Happy Rebirth to Egypt: Her Sphinx is Rising!!

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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January 26, 2012

It is one year old, when democracy was reborn in the ten thousand year old country.  So on January 25 this year, I could almost see the great sculpture of Mokhtar rising.  The sculpture is called “Egypt’s Renaissance” (Nahdhat MISR).  Sitting majestically against the great dome of Cairo University, the black marble Sphinx is made by the Sculptor to rise with a peasant Egyptian woman placing her gentle hand on the head of the colossal Sphinx.  With her lips slightly parted, you can almost hear her whispering to the rising Sphinx, “Rise up.  Your awakening is overdue.”

And so it was with 10 million Egyptians rising in Tahrir and elsewhere in Egypt, wrapped in the Egyptian tri-colored flag, and shouting on January 25, 2011 "Leave" “IRHAL” to Mubarak.  On February 11 of last year, he did, as an Egyptian young woman, holding aloft a crescent and a cross, ecstatically yelling in disbelief, “No More Fear!!!”  The reverberations of those chants must have been pleasing to the ears of historic Egypt (the Sphinx), and of modern Egypt (the peasant woman).  A phenomenal rebirth of the heart of the Arab homeland has finally happened.

Following Tunisia and Egypt, the Arab Spring sprang to Libya to end another dictatorship of long duration.  Poetry is integral to the Arab psyche and oral history.  Witness what the great Egyptian poet, Hafez Ibrahim, said in 1912 in his memorable poem regarding Fascist Italy’s invasion of Tripoli, now the proud capital of Libya.

The first 2 verses of his 45-verse epic poem is entitled “The War on Tripoli.” Translated from Arabic, that great Egyptian nationalist said,

"Greed has unmasked the West
O East, rise up and beware of sleep
O Sun, carry to everyone
Your rays of peace throughout the East"

Again the great theme of rebirth and renaissance.  No more fear!!  The first salvo in the rebirth of Egypt as a democratic State was the seating of Parliament.  The members came to that historic Chamber, located near Tahrir, through free and fair balloting.  The specter of one-party rule has mercifully disappeared.  On January 24 of this year, as the members of the lower house of Parliament, both bearded and well-shaven, took their oath of office, the populace outside gave them upon arrival bouquets of flowers.  Some of those parliamentarians were even hoisted over the shoulders of the Tahrir young demonstrators.  Another graphic symbolism of the New Egypt rising.

Inside the Chamber, discord erupted.  No surprise!!  At birth, the newly re-discovered democracy was uttering its first cry.  Democracy is not a tidy business.  Its discord is a signal of vibrancy.  January 25 has become the national day of the New Egypt.  In this, I could discern another symbolism.  On January 26, 1952, the so-called “Free Officers” whose leader was Nasser burned Cairo.  It was the spark that ended democracy in Egypt and ushered in the Nasser coup of July 23, 1952.  Sixty years later, Tahrir destroyed the 60 year old military dictatorship in Egypt, with the unceremonious toppling of Dictator No. III – Mubarak.

Yet, the Egyptian Revolution, the mightiest uprising of the multi-faceted Arab Spring, is not yet over.  That unfinished symphony which is keen on ending the subjugation of Egyptian sovereignty to outside powers still has unfulfilled demands.  The major demands of all the Tahrirs in Egypt are:

• Ending military rule and the handing over of power from the SCAF (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) to a civilian government even sooner than the declared date of July 1, 2012;
• Speedy trials for Mubarak, his family, and their cohorts;
• Full accounting for the martyrdom of nearly 1000 demonstrators, and the injury of thousands;
• Acceleration of the rebuilding of the Egyptian economy, now threatened with collapse and reclaiming all public resources to which Mubarak and Company laid false claim;
• Speeding of the drafting of the new Egyptian Constitution through a yet to be chosen constituent assembly;
• The re-assumption by the police forces of their duties, assuring the safety of the Egyptian street;
• Cleansing of the judiciary and other institutions from corruption;
• Elimination of military tribunals for the trial of detained civilians.

The list of revolutionary demands goes on and on. 

In the meantime the SCAF, through Field Marshal Tantawi declared on the first anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution the rescission of emergency laws, except from thuggery (baltagah).  

If sculptor Mokhtar was still alive, his Sphinx would have fully risen on its four legs.