Egypt’s military leaders issued a constitutional decree Sunday that gave the armed forces sweeping powers and degraded the presidency to a subservient role, as the Muslim Brotherhood declared that its candidate had won the country’s presidential runoff election.
The bold assertion of power by the ruling generals followed months in which they had promised to cede authority to a new civilian government by the end of June. Instead, activists and political analysts said, the generals’ move marked the start of a military dictatorship, a sharp reversal from the promise of Egypt’s popular revolt last year.
What continues to surprise me is that anyone really believed that the "Arab Spring" would turn out any differently than it has. Modern-day Egypt has never been a particularly enlightened place. Even the oft-sainted Anwar Sadat had plenty of blood on his hands. The world is, in the main, a nasty place. Still, the dream dies hard, as we learn from a "prominent human rights activist":
“With this document, Egypt has completely left the realm of the Arab Spring and entered the realm of military dictatorship,” said Hossam Bahgat, a prominent human rights activist. “This is worse than our worst fears.”It could be worse. Bahgat could live in Syria.
No comments:
Post a Comment