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than to make martyrs out of them. The young peaceful Islamists need a guiding hand through moderate sheikhs to correct their radical way of thinking. Prison will not help. Killing their colleagues will not change their minds. Debates and discussions are the only way to “kill” ideas. The word activist is becoming taboo as well. Media accuses many of them to take money from “foreign countries to ruin the state”. The same activists who were dubbed the “pure revolutionaries” are now turned into conniving devils through media. Political activism is becoming offensive for many. Coupled with fatigue from demonstrations, these new taboos have repelled many and people are ready to believe anything for a more stabled existence.
SAME MISTAKES The current cabinet backed by the military is committing the same mistakes Mubarak and Morsi have made. The Ministry of Interior remains intact without any reform with its “strong-man” Ibrahim at the head of it all. Misuse of power is reported on almost daily basis, now backed by a Protest Law. The law only fuels the anger of young people who paid a high price during the January 25 revolution to gain the “right to assembly” at any given time. The media propagates the Protest Law as a way to fight the Brotherhood demonstrations. But savvy young people know that once the Brotherhood are completely depleted of power, the state will turn on them. And it already started with false charges against three well-known activists who got sentenced three years in jail. Even if people were willing to believe the lies concerning the Protest Law, the current situation in the country – with daily demonstrations that are forcibly dispersed – is proof enough that it is not working. The bombings have spread across the country and people live in fear. Neither the Protest Law nor declaring the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation has provided a solution to “security”. The cabinet, which was mainly chosen for its economic and financial expertise, followed the footsteps of Morsi’s cabinet and has failed to come up with an economic plan that gives “hope” to the Egyptian people. Corruption is kept intact in the form of municipalities. Municipalities in Egypt are responsible for the daily lives of Egyptians. During the Mubarak era corrupt employees led them and within the last three years they haven’t changed. Egyptians should be able to elect their neighborhood heads, governors as well as other officials, rather than being left under the mercy of an inefficient cabinet. Unless real reform is undertaken, this cabinet will also be brought down by the angry, poor Egyptians who cannot survive the worsening conditions anymore.
THE FUTURE For Egypt democracy is new. It has never been ruled by anything but a dictator. We have to be aware that the revolution is a process and not a onetime event. In a study by the European Union, it predicted that within 30 years 54% of the population will be under 30 years old. This generation is the hope for change in Egypt. The young will not allow the country to be ruled by tyranny, be it under a religious or a military guise. If not now, it will change within the next three decades – just by the sheer numbers of young people. By 2045, those who were in the front line of clashes against tyranny in 2011 will be in their fifties. One can only imagine what my generation, in 30 years, with a much younger and more vibrant one at its side, can do.
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