By Isaac Massaquoi
Last week a friend who feels very strongly about events of the last two weeks in the North African country of Egypt poured his frustration down on his Facebook wall. Essentially, he was very angry with the military in that country for ousting the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi from power.
Crucially, my friend was very disappointed that the people of Egypt, who only a year ago appeared to have completed a popular revolution by forcing Mubarak and his corrupt military establishment from power, were now supporting the same military to return to frontline politics by overthrowing Morsi. My friend was very concerned that democracy was in peril once again on the continent and that could send a very bad signal to the rest of Africa.
I was among many other people who commented on that post. As you can imagine, the comments were as polarised as Egyptian society today. In my comment, I agreed with my friend that removing Morsi by military force was totally wrong because he was democratically elected and he had three more years to run. But I also asked my friend to consider how “democratic” Morsi was. In fact, I wrote, “Morsi is anything but a democrat”. I stand by that.
I have since read many blogs and Facebook postings talking about the possibility of a civil war, drawing from what happened in Algeria when the military stopped Islamists from coming to power as it became clear the Islamic Salvation Front would win the pending election. I agree with all that. But in Egypt we have a very different situation at hand and the Algerian example will help the military and people of Egypt in dealing with their problems. Unlike Algeria, where it appeared that it was the West that was alarmed by Islamists taking power, millions of Egyptians support the ousting of the Islamists.
So what’s the point of this article then if I keep agreeing with all what people have said about the Egyptian debacle? Well, unlike them, I think there are many things fundamentally wrong with the way Morsi governed his country. I concede that he may have made genuine mistakes because he was the first democratically elected president in Egypt after many years of Mubarak dictatorship and he had no democratic example to emulate.
The other point is, Morsi was elected by people who only a few weeks before, demonstrated anger and frustration at years of national retrogression under Mubarak who ruled Egypt with an iron fist, clamping down on freedom of expression and assembly. The people wanted instant change and couldn't accept any tendencies of a new ruler that reminded them of the Pharaohs or their modern day equivalent - Hosni Mubarak.
The people who put their lives on the line to remove that kind of government from power were eager for progress and transformation. Egypt’s economy was in ruins, largely due to corruption and Morsi’s promise to turn things around in 100 days was as empty as his promise to serve as president for all Egypt.
After a year in office, he faced widespread discontent as much of the country was seething with anger and frustration over his perceived failure to tackle any of the country's pressing economic and social woes.
From the beginning of his four-year term in office, Morsi was very paranoid. He always talked about conspiracies and attempts to destabilize the state. He fell out publicly and spectacularly with key institutions like the judiciary, police, media and even artists.
The BBC website quotes Morsi as saying, "How can the best of leaders make major achievements in such a poisonous atmosphere? In just one year, there have been up to 4,900 strikes and 22 calls for a million man protest. The ex-associates of the ousted regime are plotting for the collapse of the state”. Morsi was under a kind of siege mentality and instead of reaching out to his perceived enemies; he dug in very deep and deployed his fighters in Islamist trenches to wait for the big showdown.
The BBC news website captured key dates in Morsi’s one-year rule.
“August 2012 - Dismisses Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi and Chief of Staff Sami Annan and strips military of say in legislation and drafting the new constitution.”
Only Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood clan can explain why they decided to humiliate the military so much. A powerful military that was sure to fight another day.
“November 2012 - Rescinds a decree stripping the judiciary of the right to challenge his decisions, after popular protests. For me this was the lowest point of Morsi’s rule.”
Here was a democratically-elected president passing a decree to make it impossible for the judiciary to challenge his decision. How much more undemocratic can anyone be? Now Morsi and his supporters are crying that democracy is dead in Egypt but I think democracy died on November 12, 2013. How would my friend react if President Koroma issued a decree tomorrow making it impossible for anybody to go to the Supreme Court to challenge his decisions? But for a massive show of opposition on the streets of Cairo, Morsi would have succeeded in pushing through such an obnoxious decree.
“December 2012 - Public vote approves draft constitution boosting the role of Islam and restricting freedom of speech and assembly."
Here again Morsi miscalculated badly. This action confirmed suspicions that he was much more concerned about his Islamist clan than all the people of Egypt. The fundamental tenets of democracy – freedom of speech and assembly were viciously attacked by a mercurial and increasingly temperamental and arrogant Morsi.
“June 2013 - Puts Islamist in charge of 13 of Egypt's 27 governorships - controversially he appoints a member of the former armed group Gamaa Islamiya to be governor of Luxor”
This was naked power-grab. How can any well-meaning leader do this in a country as polarised and complex as Egypt? It’s never wrong to give a little edge to your supporters when it comes to political posts. But when Morsi decided to so unfairly favour Islamists in the power distribution game he was surely digging his own political grave. Even a few hours to the expiry of the deadline set by the military, Morsi was angry and defiant. He made no concessions. He in fact pledged to fight to the death to save his government.
When I wrote on my friend’s wall that Morsi was anything but a democrat, these are the issues that informed that comment. My friend should have no doubt about my democratic credentials and my hate for the military trying to run any of our countries. But the only thing that could have stopped the people of Egypt from trying to shorten the democratic mandate of Morsi was if democratic institutions were allowed to function without interference. But he systematically undermined them, forcing the people to time and again converge on Tahir Square to protest and save those institutions.
Another point I must make is that at every stage of his democratic transgressions, the Egyptian people and international bodies called attention to Morsi's blatant attempt to derail a great revolution. He ignored everybody in his committed bid to keep his Muslim Brotherhood base intact. Like Mubarak, Morsi also persecuted international NGOs, accusing them of working against the interest of Egypt. The former president prepared the way for his downfall.
Closer to home, we have to be very worried about what is happening in neighbouring Guinea. This is a country that calls itself a democracy but for nearly three years the government, led by Professor Alpha Conde has refused to speak to the opposition to arrange a suitable date for legislative elections. Until a few days ago, that is. In which kind of democracy would a president run a country without a parliament? And every time opposition militants take to the streets, they are killed, arrested or locked up.
To me president Koroma's silence about what is happening in that country is compounding the problem.
Sierra Leone is simply the most democratic country in the MRU, despite all its frailties. So I am very surprised that our president has refused to leverage that on the Guinean situation in the best interest of Guinea and Sierra Leone. Any trouble in Guinea could easily destabilize this country and president Koroma knows why. In Ivory Coast, the problem was much more protracted and distant but he played a leading role in resolving the impasse. Why should Guinea be treated differently? True democrats in Guinea are disappointed that Koroma appears to have put his personal friendship with Conde above the urgent need for him to challenge the Guinean leader on the state of democracy in that country.
While my friend and many other people complain about the undemocratic removal of Morsi from power, they must look back at how he was driving a democratic train set in motion by revolutionaries who lost hundreds of lives to liberate themselves from oppressive rule vowing never to go back to where they started. Let's pray that the democratic stalemate in Guinea doesn't end up in another chaotic revolution.
