Sordid Name-Calling in Egypt Is a Malpractice of Democracy

We can understand!!  After 60 years of brutal dictatorship which imposed silence on the masses, the heavy lid on free speech is now off.  The steam in the boiling pot has been gushing forth all over Egypt: demonstrations; disruption of public life; hate for the police; crime, including car theft and sexual harassment; calls by every labor syndicate and association for immediate raises in salaries; disruption of rail and motor travel.

With all that noise, a deafening noise, came also confrontations between the presidency and the judiciary; the executive and freedom of the press including artistic expression; the secularists, including the Coptic Church, and the Islamists; the street and the Ministry of Interior.  The economy is down; public anger is up.  What also occurred was the ability of 53 million Egyptian voters, now including members of the armed forces and the police, to vote in a fair and free elections for a president.

With the wall of fear gone, up went the malpractice of unreasonable vilification and name-calling of the President and his team.  The sordid and constant name-calling of the Executive has now become an Egyptian sport.  No reasoned criticism, but unabashed frontal character assassination.  No innuendos, but frontal generalized attacks.  No alternative programs, but the heaping of scorn on proposed programs.  No reading and research, but imaginary hallucination and stupid competition for first place in the language of profanity.

This is democracy run amok!!  Samples are numerous:

• A woman journalist says in an interview in the daily "Al-Massri Al-Yom," "In the era of the Muslim Brotherhood, everything in Egypt has declined.  Producers are frightened.  Business finds no markets.  All problems are to be attributed to the Brotherhood.  Mixing of religion and politics is a nightmare which shall lead to the collapse of Egypt as a State."  She offers no statistics; no specific instances; no comparative analysis; no field research.  This is particularly so when she asserts the veracity of her general criticism when she states: "The Brotherhood is insistent on the creation of a regime paralleling that of Mubarak."
• In another interview published in the daily "Al-Wafd," another woman opinion-maker proclaims: "Egypt is now living the worst epochs of poverty -an epoch never before experienced by the Egyptians.  Since President Morsi assumed his high office, no good has come to Egypt.  Garbage is still in the streets; corruption continues as it was before; incomes have evaporated; people cannot find food to eat; the country is ruined." 
• In another article in the daily "Al-Shorooq," a male reporter is sarcastic about Morsi, who was photographed in an Egyptian field of ripened wheat.  Since the Government has trumpeted the increase in domestic wheat production, the reporter ridicules that symbolic assurance by saying, "That photo could have had more significance if it stood for the exit of Morsi from the presidential palace."  Then he goes into a trance by saying: "That wheat field suffered the loss of a part of its expanse through accommodating the erection of a platform for Morsi to give his speech."
• More from the hate speech by the same reporter: "Our grand children shall read in the history books that "Morsi has lived his tenure behind enhanced security protection.   If the Muslim Brotherhood is serious in their calls for nullifying the citizenship of any Egyptian opposed to Morsi, they should begin with Morsi who he has been the first in causing the public to lose confidence in him." Then he goes on to say: "Mubarak built his legitimacy on caring for Egypt's infra-structure.  But the Islamists wish to build their legitimacy on their preoccupation with women's infra-strucuture."
• Another journalist writes in "Al-Yom Al-Arabi," chiding President Morsi for ignoring the fate of seven Egyptian soldiers who had been kidnapped by Sinai Bedouins (now released): "The person who occupies the Presidential palace is afraid to pray in the mosques without a ring of guards around him.  But he did not make a move to free those hostages, thus hurting the dignity of Egypt and the honor of his presidency which he shall never uphold."

Thus goes the sordid name-calling under the guise of democracy which espouses free speech.  All that material has nothing to do with assessing the Morsi presidency which is only one year old.  The avalanche of criticism would have had some constructive merit if it was backed by cause and effect, objective comparison between what was Egypt like during the Mubarak dictatorship and what it is like today.  A dose of civilized patience is called for, thus allowing this fledgling democracy to take shape.  The noise of idiotic hate and name-calling is its seed of destruction.  This is not in support of Morsi.  It is in support of an enlightened opposition.

Those who wish for democracy to succeed in Egypt should remember what happened during the Mubarak regime to an editor-in-chief of the daily "Al-Destour."  He was hauled to prison for merely reporting that Mubarak was ill.  But now the wall of fear is gone.  Let the so-called opinion-makers avoid constructing in its place a solid wall of ignorance that threatens to  undermine the newly-found freedom of expression.

Those who, by their thoughtless utterances, cannot wait for the democratic process to mature and to run its normal course to future elections are the perpetrators of the possible abortion of a democracy whose birth was difficult and whose course is still being charted.