Esquire's Politics Blog: So, How's That Egyptian Revolution Coming Along?
Friday, December 2, 2011 at 12:01AM 
Egypt has just concluded voting for its new parliament — the first round, anyway — with surprisingly large turnouts and little-to-no serious violence. And that should make us all pretty happy, right? Alas, there's a lot of angst out there in the mainstream media and the blogosphere on all the issues that get lumped together in the big, mournful vibe of who killed the revolution? As usual, America's incredible impatience with progress, along with our unrealistic expectations about "new faces" dominating political outcomes, are fueling this growing sense of pessimism. But, in truth, the revolution is going along just fine.
Herewith, some whining you'll be hearing in the coming days — and the truth behind it....
Read the entire post at Esquire's The Politics Blog.
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Reader Comments (4)
It's up in the air. We don't know what the outcome will be and let us stop pretending we do.
It boils down to leadership. What kind of leaders will the MB produce? Very savvy leaders could outflank the military and consolidate civilian power. If the West tries too hard to steer outcomes we could end up with an Algeria and something more sinister than AQIM.
What is clear is that the Brothers and the Salafists, not our beloved facebook revolutionaries control the Arab Street. This means that we are about to enter a new era of anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment. The World needs to adjust accordingly.
The major glimmer of hope is that the Islamists will be given the opportunity to run things. They should be left alone to sink or swim. If they sink, it will be because rigid Islam does not mix with a modern economy and if they swim, it will be because, they have to compromise and moderate their positions to get the economy moving. In any case, moderates will win in the medium to long term.
Western intervention will only interfere with this process. Let them learn the hard way (like the Iranians are learning), that Fundamentalist Islam has no place in the modern World.
There is a compromise on the military question: The Egyptian military's holdings could be hived off into a separate company, run by the military personnel (newly retired or discharged) who originally ran it. Younger officers get promotions, older officers get a cushy retirement running Egypt's most powerful corporation, we and the Egyptian people get a re-think on the whole question of their relationship with the military.
Call in re-write the scripts in trouble. We want happy endings. We don't want complications. Can't the Egyptians come up with a handsome prince or a wedding or something? Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra...that's the Egypt I like.
The election result could be worse.The MB gained only 40%, while in Gaza the Hamas won the absolute majority of 60% and the FIS in Algeria 75% in the 90s triggering a coup d´etat and a bloody civil war with 200 000 people being killed.Such a scenario is unlikely to occur in Egypt and this is the good part of the story.The MB already declared not to form an alliance with the Salafist Noor Party (20%), therefore the outcome will be a coalition goverment with the secular Democratic alliance (15%).However it is horrible that the secular movement is so weak and have even lesser votes than this damned Salafist movement. And the moderate Wasat Party only got 6% of the votes.What is important is that Egypt starts now economic reforms (keeping in mind the role of the military´s economic empire), builds a welfare state that reduces the MB´s grip on the poor by its charity organizations and that the new constitution finds a comprise of power balance between the MB, the military and the secular forces and between Islamic and secular values.In addition the military and the secular forces should pressure the MB to isolate and weaken the Salafist movement as it is the most dangerous troublemaker in Egypt.The secular parties need time to expand their influence and their party logistic.Its midterm goal should be to become stronger than the Salafist movement in the next elections.