Several month has passed by as Egypt’s new military government has continued to act like nothing has happened. Now the Sisi government has set Jan 4 2014 as start of a two-day referendum of the revised constitution. While it its expected to be approved nonetheless, The amount of turnout will provide to be an unofficial poll of the support for the military government.

The Constitution despite giving many new rights to citizens also supports the same institutions that ruled the country with an iron grip in the mubarak era. One of these groups include the police who remain the main instigators in the peaceful sit-ins which have resulted in the death of many people. This negative development have not done anything to deter foreign governments from continuing their relationships with Egypt as we will see later on.

EU Grants

In other surprising news, The EU has approved a grant of nearly $380 million dollars for Egypt to improve its public services among which increase employment among the youth and women. Head of the European Delegation to Egypt James Moran, also shot down rumors of suspension of aid to Egypt, which nonetheless confirms that many countries are still continuing to do business with Egypt as if its like any other day. While the US has been relatively quiet on the Egypt front due to developing situations with Iran Nuclear deal, Spat with Israel and Saudi Arabia over the consequences of any Iranian diplomacy, it looks as if the US is cautious towards publicly addressing any issues regarding Egypt but there are no signs that it will halt any form of economic or other relations with Egypt.

Gulf support

Egypt has continued to receive help from gulf countries, who unsurprisingly  do not support any form of a functioning democracy in their backyard due to insecurities of another round of the Arab spring engulfing the region. While the Arab spring was a call to action for economic, political and state reforms, Many gulf countries who have authoritarian rule have done all they can to stop this change from coming into fruition, best example of this is of course Egypt.

Mass Killings

Egypt has yet to take any actions or properly investigated killing of protesters by security forces in various situations.  Nearly 2000 protestors and security forces have been killed on several occasions but no one from the military have been charged or even found of any wrongdoings. The Sisi government has failed to protect its minorities and has shown clear cut bias towards the minorities when it sentenced three Coptic Christians to long prison terms for the death of Muslims in the sectarian clashes despite the death of at least five Coptic Christians in the same clashes. The military government has used the opportunities of these sectarian clashes to play the blame game on extremists despite doing nothing to stop the violence and exacerbate the already fragile relations between different sectarian groups in Egypt. Egypt has used the cover of rule of law to deter protests and sit ins and has arrested many activists regardless of gender and sentenced them to long period of time in jail in sham prosecutions.

Ironically above all, former president Mohamed Morsi is standing trial on charges on Terrorism and conspiracy.

Arresting anyone and everyone

A Judge in Alexandria, Egypt has sentenced fourteen women to a eleven year prison sentence for participating in an “Islamist” protest and has also sentences seven girls for joining these protests to an “intermediate term” at a juvenile center. This grandstanding by the Sisi government has gone unnoticed by many of its allies including the US government as it has not spoken out regarding any of these human rights abuses against by Egypt against its own people.

These horrific stories do not stop here, as Riot police have violently ended peaceful protested by beating up, sexually harassing and detaining some of the most prominent human rights activists in the country.

Diplomatic Crisis

Egypt has severed diplomatic ties with turkey after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan who was also strongly supportive of Mr. Morsi voiced criticisms at the crackdown of the muslim brotherhood and expressed solidarity with the protestors. So this move has angered the Egyptian officials who have expelled Turkey’s ambassador and also have withdrawn their own ambassador from Turkey.

While relationship between Turkey and Egypt have been denigrating the past few months, Egypt has claimed it has only downgraded its relationship with Turkey not severed it. Egypt has sought to form new diplomatic ties with any country who have been supportive of the so called new government and has lashed out at any allies who have voiced any sort of criticisms. The Criticism of the Obama government on Egypt’s alarming actions have prompted to rekindle its diplomatic ties with Russia. This move was largely seen as a retaliatory swipe at the US for its criticisms. This move has prompted the US the soften its stance on Egypt mainly because many of the Obama administration officials have emerged on different ends of the spectrum on its Egypt policy.  So the Issue at hand has largely developed to become an international impasse in diplomatic ties and bid for regional influence.

Growing violence

Despite the peaceful protests and sit-ins, some within the pro-democracy/ Morsi supporters have taken up armed resistance against the military by targeting security forces. Suicide bombers have killed 11 soldiers and wounded 37 by driving an explosive loaded car into an army convoy. This attack has been of the latest form of violence that have affected both sides despite peaceful protests and general unrest.

This latest of round of retaliatory violence will not be the last one as Egypt remains untethered to alter its course back to authoritarian style of government this time led by General Sisi. As the political climate in the middle east has become unstable with the civil war in Syria, to an unstable country in libya and a nuclear Iran, what is going to  happen next is anyone’s guess as these competing issues become murkier day by day with no viable or attainable end in sight. These conflicts have also started international fight for influence in the region with the US steadily losing its power and regional players like Iran and Turkey  looking to gain the upper hand. Surprisingly enough Russia has gained a foothold by its show of power in dealing with the Syrian chemical weapons issue.

