Egypt’s Army overdoes its anti-Morsi drive
What is the Army in Egypt up toIJ Just when it seemed to be on the side of the people by helping them realise their goal of ousting the incompetent and partisan Mr Mohamed Morsi as President, its soldiers have fired on pro-Morsi demonstrators and killed more than 50 of them in the early hours of Monday. From all accounts, the protesters — and they were Egyptians too — were merely demanding the release of the overthrown leader, now held in custody by the Generals. There was no grave provocation of the kind that the Army has offered to justify the massacre. The Army is negating the very reason why it had stepped in to depose Mr Morsi — that it feared large-scale violence between pro and anti-Morsi groups following the then President's failure to come to an agreement with his opponents. Now it has unleashed its own brand of violence on the people. The Army must remember that Egypt cannot be stabilised through strong-arm means, and any effort to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood will only strengthen the organisation. In any case, the Brotherhood is a legitimate body which had only a year ago received the people's mandate to rule, and cannot be treated like some anti-national outfit. It enjoys considerable support among the people. In the given situation, there can be no meaningful reconciliation without the participation of the Brotherhood in bringing Egypt back on track. This is something that leaders like Mohamed ElBaradei have advocated. And he is no supporter of either the Brotherhood or Mr Morsi. But perhaps the Army believes it can pummel Mr Morsi and his party into submission, which is why it has held him captive, rounded up many other prominent Brotherhood leaders as well and clamped down on sections of the media which it believes are sympathetic to the ousted President. The Army's action already appears to be back-firing. Not only is the Brotherhood talking of martyrdom in the cause of Islam, but even Islamist parties like Al Nour, which had backed Mr Morsi's ouster, have washed their hands of and withdrawn from the reconciliation process.
But, Mr Morsi's supporters are only being half-true in propagating the message that the Army has toppled a popular, democratically elected regime. Mr Morsi did win a popular, if narrow, mandate in a free and fair election, but he certainly did not uphold the principles of democracy when he packed important positions in Government with Islamists and sidelined secular voices. Rather than rule on behalf of Egyptians of all denominations, he let the Islamists run riot and failed to win the trust of minorities like the Coptic Christians and secular elements in the process. To the extent that he betrayed the very revolution which fetched him power, Mr Morsi had already lost the mandate to govern. Yet, there are better ways to keep such people at bay than to lock them up in a home and gun down their supporters.