Is the counter revolution already under way?

With several incidents pointing to that direction, fears of a counter revolution are increasing among Egyptians. A lack of reliable sources of information, deliberate attempts at misinformation and the fluidity of the situation add to feelings of uncertainty.

Same old, same old - the "new" cabinet

Yesterday I had already mentioned the reshuffling of the cabinet as reported by several media. Al Ahram Online today offers a pretty informative overview with short profiles of the new cabinet members as well as of those who had been appointed by Mubarak some two weeks ago in an attempt to calm protesters with reforms, and of the (as Al Ahram calls them) „old guard“. (For another interesting article on criticism of new cultural minister el Sawy, move on to the Al Ahram page.) Provided with such a systematic overview and useful information on the individual ministers I come to strongly doubt the honesty of this attempt to create an inclusive transitional government. Besides Ashraf Hatem Mahmoud Ibrahim, Minister of Health and Population, all members of the „new““ cabinet are either successful, rather wealthy businessman or have been in a government-related position already before. Both can be considered indicators for the person in question being in line or at least not at odds with the principles, mechanisms and networks of the old regime.

Counter revolution under way: destroying Muslim-Coptic unity

 

Accordingly fears are mounting among Egyptians that a counter-revolution is already under way and that the revolution could go lost before it has been carried through to the end. The handout I published in the last post reflects this fear and calls for further immediate changes that could prevent or at least reduce the chance of a backlash. Also there's suspicion that the recent attacks on Coptic institutions might be a strategy to create unrest and destroy the unity among Christians and Muslims that has been so visibly cultivated during the protests. As for the attacks: the ones I know about are the killing of a Coptic priest in Assiut and the army's attempt to render a monastery even more defenseless, which has sparked protests in Cairo on Wednesday. For a beautiful way of expressing this unity, watch this video where Egyptians connected a mosque and a church with a huge Egyptian flag. 

Facebook Battle: NDP behind 25th January Party 

Also, the battle of (mis)information which has been waged since January 25 is continuing. There's a facebook group counting more than 300 000 members by now, calling itself „25th January Party.حزب 25 يناير“. Whether the according party has already been registered officially I don't know, yet in any case there are already rumours that the party was founded by Hossam al-Badrawi, general secretary of the NDP (hizb al watani, FORMER (?) ruling party). At least there is a facebook group called 25th January Party is ex-NDP. حزب 25 يناير هو الحزب الوطنى سابقا which has as its declared purpose to inform people about the real origins of 25^th anuary Party...it's getting messy again (or rather: it never stopped being messy), only one thing is for sure: facebook is the pivot of all this spin...

Uncertainty and misinformation: Killing of a cop. Or a bus driver. Or noone in the end?

Another recent issue also sheds light on the current situation in Egypt's capital: this afternoon the ex-pat (for ex-patriats) mailing list „Cairoscholars“ was flooded with emails asking about the current situation in Maadi, an upscale neigbhourhood in the south of Cairo and home to many wealthy Egyptians and foreign diplomats and NGO workers. These mails referred to some shooting going on and their authors wondered whether it would still be safe to go a festival scheduled to take place in Maadi tomorrow, or whether this celebration with music would now turn into „something like protest“. 

The explanation followed soon: a cop got into a fight with a microbus driver and then was killed by the driver who had shortly left the scene only to return with a couple of bloodthirsty friends. This report was revoked only short time later and eventually a newspaper article provided some (tentative) clarification: A cop had intended to fire into the air when he felt threatened in a fight with the microbus driver and some bystanders, one of the bulletts hit the driver, who was taken to a hospital. The police man got roughed up by angry observers and taken to the hospital as well, while the bystanders set two cars (whose car? Only one of them being the police car...) on fire. 

So far so good...yet there's still a video of a guy who's inconscious or dead, surrounded by angry/desperate people which remains unaccounted for but is said to belong to the same scene... the essence of it is once more: it is hard to understand what is actually going on. From this incident's report we additionally learn that police men have a much more uncomfortable role than they used to have before the revolution. Supposedly all the police staff fled the area after the incident, a hint at just how uneasy they might feel at the moment. And just remember: only last week had policemen been protesting against their senior officials' orders ruining their reputation...