Towards Deomocracy By Baby Steps

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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Those who say that Egypt has never experienced democracy should revisit its history.  The Egyptian Constitution of 1923, promulgated during the monarchy was a model Basic Law.  It guaranteed popular elections based on a multiparty system, freedom of expression, and the right to assemble peacefully.  That was 88 years ago.

So what happened?  In came Colonel Nasser with his Coup d'Etat in 1952.  Creeping military rule was now in motion.  The difference between a coup and a revolution is that a coup is undertaken by a junta; a revolution is undertaken by the masses.  Dictator Nasser found in the Constitution an obstacle to his rule.  In 1954, he directed his goons (baltagiahs) to attack an iconic institution, the Council of State, and its then Chairman, the great jurist El-Sanhouri.  El-Sanhouri was beaten up by the Nasser mob to the ignorant cries of "Down with the Constitution!!"  A dark age has descended on Egypt, and was to continue till the dawn of the Revolution of January 25, 2011.

A body politic, like that of Egypt of today, is beginning to learn again how to walk in the flowery park of a constitutional system.  The call for a constitutional change was in fact uttered in 2009, during the Mubarak dictatorship.  It was courageously uttered by Dr. Muhammad El-Baradie, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. El-Baradie, a Nobel Laureate, is today running for the post of President later this year.

But the crippling effects of the non-practice of democracy are a temporary restraint.  Baby steps toward democracy are usually transformed into forward leaps.  Hardly any training is required.  Practicing democracy is an on-the-job training.  The innate desire for freedom kicks in, and all that is needed is choosing the candidate, finding the way to a polling station, being in the proper voting district, proving your identity, being safe as you vote, and, BINGO, you have become a voter!!

This formula applies neatly to Egypt's present baby steps towards a democratic and secular State:  Some of these steps or manifestations thereof are produced hereunder as a guide post for this historic march:

• Selection of university presidents and college deans by elections held by their peers, not by appointment by the country's President upon recommendations by the security apparatus of that President;
• Broad criticism of Prime Minister Dr. Essam Sharaf for his recent statements to Turkish media that "the Camp David Agreements of  1978 which led to the Egypt/Israel Peace Treaty signed in Washington, D.C. in March 1979 is not a sacred document which is immune from amendment."  Egypt has a long history for respect of treaties.
• The euphoria of the masses at seeing their former tormentors (Mubarak, his sons, and members of his cabal) standing trial.  The notion of equality before the law is seeping in.
• The Youth Coalition, namely the young millions in Tahrir who lost 850 victims to the guns and tear gas of the Mubarak security regime, and for whom the guns of the military remained silent thus forcing Mubarak out of power, that Revolutionary Youth Coalition will field as many as 200 candidates in the Parliamentary elections.  Why? "To counter organized Islamic groups."
• Ahmed Ezz, the steel tycoon and monopolist, who was the Secretary of the now defunct National Democratic Party, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for unfair monopolistic practices.  During the Mubarak regime, Ezz was feared to the point that, prior to the Revolution which brought him to the halls of justice in Egypt, used to change the law on his own to suit his own monopolistic and corrupt devices.
• Egypt now laughs at a statement made by Omar Soliman during his few days of tenure as VP of Egypt during the waning days of the Mubarak dynasty.  The TV interview by Christiane Amanpour with Soliman featured Soliman's response to her question regarding Egypt's readiness for a transition to democracy.  His emphatic answer was: "The Egyptians do not possess the culture of democracy!!"  So in his popular column in Al-Ahram newspaper, entitled "The Reconstruction of the State," Atef El-Ghamry says: "The Mubarak regime has robbed Egypt of 30 years.  For it ran the country with the logic of a business corportation to which the regime grew accustomed, namely profit for the management (i.e. the Dictator and his cronies)."
• Now there is a clearly announced schedule for parliamentary elections in November, followed by presidential elections in December, followed by drafting a new constitution which will be submitted to a popular plebiscite in 2012.

Are these "baby steps" towards a secular and democratic Egypt? Maybe that baby has a sudden spurt of growth.  Go!! Go!! Go!!