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

foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • 18 days
be implemented, and the country’s notorious “emergency laws”—in place
for Mubarak’s entire three decades in power—be repealed.
By late afternoon, many of the protesters had converged on Tahrir
Square, the traditional heart of the city. A massive deployment of black-clad
riot police used water cannons, tear gas, and batons to repel the protesters,
who pushed through police cordons and established dominance over the
entire square, just one block away from the Egyptian Parliament.
As of early evening, the situation downtown was tense and uncertain.
The police alternately advanced behind a hail of tear gas canisters, then gave
ground once the crowd regrouped. Protesters were planning to sit in overnight,
and were appealing to supporters to bring food, water, blankets, and
cigarettes. The crowd still numbered several thousand, spread out across the
massive public square that houses the Egyptian Museum.
One of the most impressive aspects of Tuesday’s protest is its success at
producing massive numbers without the direct organizational assistance of
the Muslim Brotherhood. The venerable Islamist group is normally the only
opposition force that can bring thousands into the streets. But the Brotherhood
announced earlier this week that it would not directly participate as
an organization, though it did allow individual members to take part.
“The people have to come out and take control of their own destiny,”
Ahmed Eid, who has been unemployed since graduating from law
school three years ago, told me. “If we continue like this, we will change
things, we just have to commit.”
That level of commitment will be sorely tested in the coming days. Today’s
events mark a genuine watershed in Egypt’s political history. However,
there have been similar, albeit smaller, spikes of public frustration over the
years. They were typically followed by a retrenching of the regime, a crackdown,
and a return to the status quo.
What brought Ben Ali down wasn’t a one-day mass protest, but a solid
month of uncontrollable political activity throughout the country. Will
Egypt’s Day of Rage produce enough sustained pressure to produce the
same result
Ashraf Khalil is a Cairo-based journalist who has covered the Middle East
since 1997.
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