June 30th First Anniversary

June 30th, 2013 is the day Egyptians decided to act on their Rebel campaign threats. Millions of Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo and many other cities in Egypt to protest against the Muslim Brotherhood ruling and against president Mohamed Morsi.

Walking among the protesters on that day, and overhearing their concerns and disapproval of how Morsi was running the country, gave me hope that change was about to happen. A year later, Morsi's regime has ended, but Egyptians' problems and concerns have not been solved. They are still having gas and electric shortages, a bad economy, inflation, a corrupt government and the garbage issue that is always staring them in the face.

The only difference now is that Egyptians have another president with a regime that won’t allow their citizens freedom of speech, or freedom to protest or complain. So far the Sisi regime is doing a great job of handing out mass sentences to activists and journalists, and of course death sentences to all Muslim Brotherhood supporters and leaders, regardless to their age or affiliations.

The same problems in Egypt that were the main reasons behind the ousting of Mubarak and Morsi still exist for Sisi to deal with. These issues won’t just go away simply because a new president was elected, no matter how you feel about his election.

Egypt's problems won’t go away just because of who is in charge. They are big issues and they need the whole country to come together to face these issues, with a very smart leader to lead. People in Egypt, like people in other countries, want to think that an election is the solution. But although an election is a good way to elect smart leaders who could find ways to solve social and economic issues, no issues will just disappear upon electing one person.

The revolution that started in January of 2011, and the second one in June of 2013, only helped us to remove leaders, not the underlying military regime that has been in power all along. The corrupt regime that Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak helped to build and nourish is what we need to change, and what we need to overcome.

We won’t be able to get rid of the corruption without raising awareness and giving everyone a good education, for old and new generations alike. We need a modern education to help us to listen and respect each other's views, and teach us to voice our opinions in a such a way that we all get heard and acknowledged.

We also need to create a political system that works for us; not copy other people. We need human rights laws and freedom of speech. We need to learn to be selfless and take care of each other, and above all take care of our country and love it.

The question is, when Sisi's government fails to fix Egypt's real problems, will the Egyptian people be able to take to the streets again to protest against the failure of Sisi’s regime, or will military rule prevent that from happening?

The Egyptian Presidential Election 2014

The Egyptian presidential election this time is between former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and longtime Nasserist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished third in Egypt's 2012 presidential poll.

Egyptians living overseas started lining up to vote in the presidential election, but many are boycotting the presidential election altogether. I’m one of these people.

The decision to boycott the presidential election very much depends on whom you ask. People from the  Muslim Brotherhood who support Morsi believe that his ousting was a coup, and they still believe that Morsi is the president of Egypt.

On the other hand most activists don't see that the election is going to change much in Egyptian politics. It is just an election like other elections we have had since the removal of Mubarak in 2011. This election is designed to give control to another ex-military man who believes that freedom of speech is not necessary right now, and it might hurt the country.

However I boycott the election because I don’t see any sign of change. I also think that this election is forcing every Egyptian to choose between the bad and the worst; by the worst I mean former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

I know that sometimes you don’t get what you want, but we have been getting the bad end of the bargain all the time. Therefore we have to demand change and we have to get our voices heard.

People didn’t sacrificed their lives during the uprising so former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi could become the president of Egypt. They lost their life seeking change and democracy. However we are too far away from that goal.

Run Sisi Run

Many people think the idea of Abdelfattah El Sisi running for president is a great idea, and that it might bring the stability and security that Egypt needs right now. Among the supporters of Sisi running for president is Omer Musa, who used to work for Mubarak's government, and many other Mubarak cronies. Why do they support Sisi's canadcy? Because they are used to the system of corruption from Mubarak's era and they hope that it might come back if Sisi becomes the president.  

I think that having another military man running the country is a huge step back. Not only would Sisi follow in the footsteps of Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak, his retaliation will go a lot farther than detaining activists, or locking up the Muslim Brotherhood. He will have nothing to stop him from keeping the whole country in a state of submission.

Despite the the history of military violence against the protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood right after removing first Mubarak and Morsi, I have been hearing many talk on Egyptian and international media about the possibility of Sisi running as a presidential candidate in 2014. Not only has his candidacy been occupying people's minds, it is also a hot topic among activists who have experienced the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces “SCAF” in 2011 to 2012, which resulted many deaths and detentions for activists.

The idea of Sisi running is unpopular among activists because it means that all their hard work, and the people who died since the initial revolution, will have been for nothing. Everyone understands that if Sisi runs he will become the president no matter who is running against him. Sisi’s winning will mean one thing; that he will have absolute power. Really think about it. The military already has control over the economy and the weapons.

After removing Morsi, the military provided Egypt with better security than they had experienced since Mubarak, or during Morsi's one year presidency. Sisi captured most if not all Muslim Brotherhood heads, after giving them a chance to show their true skin by inciting violence and protesting endlessly until Egyptians were sick and tired of the Muslim Brotherhood and their sore loser strategies.

On the other hand, I don’t think that the military was behind the lake of the security during Morsi's presidency. But they witnessed it and didn’t do anything to stop it. Which makes it obvious that the military's strategy for allowing the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood was to let them fail, and turn the public opinion against them. I’m not saying that the Muslim Brotherhood would have succeeded if there were security in place, but it would have made it harder to get rid of them.

The reason why I think that Muslim Brotherhood would have failed anyway is that they had no vision. All that Morsi and the supreme leader of Muslim Brotherhood wanted was to have greater control of Egypt, and to install Muslim Brotherhood members in the government to replace the representatives of the Mubarak regime. They had complete disregard to the people needs.  

Not only did the Muslim Brotherhood have no vision to rule the country, but they allowed the fact that they were the winners of two elections consecutively to cloud their judgment, so they turned a blind eye to the people who elected them in the first place.

I’m glad they are gone, and no longer ruling Egypt. And I’m specifically happy that what they did during the time of Morsi may have ruined their chances of ever being elected again.

However now Egypt has to face the harsh reality that there's nobody worth voting for when it comes to President. Egyptians are longing for someone like Nasser to come and rule the country, and rally people around him. Unfortunately we don’t have such a person.

On Monday Sisi met with a group of representatives from Congress, and I have to wonder why. I do think Sisi might be smarter than the average military leader, but I still think it will be the worst thing for him and the country if he runs for president.