Democracy and the Egyptian Arab Spring- wasted. A new dictator arises

[Hayabusa Rider]

It's Morsi this time.

(CNN) - Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy has issued an order preventing any court from overturning his decisions, essentially allowing him to run the country unchecked until a new constitution is drafted, his spokesman announced on state TV Thursday.

Morsy also ordered retrials and reinvestigations in the deaths of protesters during last year's uprising against strongman Hosni Mubarak. That could lead to the reprosecution of Mubarak, currently serving a life prison term, and several acquitted officials who served under him.

The order for retrials could please some Egyptians who've expressed disappointment that security officers and others have escaped legal consequences over last year's protester crackdown by the Mubarak regime.

Some demonstrators in Cairo, however --protesting for a fourth day against Morsy and the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood -- expressed anger over his assumption of more power. About 2,000 people protested Thursday night in and around Tahrir Square, with some chanting "birth of a new pharaoh" and "Morsy the dictator."

Political rivals also expressed dismay Thursday evening.

"Morsy is taking over the executive, judicial, and legislative powers in his hands, and this is a dangerous path," said the Twitter account of Hamdeen Sabahy, a former presidential candidate.

"Morsy has issued immunity to any laws he issues. This is the birth of a new dictator," tweeted Khaled Ali, another former presidential candidate.

Hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, meanwhile, stood outside the general prosecutor's office Thursday to support Morsy's decrees.

Morsy declared that any laws or decrees he's made since he took office June 30, and until a new constitution is put in place, are final and cannot be overturned or appealed, his spokesman said on state-run TV.

Morsy also declared that a 100-man council drafting a new constitution, plus the upper house of parliament, cannot be dissolved. And he granted the council two more months to finish a draft constitution, meaning the panel has six months to finish.

That means Morsy, who earlier this year took over legislative powers from the military council that ruled after Mubarak's ouster, could have at least six months of unchecked rule by decree. The draft constitution would go to a referendum before it is finalized.

He also fired Egypt's general prosecutor, who had taken criticism from protesters in recent months because they believe prosecutions over demonstrators' deaths were insufficient. Morsy swore in Talaat Ibrahim as the new general prosecutor on Thursday.

Morsy's moves come three days after the start of violent protests in central Cairo, largely by people angry at Morsy's government and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement to which Morsy belongs. They also come amid turmoil in the constitution panel, which has been torn between conservatives wanting the constitution to mandate Egypt be governed by Islam's Sharia law, and moderates and liberals who want it to say that Egypt be governed by principles of Sharia.

The announcements also come a day after Morsy helped broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas after an eight-day conflict between the sides.

On Wednesday, Morsy released a statement saying he had canceled a planned trip to Pakistan -- sending his vice president instead -- to concentrate on internal political developments and the Israel-Hamas cease-fire.

Thousands of people have protested in Cairo since Monday, chanting -- for the first time since Morsy took office -- for the toppling of the regime. Some in Tahrir Square held posters saying "No to the Brotherhood," and banned Brotherhood members from entering the square.

Some protesters have thrown Molotov cocktails and rocks at police, who have fired tear gas and birdshot at the demonstrators.

One person has died and at least 80 have been injured in the protests, according to Mohamed Sultan, a Health Ministry spokesman.

Nine police officers have been injured in the clashes so far, said Alaa Mahmoud, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

Dozens of protesters have been arrested, said Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal El Din. Cameras have been installed around Tahrir Square, its side streets and the Interior Ministry in an effort to determine the identities of people attacking security forces, he announced.

Middle East balance of power shifting

More demonstrations are scheduled in Tahrir Square on Friday.

Fekri Mahkroub, a criminal court judge in Egypt's Ismailia district, said Thursday night that he was "sad because what President Morsy did is an assault on the legislative and judicial system."

"He defies anything the revolution stands for, and his actions are an insult to us as judges," Mahkroub said. "Declaring that his laws cannot be questioned is unacceptable, and we may see a general judicial strike."

Eric Trager, a fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Morsy not only is preventing the judiciary from overruling his decisions, but he also has "insulated the Muslim-Brotherhood-dominated (constitutional panel) from judicial oversight."

Depsite the protests in Cairo and objections from political rivals, Morsy -- elected with nearly 52% of the vote in a June runoff against former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik -- enjoys the "best mobilizing capability in the country" in the Muslim Brotherhood, Trager said.

"If there's a nationwide movement against this, you'll (also) have a nationwide movement for it," Trager said.

After he was elected, Morsy took legislative control from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which had ruled after Mubarak was deposed. Earlier, the council dissolved parliament's lower house, saying parliamentary elections that began in November 2011 were unconstitutional. Morsy indicated in June he would call back parliament, but Egypt's high administrative court upheld the dissolution.

Mubarak and his former Interior Minister Habib El Adly were convicted and sentenced in June to life in prison on charges relating to the deaths of hundreds of protesters after a 10-month trial, while six former government aides were acquitted. Some Egyptians protested the sentences and acquittals.

Morsy, who still was running for office, said at the time that he would initiate new investigations if elected.

