An Egyptian Republic of Port Said? You Must Be Crazy!!

The Port Said declaration of independence from Egypt is the latest dangerous turn in Egypt's transition to democracy.  And the call by that presumed minister on the Minister of Defense, El-Sisi, to assume its presidency is nothing but a provocation of the military.  It is a hoax which puts the entire Arab Spring to the test, not only in Egypt but also throughout the Arab world.

The anger shown by the fans of Port Said's soccer team, El-Masri, at a court decision in Cairo that 21 of those fans should face capital punishment may be understandable.  The accused have been inculpated in the wanton death of 74 fans of the rival El-Ahli team of Cairo at the end of a game in Port Said.  With the judiciary in Egypt being at loggerheads with the regime of President Morsi, attacking the court decision in this case, commonly called "the Port said massacre," seemed to fit in with the present pattern of chaos in Egypt.

At Port Said, as well at the other major cities on the Suez Canal, the protection of safe international passage through the Canal has always been the responsibility of Egypt's armed forces.  But as the inhabitants of Port Said rose up in indignation against the judiciary, the dangerous by-product has been the prolonged attacks by the public on nearly all government installations.  The police cannot cope with that massive surge of lawlessness.  So the army is now filling the security gaps left by the yet-to-be reorganized police and security forces in the post-Mubarak era.

Unfortunately, things did not stop there.  Both the army and the police came under fire emanating from the throngs besieging government and private installations and other properties.  On its Facebook page, the Ministry of Interior which is in charge of the police issued a startling declaration on March 4.  It claimed that unknown persons are trying to sow armed conflict between the police and the army.  Some members of those forces were injured in that spasm of indiscriminate shootings.

In such a situation, Egypt's armed forces could not possibly stand idly by.  This claimed provocation has come on the heels of arsoning of the Port Said Governerate Building by the mob using Molotov cocktails.  Until now, the casualties have been 3 dead and more than 400 injured.  Two army soldiers died as a result of these uncontrollable clashes.  In the meantime, the spokesman for the armed forces, Ahmed Muhammad Aly, denied the rumors that police elements and armed forces elements were locked into battle against one another in Port Said.

Even without these clashes, Port Said has witnessed for the past 3 weeks a state of civil disobedience.  As a result, most of the city's productivity has come to a standstill.  The only activity which has proceeded unabated is the throngs of unemployed marauding in Port Said, shouting against the Morsi regime and against the country's miserable economic situations.

Manifestations of the persistent chaos of revolutionary Egypt abound:

• The Egyptian International Council for Human Rights addressed a call to General El-Sisi to assume supreme power in Egypt until the country transitions from the present upheaval to stability.  This is obviously a call for unseating President Morsi.
• Fifteen thousand forms calling on  El-Sisi to lead the country have been distributed to the inhabitants of other cities, like Ismailia and Port Said.
• Calls for civil disobedience have gone out to the inhabitants of major cities like El-Mansoura and Alexandria.
• Clashes between the demonstrators and the security forces continued in Cairo and centered on the area of international hotel chains, such as the Semiramis in Cairo.
• The general parliamentary elections which were scheduled to take place this April throughout Egypt for the lower Chamber have been postponed by a judicial decision.
• Earlier in March, the secularists staged noisy demonstrations against what they described as the "Islamization" of the Egyptian armed forces, and for the removal of President Morsi, and the nullification of the new Constitution
• Throngs surrounded the statue of the unknown soldier in Cairo on a Friday called "Support the Armed Forces Friday."  Women and Copts were in the lead of those vociferous demonstrations.

Against the background in this security collapse, all the pronouncements of General El-Sisi and his spokesman have been to affirm the armed forces commitment to Egypt's internal and external security.  It is important to note that the oath of the inductees into the huge Egyptian army stresses the loyalty to Egypt and the armed forces.  No loyalty is affirmed for the crazy notion of an Egypt made up of city states.  Even Mubarak, from his jail cell and through his attorney, has issued an appeal to his countrymen who deposed him to stop the madness and to rally around Morsi, the elected President.