Two concerns have been planted by the regime in an attempt to divide Egyptians over their support of the protests which started on 25 January. The first and foremost is whether the Muslim Brotherhood will take over, the second is whether there is a conspiracy within the government orchestrated by some unknown entity within the ministry of interior and executed by rogue agents and thugs. I’ll answer the latter even though in theory it should not matter because all responsibility lies on Mubarak.
In case you’re extremely confused and things seem conflicting, the answer to the question is a definite ‘No’. There is no conspiracy within the government, but there is a conspiracy taking place against the Egyptian people trying to win back their rights. Let me explain why there appears to be a conspiracy and why there isn’t one.
The idea that what happened on Friday was a conspiracy is appealing in order to avoid having to think that this sinister plot is one devised by our rulers. To spread this idea is extremely clever, but here’s why it’s not true.
How can we believe that a brutal police state does not have control over its most important tool? Is it conceivable that after 30 years, the police would defy the regime it has served so devotedly?
Where is the traitor? If there were a culprit, the government would have offered them as a scapegoat at least to appease public opinion especially since these events only managed to infuriate the people and the protesters. Instead, like a guilty party, the government points fingers randomly at no one in specific and makes very general accusations to everyone but itself. The fact that businessmen were not allowed to leave, and their accounts frozen, is a publicity stunt and none of them will be prosecuted. The idea is to give the impression that an investigation is being launched without actually conducting one. The same is true for all the arrests claimed, where the charges are never made public.
Notice how both Ahmed Shafik and Omar Suliman claim that all guilty parties will be brought to trial with no indication as to who the guilty parties are. In the end, they will most likely pin everything on the Muslim Brotherhood after investigations.
When Vice President Omar Suliman was asked if the police had done any wrong, he denied that they had. He said they did a wonderful job. But the real problem is that police used excessive violence during the protests and had been given a signal to retreat simultaneously from all positions at the same time in various cities. If he were not aware, he would have been quick to point fingers at least somewhere within the Ministry of Interior. The question you must ask yourself is, what would Omar Suliman do differently if the regime was in fact the culprit? My answer is nothing, his statements reeked of guilt.
On Wednesday, thugs hiding within pro Mubarak protests attacked the pro democracy protesters. Not only did they use knives and Molotov cocktails, they also sent in horses and camels and used live ammunition at the break of dawn. If you notice that on this particular day, Ahmed Shafik did not appear on television nor did he call shows to issue statements. This comes in stark contrast to the previous day where he appeared on several programs and the day after where he called many. This absence of comment is an implication of knowledge, firstly because I’m sure the prime minister watches Al Jazeera and secondly because camels and horses in Tahrir square are hard to miss if you’re following the situation closely. The fact that live fire from an automatic weapon was fired just before dawn waking up residents of Zamalek is just an overkill. Al Dostour writes that Ahmed Shafik considered handing in his resignation due to his disapproval of these tactics.
There is a new Minister of Interior now, and yet the police seem to be absent. All we have left are thugs that are systematically cracking down on international journalists and kidnapping activists and bloggers.
One of the prominent media personnel, Emad Eldin Adeeb, is spreading the idea that there’s a conspiracy against Mubarak. Mr. Adeeb analyses everything correctly, about how people feel, the Muslim Brotherhood, the youth, but fails to identify with equal accuracy who the traitor is within the system. He has accusations but the aim is to shift the focus on everyone other than Mubarak and his regime. Also note that when he says there is foreign involvement, he uses it very loosely without identifying what the foreign elements are, he only claims they exist. If he were really trying to warn youth about a certain danger, he would identify those elements clearly, but the ambiguity of such accusations make them baseless.
There are a few other questions. Why was the internet restored on the same day these violent attacks took place? The plan was to drive the protesters out of Tahrir square and spread news of pro Mubarak protests taking over. However camels and horses did not manage to implement the plan, and neither did Molotov cocktails nor live ammunition. The resilience of the protesters of Tahrir in the face of death was not something the regime counted on.
Why don’t these protesters go home so that normal life resumes? The protesters never caused banks to close. It was the absence of police and their organized militia and the shutting down of internet and a decision from the top. The protesters are in no way linked to the siege on the major cities in Egypt. This is a collective punishment for asking for our rights.
I can assure those hesitant about what’s happening that there is no internal strife in the government, they are only trying to use psychological warfare through unfounded theories, conflicting actions and media games. We all know who knows how to play these media games, and it’s obvious they don’t want Mubarak to leave.
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