Revolutionary Egypt

Egypt is a very confusing country because it is not like a Western democracy at all. Yet again the population of a nation have taken democracy to mean voting and that's it. This is very far from the idea of power of the people. The Egyptian people are essentially going backwards and striving for permanent revolution and a constant change of dictators. What is going on at the moment is really another revolution, albeit one which has a 48 hour waiting time.

Democracy has so many meanings that it can't really be defined by anyone. But generally speaking there is the need for basic rights and accountability of politicians, best served through voting.

Mr Morsi has got himself in a very large problem by not allowing for democracy.

This has not happened during the time of President Morsi. Although elected with over 50% of the vote, Morsi has very little constitutional checks and balances acting upon him. The President has become an elected dictator where what he says goes. The constitution of Egypt has very little to say on how the country is actually run accept that there is a president and that the army, who are not accountable at all, will somehow be involved. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have thus taken over as much as possible so that they are running things. There is however no sort of laws on how they are to do this so there is actually no rule of law per se and only the authority of the president.

The constitution that underpins the rights of citizens is also fairly ignored or rather inconsistently applied. This is down partially to the lack of any sort of law in Egypt but also from contradictions in the constitution and the government. The constitution allows for freedom of religion but bans anyone insulting Abrhamic religions, which also goes against freedom of speech also. The Muslim Brotherhood too, being an Islamist party, are involved on the fringes of the terrorisation of any minority religions in the country at a local level.

Tahrir Square is yet again full ready for another revolution.

The protesters out in Tahrir Square tonight are demanding Morsi to resign for all the reasons above. But they want their own dictator to be put in charge after fresh elections with an interim government ruled by the army in charge. Yet again shafting checks and balances and rights of citizens. There is no real change for Egyptians, it's some sort of permanent revolution. The worrying thing is this is about to get bloody because there is a large proportion of Egyptians who support Mr Morsi, they were out protesting on Sunday. These are people who responded to the burning of the Muslim Brotherhood HQ with violence. I think civil war in Egypt is perhaps a step too far but there will be some sort of localised conflict of civil disobedience which will bring about terror.

This can be avoided and bring Egypt back onto the path of democracy by Mr Morsi having a power share. However, because he is actually not in as weak as a position as made out any sort of decision to do so will be tokenism and bordering on an insignificant irrelevance. There is no easy path for Egypt and I'm rather pessimistic about any success there.

This whole episode is a bit like the French Revolution and what happened in Europe in 1848. It's all going to end very badly where eventually nothing will have changed because the people of Egypt are led by those who are only out there for a power grab of their own ideas. There was, and is now in Egypt, one sole barely accountable authority in the state. The flip flop of power will be from elected dictator to another. It may end with the army back in charge and nothing to show but the deaths of thousands of people and some pretty hard times. That's absolute revolution however, a roll of the dice loaded for chaos and defeat leading to rare success.

Revolution like this didn't work in France and led to a lack of peoples input into politics for 100 years.