“Supporters of Egypt’s Mursi and of the Muslim Brotherhood movement protesting earlier this week. (AFP)”

Picture Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/10/14/Mursi-supporters-push-for-protests-ahead-of-Eid.html

There has been new revelations recently that the United States has planned to cut off aid which is a good news at least on the American side. Although this seemingly obvious move was rather late. it still is a positive sign that the U.S has chosen wisely to withdraw support given the recent glaring human violations committed by the army with the help of state media in the name of “war on terror.”

As things have calmed down slowly, the sanctions and restriction of movement is hampering day to day life and it appears to be going down in a downward spiral from Mubarak getting released to sectarian violence everywhere.

The Muslim Brotherhood and the pro democracy supports  are steadfast in challenging  the coup and with no sign of a civilian government transitions it seems that they are right but one has to wonder if they are going to be any more effective (via protest) since the Muslim Brotherhood is banned once again, and international support are few if any at all because of their unique position as a pro-democracy with a “islamist” zeal. Things appear to be a standstill at this point in aftermath of the popular Arab Spring, which has been nothing but a past dream with many hoping to look for the answer to the ideal of freedom and democracy when it has been unattainable even after all the bloodshed and violence.

Propaganda

One would think that people outside of a particular country would be free of its propaganda and would have access to reliable news but this is not the case many Egyptians here in the US and abroad have supported the toppling  of the democratic government and have asserted that the continued human rights abuses are necessary to “rid the country of terrorism.” An example of this is a good friend of my boss who supports the military complaining about the press coverage by western nations and voiced his displeasure that Al-Jazeera , ” a reliable network” , also spreading the “western propaganda” against Egypt.

Other Abuses

Unlike Sweden which had blanket asylum to Syrian refugees and Turkey and other middle Eastern countries have done their part in doing so but Egypt has been arresting Syrian refugees and placing them in “administrative detention” and ultimately deporting them presumably back to Syria. it’s things like these that make a government that had already had a coup look bad through and through and these are just the linchpins of many issues that are taking place in Egypt now.

Going Forward

Despite the turmoil and questionable actions of the Egyptian military , There is still ample time to return back to a civilian government. Banning the Muslim Brotherhood would not bring about any improvements to the political scene. This is a group that has been previously told to renounce violence and participate in elections which they did and won unequivocally so this doesn’t seem like good move. The only way to solve this issue is to restore President Morsi and finish his term. It would be a goodwill move on part of the military for the wrongs they committed and the Morsi government would have to promise substantial reforms and improvements to the quality of life.

Recommendations

In order to prevent abuse of power by both the military and the government there has to be a check in place and laws on the books to prevent nepotism, and distribution of power equally. so each legislator/ Prime minister doesn’t amass all the power.

Now that Syria’s chemical weapons  use and its aftermath have been plastered in the frontage of every news media outlet, the Egyptian coup..errhm  i mean, crisis, has taken a back seat in the list of pressing issue . The  revolution started out with a positive cause of deposing a ruthless dictator who had nearly untethered control for 30 years with foreign support, but what is happening now looks similar to the Mubarak regime under the guise of provisional “military led government.” The Military has control over the airwaves. The news organizations that are  not approved by the military are widely cracked down and its journalists jailed.

All of this to the average American citizen is irrelevant or at best tragic, what everyone should be considered about is the aid that the US sends in billions of dollars to Egypt. The United States  cannot legally send aid to a foreign government that had a coup. So even though the US has “suspended” aid until further “revision.” The State Departments official stance towards this is to not change course citing that it doesn’t have to “make a formal determination.”

This is what is most troubling over all, an official policy to ignore a mandate for provisional aid.  But even more comical is the visit by Sen. Michelle Bachmann and Lindsey Graham to Egypt where Bachmann infamously uttered the following sentence “We’ve seen the threat that the Muslim Brotherhood has posed around the world,” she said Saturday. “We stand against this great evil. We are not for them. We remember who caused 9/11 in America. We remember who it was that killed 3,000 brave Americans. We have not forgotten. We know that you have dealt with that enemy as well.”

Despite the idiocy, revisionist history and short term memory of a tragic event, what is most troubling is that a representative of the US government uncritically supporting a undemocratic government crackdown on  pro-democracy groups and using 9/11 as a moral and false equivalent to justify it.

The next steps taken by the US  have to be considered carefully since it’s questionable financial support of a government appears to be a dictatorship in its infancy stage is already ill advised and hypocritical of its extolled value placed on “democracy.”