Revolution in the Arab World - Observation of a lost soul Blog

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foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • revolution makers into real change. FP: What would your advice be to the young people in Tahrir Square What do you tell them when you meet with them To stay there until their demands are met MB: Yes, of course. I tell them that we have to keep pushing, we have to keep pushing until the demands are met. The first demand I think, and it’s becoming almost an obsession, is for Mubarak to go. And that is, it’s an emotional issue. But people understand that the regime is Mubarak, it’s one person. And the departure of Mubarak will signal that we are ushered into a new Egypt. I think this is nonnegotiable. I don’t think they will leave the street. And it’s not only Tahrir; [it’s] everywhere else. This has become the No. 1 demand. And the demand, of course, that they take charge of this process; it’s the incoming regime who should take charge of the transitional period and not the outgoing regime. There is a huge issue of credibility. There is no credibility in either Mubarak or Suleiman or anybody who is associated with that regime. It’s an opaque process; it’s a monologue; it’s not a dialogue. And they still think they are in power while everybody knows they are completely weak and the regime is melting away. So, my advice now to the young people and others is that we need to take charge of this transitional period of a year, and I am suggesting a presidential council of three people, a transitional government of national salvation, national unity under a caretaker government of people who have sterling reputations, have experience, and then prepare the country for free and fair elections. Abolish this Constitution, which is not worth the paper it’s written on. Abolish the rigged parliament. We have to go through whatever you call it, popular legitimacy, revolutionary legitimacy. Unfortunately, this is the only way out to build up again the pillars [of democracy]: a new constitution which is really democratic, with a president who has checks and balances [on him], limited power, a true parliament that has the power of the purse and oversight, an independent judiciary—all that comes with any democratic system. But I don’t think that process is working. Unfortunately, again, many of 156
foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • revolution makers the Western countries including the United States have been continuing to provide life support to [Mubarak]… FP: Let’s talk about the United States for a minute. You’ve been critical of Obama for not calling for Mubarak to leave; you said it was a “farce” that he hadn’t. MB: And the same with many other Western countries. Events have gone so fast, you know, nobody predicted.… It’s like the 1979 Iranian Revolution in that things took everybody by surprise, including us even. And they had to adjust their policy every half-hour. As you remember, it started with Hillary Clinton saying, “We assess that the government of Egypt is stable.” I took issue with that on CNN; I said she must have a different definition of stability than I do—stability meaning repression, poverty. Anyway, she changed her position a couple of days afterward and said, “We now listen to the aspirations of the Egyptian people”; Obama said, “I hear you young people” and “the transition should begin right now.” Basically, he said in a diplomatic way, “Mubarak, you need to listen and go.” Mubarak was told by everybody, in every language, in every different way of putting it: “You need to go.” And for some reason, he’s still hanging around. FP: Well now it seems the United States has decided that it wants to see Omar Suleiman preside over this transition process that you don’t have any confidence in – MB: Correct. Frank Wisner, who was sent here and was a friend of Mubarak and works for a lobbying firm for the regime, said Mubarak must stay. Luckily, the United States said he only represents himself, but I was told there are many other Wisners in Washington, saying, “Well, he was our ally, providing stability”—which of course, if you are here, you see that he hasn’t provided anything but increasing the trend of radicalization in Egypt. The repression, and sense of marginalization, is leading into radicalization. People lost their identification with the state and tried to wrap themselves around a distorted form of religion, many of them. 157
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