Ten months into Mohammad Mursi’s presidential term, Egypt remains divided, volatile and severely economically-challenged. Confidence in the president’s ability to turn the country around is sapping month-on-month. Whereas 78 percent of the population supported him following his first 100 days in office, according to a recent poll conducted by the Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion Research, a mere 30 per cent (mainly Muslim Brotherhood diehards and people living in rural areas) said they would vote for him again.
Mursi’s detractors are many and varied.
Young activists from opposition parties displayed their dissatisfaction with the president’s performance by initiating a May Day campaign to bring about early presidential elections. Dubbed the Rebel Campaign, members of the movement flood city squares all over the country, armed with anti-government banners and pens, asking passersby to sign a petition registering their lack of confidence in ‘the illegitimate President Mursi’ supported with their national identity card numbers.
It reads: “Because the streets are insecure, we don’t want you. Because the poor still have no place in society, we don’t want you. Because the economy is collapsed and based on begging, we don’t want you.”
The organisers say they have garnered over two million signatures and hope to achieve 15 million by June 30, when they plan a million-man march to the president’s Ittihadiya Palace. However when so many Egyptians are suffering from protest-fatigue, they’re probably being overly ambitious.
At the opposite end of the ideological spectrum are the religiously conservative Salafists, many of whom are also attacking Mursi, but for very different reasons. They accuse the government of pursuing anti-Islamic policies, such as the renewal of nightclub licences in order to attract tourism, an industry that is flourishing in liberal Red Sea resorts, but is struggling to keep above water in the capital, Cairo.
Yasser Borhami, vice-president of the Salafist Call, is calling for Sharia and criticises the Brotherhood for licensing cabarets while urging “millions of martyrs” to descend on occupied Jerusalem.
Cornered
Mursi has also managed to offend Bedouins around Alexandria and Mursa Matrouh by ignoring an invitation to meet with representatives of Egypt’s High Council of Bedouin Tribes, which issued a statement that read: “The President and his group have forgotten that Bedouin tribes are the original inhabitants of this land.”
Mursi’s problems are far bigger than agitating activists, Bedouin tribes and disenchanted Salafists. His relationship with the heads of Egypt’s powerful military, said to control or own up to 30 percent of the economy, is becoming increasingly strained. If Mursi thought that by ousting Field Marshal Mohammad Hussain Tantawi from his position as chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and replacing him with Field Marshal Abdul Fatah Al Sissi he would bolster his hold over the military, he was wrong.
Initially, it was believed that Al Sissi was a Muslim Brotherhood sympathiser, but he has since shown that his loyalty is to the Egyptian people, first and foremost. He has made several statements that include veiled warnings to the government not to cross red lines or trigger crises in which the army will be bound to intervene to protect the state.
He has also made it crystal clear that the military may have been a silent witness to the forcible retirement of its leading lights last year, but it will no longer brook government interference in its internal affairs or its decisions concerning defence of the nation. However, his recent statements have been somewhat ambiguous.
At a recent military hosted celebration attended by army, navy and air force top brass as well as invitees drawn from academia and the entertainment industry (to which Mursi and other political figures were not invited), Al Sissi was visibly emotional telling Egyptians in no uncertain terms not to worry because the military has their back.
“The army is like a fire, don’t mess with it,” was his message directed at Islamists. Yet, he has subsequently vehemently denied that the army has any intention of taking over the streets (read launching a coup as many Egyptians are demanding) warning, “If the army is forced to move, this movement will not be for a short time. It may extend up to 40 years.” He urges the political arena to unify and work together to benefit the nation.
Last, but by no means least, Mursi is engaged in mortal combat with the judiciary over legislation cooked up by the Islamist-dominated Shura Council that threatens the judiciary’s independence. A draft bill designed to regulate the authority of judges and lower their retirement age from 70 to 60, which would send up to 3,500 judges into retirement, is being hotly contested by The Judges’ Club. The judiciary fears that Muris is plotting to replace outgoing judges with those drawn from the Muslim Brotherhood.
No leader on earth can please all the people all the time, but if Mursi is unable to please any of the people at least some of the time and get the economy on a solid footing, his grip on the Arab world’s largest country will not endure.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