About 840 people died and more than 6,000 others were injured in last year's 18-day uprising, according to Amnesty International.

So much for the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I heard from rabid pro muslim members of these forums that the Muslim brotherhood was harmless as a puddy tat!!

 

[finglobes]

"Morsy is taking over the executive, judicial, and legislative powers in his hands, and this is a dangerous path," said the Twitter account of Hamdeen Sabahy, a former presidential candidate.

Sounds like Obama.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

"Morsy is taking over the executive, judicial, and legislative powers in his hands, and this is a dangerous path," said the Twitter account of Hamdeen Sabahy, a former presidential candidate.

Sounds like Obama.

I just going to say this. I read a story this morning about how Obama and Morsi get along so well. Now it all makes sense.

 

[Lemon law]

After all the hand wringing hype of the two posters, Morsi is proving to be a rather moderate politicians who is reaching out to all regional nations with a hand of peace.

After we all get over the facts that Mubarak and his corrupt cronies are gone and will never come back and the fact that the Morsi option, from any Israeli or pro Western perspective beats the hell out of the more radical options we could have gotten, then we can maybe just start to understand the problems Morsi and his political allies have in building a Egyptian democracy that can last.

And to do that we have to understand Mubarak fell in peoples rebellion as an off shoot of the Arab Spring. And unlike Assad in Syria, the Egyptian military refused kill their own people to support Mubarak and his corrupt cronies who had been looting the Egyptian people for many decades. Once the Mubarak got the ole heave ho, elections were scheduled while the Egyptian military assumed the role of a caretaker government. Maybe sadly, the young and educated who formed much of the revolution against Mubarak, relished in victory and forgot to organize into a political force to field a slate of their own election candidates. Leaving the election campaigns field to the long outlawed Muslim brotherhood party, and the more Taliban beliefs of the ultra Islamic Salifist parties. And the elections were soon held for the lower house of the Egyptian legislature and the Muslim Brotherhood won a clear majority. Next up were for the upper house of the legislature and the prime minister and again the MB won a clear majority in the upper house. As Morsi, a Western trained technocrat beat out a former Mubarak official not horribly tainted with past Mubarak corruption for Prime Minister.

As circa year or so ago the Fledgling Egyptian democracy was in theory up and running.

But sadly Egyptian democracy had two old Mubarak power bases still remaining in place ready willing and able to torpedo the new Egyptian democracy shortly after its birth.
(1) The Egyptian military was not sure it was ready to hand over power yet, while at the same time no one in the military wanted to lead a rebellion. (2) The more serious threat was and is and remains the Egyptian courts that are 99% Mubarak era holdovers. As the opening salvo of the counter revolution was fired by the courts, as they invalidated all elections to the lower house.

So Morsi simply soldiered on and formed a democratic government with an upper house legislature and himself as the PM. At which point, the Egyptian mililitary could side with the courts or side with Morsi, and choose Morsi. Now the Egyptian courts still make infinite mischief, as Morsi asks for future elections that will replace the courts with elective candidates while holding new elections for all houses of the Egyptian legislature. Which will finally solidify a transition to a total popular Egyptian democracy.

I agree that Morsi has assumed more powers in a somewhat dictatorial fashion, but we can also ask, if Morsi did not, would or could an Egyptian democracy survived.

Meanwhile for all the moaning of Haybasusa and JediY, does Israeli and the West have any real causes to be unhappy with the moderating influence of Morsi?

 

[JEDIYoda]

"Morsy is taking over the executive, judicial, and legislative powers in his hands, and this is a dangerous path," said the Twitter account of Hamdeen Sabahy, a former presidential candidate.--I agree with you on that!!

Sounds like Obama.

yet our system of Government is set up so as not to allow that to directly happen!!

 

[JEDIYoda]

I agree that Morsi has assumed more powers in a somewhat dictatorial fashion, but we can also ask, if Morsi did not, would or could an Egyptian democracy survived.

Meanwhile for all the moaning of Haybasusa and JediY, does Israeli and the West have any real causes to be unhappy with the moderating influence of Morsi?

I think your pressing the issue to even use the word Democracy when mentioning Egypt..lol

 

[Lemon law]

I think your pressing the issue to even use the word Democracy when mentioning Egypt..lol

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Yes, JediY we all perfectly understand, you want the dictatorship of Mubarak back. And rather than give democracy a chance to grow, you want the tried and true dictatorship Murarak back because its something you can rely on.

 

[Incorruptible]

I heard from rabid pro muslim members of these forums that the Muslim brotherhood was harmless as a puddy tat!!

Those idiots should actually go to Egpyt or any other countries with sharia law and see how tolerant they are.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist group, the thing about them is they make themselves look moderate by dressing in suits, being clean shaven and limiting the threats

For all of the people who said the MB was no threat you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. That pos obama should never have supported them and should admit he was wrong

 

[MooseNSquirrel]

I heard from rabid pro muslim members of these forums that the Muslim brotherhood was harmless as a puddy tat!!

Links or it never happened suckah.

