Review Haiku – Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad, and the Politician

Like many people, over the past week or so I’ve been following the events in Egypt via online news sites. It’s strange, because Egypt is so far away and I have no connections there, but it’s fascinating in the same way that watching the August coup attempt in the Soviet Union was fascinating.

As I said, I don’t have any connections over there, so I’ve sort of been ambivalent about it all. The protesters are fighting for democracy – that’s good. I can relate to that. But I also wondered if Hosni Mubarak is really that bad. Yes, he’s been in power for a long time – three decades, but each country has their political traditions, so who am I to judge. He supports Middle East Peace™, mostly plays nice with Israel, and supports the War on Terror™. He’s our guy in Egypt.

The largest opposition group in the Egyptian parliament is the Muslim Brotherhood, who would like to turn Egypt from a secular nation into an Islamic one, like Iran. Bad as Mubarak may be, I wonder what would happen if the Muslim Brotherhood came to power. Thinking about that unappealing prospect reminded me of the old saying “Better the Devil you know…”.

After a time, the protests seemed to have produced results. Egypt got its first vice-president in decades and Mubarak said he wouldn’t stand for re-election. However, the elections are scheduled for September and many protesters worry he won’t keep his word. Still, it seems like a good compromise. Is it too much to ask people to step back and wait for the elections?

Then I read this. (Hmph. His site is suspended now, so here’s a mirror of the article on Google Docs. I’ll post a mirror here if it continues to be a problem elsewhere).

For most of the article, (cheekily-named) Sandmonkey explains why they are protesting. They’re fighting for democracy and an end to corruption. It’s not about the Muslim Brotherhood, because they are still a minority and they’re sort of Johnnie-come-latelies to the whole thing. They fear if they leave now, the Mubarak supporters will eventually come for them.

The most powerful paragraph is the last. Sandmonkey wrote:

The End is near. I have no illusions about this regime or its leader, and how he will pluck us and hunt us down one by one till we are over and done with and 8 months from now will pay people to stage fake protests urging him not to leave power, and he will stay “because he has to acquiesce to the voice of the people”. This is a losing battle and they have all the weapons, but we will continue fighting until we can’t. I am heading to Tahrir right now with supplies for the hundreds injured, knowing that today the attacks will intensify, because they can’t allow us to stay there come Friday, which is supposed to be the game changer. We are bringing everybody out, and we will refuse to be anything else than peaceful. If you are in Egypt, I am calling on all of you to head down to Tahrir today and Friday. It is imperative to show them that the battle for the soul of Egypt isn’t over and done with. I am calling you to bring your friends, to bring medical supplies, to go and see what Mubarak’s gurantees look like in real life. Egypt needs you. Be Heroes.

Damn.

The passion with which they are fighting for democracy humbles me. They are my heroes.

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Tagged with: cairo, democracy, egypt, jan25, revolution, sandmonkey