felt since my 2010 visit- the moment I first saw a civil protest in Cairo’s main downtown square (ironically “Liberation Square”-Tahrir in Arabic). That I’d grown up largely listening to my father’s own memories of living in a repressed, paranoid military state probably led me to feel as awed and curious as I did when I saw the demonstration.
Here was a country in which anti-government opinion was strictly restricted from all media. A country filled with stories of police aggression- some made notorious (like the apparent brutal 2010 murder of blogger Khaled by Egyptian police), and some only whispered amongst terrified neighbours when nobody’s listening.
And these are just things my generation and I have been exposed to as the country’s 30-year “state of emergency” remains.
To fully understand the scope of today's Egypt would mean diving into my father’s memories, and those of the generations before him who lived to see numerous wars, an independence from the British, instability throughout the entire region, and a military revolution.
But that last point is one of the most fascinating, to me, and has been for as long as I remember.
Growing up I would listen, stunned, to my father nostalgically, and more importantly, proudly recount the story of how Colonel Nasser and some other important military figures overtook the British-led monarchy and installed their own Egyptian leaders. It was as if he, like every other Egyptian lucky enough to see that proud day, was directly involved in the cause of liberating their country. It wasn’t so much that they were living vicariously through Nasser and his comrades, but living alongside them- when they took over state radio to make the announcement, when they spent countless months planning and re-planning every step without leaving a paper trail, and when they paraded through the same Tahrir Sq. to, again, thousands of people…
Now I must make mention of the 2nd perspective I have, one almost diametrically opposed to the first, one grounded in pragmatism and an understanding that things are never as black-and-white as they seem.
From the first reports taken of the protests, to the powerful images surfacing up everyday, the message has been the same- there is an unspoken and strong bond between the Egyptian people and the military. Maybe this is due to the fact that Egypt has a conscription law still in effect- essentially, every male must serve in the military. Thus, the military and the Egyptian citizens are synonymous. Or maybe it has something to do with the history of military operations in their country—indeed, the military leaders at one point created the Egyptian Egypt. That feeling of pride and identity, and knowing what it means to be an Egyptian- and not an Arab, North African, Middle Easterner, etc.- was reinforced by Nasser and the other decorated leaders. Whatever the case, the famous image of the old weeping Egyptian woman kissing the cheek of a young, uniformed Egyptian solider with piercing eyes, perfectly captures that soldier-civilian relationship. However disillusioned the people have become by their government’s strict system of security, they have found a way to embrace their soldiers wholeheartedly.
Which brings me to my main point. Much has been said about Egypt’s current president Hosni Mubarak- he’s a tyrant, a peaceful leader of the region, an incompetent president whose relied on American aid too often, a beacon of stability in the Middle East, a dictator (a label Western news outlets have avidly embraced for the first time), a wealthy, aged power-hungry lunatic, etc. But there hasn’t been much mention of Mubarak’s rise to power and his role in the 1952 Revolution.
Mubarak actually got his background in the military, graduating from the military academy and climbing the ranks to finally become Commander of Egypt's Air Force & Deputy Minister of Defense. In fact, he was rewarded and promoted for his outstanding services in the military during the Sixth of October War. With such noted roles in the military and an intense pilot training past, Mubarak's role in the 1952 Revolution cannot be undermined or ignored.
Maybe thats what continues to draw people like my father (he himself grew up in a military household and dreamed of being a soldier after witnessing the Egyptian Independence Movement) to the aged Mubarak. Ideas like loyalty, death before dishonour, and dying a hero are ones highly valued by people with close ties/sentiments to the military. And as I outlined before, Egyptians really have no choice but to feel this way towards their own soldiers.
That's is why its so difficult for me to maintain an agenda that is 100% compliant with the protestors. Maybe a bit of me relates to the sentiments my father has. Maybe as an Egyptian it's difficult for me to watch one of my own go through this public debacle. Like I said, the issue is grey at best- never black and white. Who will replace Mubarak? How will the USA continue to interfere in Egypt's domestic happenings? If Mubarak is the lesser of 2 evils (the other evil being the Muslim Brotherhood), how can we ask him to step down and instill one of our own? And finally, what about the transition? How will a new government be integrated? Will there be an interim government in the meantime, and if so who decides who that government is? The questions are endless.
However, an important thing separates me from my father and other Egyptian supporters of the regime. I grew up in Canada. This is a country known for promoting it's democratic ideals and a traditionally liberal, capitalistic agenda. We enjoy regular elections, political stability, and (almost always), a transparent government. I, like most other Canadians and even those Bush-electing Americans, can never imagine a system in which we were forced to sit by and watch a leader, who none of us seem to remember electing, continue being in power for 30 plus years. With all opposition prevented from having a voice, its not like an election would do the job anyway.
I can sympathize with those supporters because I know what they want: life, liberty and the freedom to pursue happiness. I know, because living in Canada, I am given those things without ever really facing the threat of losing them...
My sister got me one of those cool day-by-day calendars of Inspiring & Enlightening Quotes. Everyday I rip off a day to reveal some insightful-sometimes ideological, sometimes overly cheesy- advice/knowledge/ideas from different artists, theorists, writers, teachers, etc.
And on January 29, four days after the fateful demonstrations began, I ripped off another day to reveal the insight for that day. The quote was from French novelist Honore de Balzac, and came at such an appropriate time that I was compelled against all laziness to sit down and right this post:
“ Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.”
And, as Hosni Mubarak has learned the hard way over this past week, his hard-struck, often-used power has essentially come to an end. Let's just pray and ensure that whatever future awaits my homeland, there will be eras of truth-revealing power.