 

[MooseNSquirrel]

"Morsy is taking over the executive, judicial, and legislative powers in his hands, and this is a dangerous path," said the Twitter account of Hamdeen Sabahy, a former presidential candidate.

Sounds like Obama.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusion

 

[Jhhnn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusion

Amazing, isn't it? Righties were Ga-Ga over the concept of the Unitary Executive as practiced by GWB, but now that they're out of power, why, it's just plain evil, same as with deficits & domestic govt snooping. They're still defending the invasion of Iraq & its flimsy justifications while pissing & moaning about intervention in Libya. They cheered when GWB created the prison at Gitmo, snivel & whine when Obama can't find a way to close it.

Obviously, whatever Obama does is wrong, just because he's doing it instead of McCain or Romney doing it.

On topic, I think it's entirely premature to make judgments about Morsi. At least some of what he wants is in response to the concerns of pro democracy forces. He sits at the head of the govt at the pleasure of the western trained & oriented Egyptian military, so I doubt we'll see any sort of radical Islamist state emerge from the turmoil.

 

[Incorruptible]

Links or it never happened suckah.

Just look at my threads for this

 

[ShawnD1]

"Morsy is taking over the executive, judicial, and legislative powers in his hands, and this is a dangerous path," said the Twitter account of Hamdeen Sabahy, a former presidential candidate.

Sounds like Obama.

That's exactly what I was thinking

"We need to spread freedom to the world!"
-Bush Jr basically destroys the constitution.
-Obama destroys it even more.
-Romney didn't seem any better than Obama.

At least America's sense of humor still works. Elect dictators then complain when other countries elect dictators.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Links or it never happened suckah.

Don`t need to provide any links....find them...they are there......many rabid pro Muslim members of these forums stated that the Muslim Brotherhood was harmless.....sorry but they are there...
You cannot be nieve or silly enough to believe that was not said.....unless you are purposely being a douche nozzle...

 

[JEDIYoda]

Links or it never happened suckah.

all you have to do is type the words -- muslim brotherhood in the search engine and all things become plain....

http://forums.anandtech.com/search.php?searchid=739027&pp=25&page=2

Now you have to go back in time when Mubarak lost his power but for your entertainment -

08-18-2012, 10:18 PM #21
Lemon law
Lifer


Well there is another way to look at it, please all you anti Muslim Brother hood fan clubbers, learn it and live it, Mubarak and his corruption is in jail, and will never come back.

As a US educated Morsy is determined to steer a moderate course, uphold most aspects of the Israeli Egyptian peace treaties, and is nothing remotely resembling a dangerous radical.

As Egypt as a country is embarking on democratic rule and not a military dictatorship.

Do a little reading there are quite a few people who honestly believe that Muslim Brotherhood are harmless and have Egypt`s best interest at heart. Now you put up or shut up....

 

[Incorruptible]

Don`t need to provide any links....find them...they are there......many rabid pro Muslim members of these forums stated that the Muslim Brotherhood was harmless.....sorry but they are there...
You cannot be nieve or silly enough to believe that was not said.....unless you are purposely being a douche nozzle...

I have seen some of them on this site, when are they going to apologize?

 

[Pr0d1gy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd-hwfQm6UA

 

[StrangerGuy]

Fekri Mahkroub, a criminal court judge in Egypt's Ismailia district, said Thursday night that he was "sad because what President Morsy did is an assault on the legislative and judicial system."

"He defies anything the revolution stands for, and his actions are an insult to us as judges," Mahkroub said. "Declaring that his laws cannot be questioned is unacceptable, and we may see a general judicial strike."

I wonder people like with a brain like him could even stand living in a country filled with fools.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

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Yes, JediY we all perfectly understand, you want the dictatorship of Mubarak back. And rather than give democracy a chance to grow, you want the tried and true dictatorship Murarak back because its something you can rely on.

And you wish the Holocaust was successful. Wasn't that easy?

Approving of the seizing of power "to give democracy a chance" is like screwing for virginity. There was one "need" and that was for Morsi to seize power.

 

[yllus]

The Egyptian people seem to have once again been galvanized into action, this time against the Muslim Brotherhood potentially seizing absolute power. I hope fate is on their side.

 

[Agent11]

Obama hasn't done anything remotely like this. Trying to equate Morsy to Obama shows a complete lack of understanding of our political system.

Whine all you want but our county is 1000x better than that theological hellhole and to even compare our great country to such rubish infuriates me.

Check your partisan bullshit. You are a disgrace to liberty.

 

[Nintendesert]

He's not a dictator, he's a Pharaoh.

 

[finglobes]

 

[Incorruptible]

Obama hasn't done anything remotely like this. Trying to equate Morsy to Obama shows a complete lack of understanding of our political system.

Whine all you want but our county is 1000x better than that theological hellhole and to even compare our great country to such rubish infuriates me.

Check your partisan bullshit. You are a disgrace to liberty.

Morsi was the same guy with his party saying they would reclaim Jerusalem and he is an extremist. obama supported these guys and you think obama is alright?

The current state of our country is terrible, we have too much taxes, spending and regulation. The government violates the civil liberties and supports a welfare state. We aren't Egypt but we are living with tyranny