Save our Revolution

First: Maximum respect to all the martyrs of the Egyptian revolution no matter what religion or believes they had, those people who sacrificed their lives so we'd get rid of a regime that stayed in power for 30 years spreading corruption and even make laws the punish people who try to fight off corruption.

I was one of the people who supported to revolution, not from the first day because I didn’t think that people would actually participate that much, but since I realised that this time was different, people were determined to down the regime I supported them (was the second day of the protests), lived through what every Egyptian lived through, the hope, the fear, the mixed feelings of joy, pride and worry. I was proud of being Egyptian for the first time since I can’t even remember. We gained the respect of the world, which we were on the verge of losing, it once again.

And on 11 February, 2011, round 7:30 pm Omar Suleiman made a statement, and we were free, the united, educated Egyptians, who dazzled the world with how civilized they were during the protests and how peaceful that revolution was, are finally free.

And the people started dreaming, better education, and better health-care better services. Simply, a better Egypt. Ideas came up about how we can improve our Egypt, every person vowed to change and everything was perfect, life was pink as Egyptians say.

But nothing can be perfect forever. everything turned black when an officer shot a microbus driver in Ma’adi, people had one rough day because of that incidence, the driver died, the police officer's condition is still unstable in hospital, I thought to myself: “well, one incidence isn’t much”, then noticed the horrible state of traffic in the city where I live, went on and checked why the sudden crowded streets, found out that cops don’t really want to work, want to spread Chaos so people would miss Mubarak days of oppression and the fake sense of safety (click here for my article on counter-revolution). But, people aren’t really doing their parts, people parking right next to no parking signs, people harassing cops and traffic police officers(the recruits not the officers of the academy), people who are victims of the regime themselves, living and working in in-humane conditions for less than 300-400 EGP per month (50.97-67.96 US dollars),we didn’t revolt just for us, the people, we fought for all the victims of the regime, the employees who had too little to get by per month, the political prisoners, the police officers who are honest yet not known and are looked to as corrupt and tyrants because of their fellow officers, I was never pro-generalization person, yes most of the cops are corrupt and killed some of us, no one wasn’t affected by police brutality and corruption no matter how "high-class" or "connected" you are.

So, what am I on about?

• people should keep their civilized manners: don’t drop them as soon as the revolution is "over" and Mubarak left, whether you participated in the revolution or not ,supported it or not, it's your duty towards your country to obey the laws, this is our country now, everything you do affects our Egypt, every law you break means that you disrespect the martyrs who didn’t die so you'd be able to double park or park in no-parking spots, they didn’t sacrifice their lives so you throw garbage on the street, they sacrificed for a better Egypt, the least thing you can do is give them what they fought for.
• Don’t harass cops: you don’t know if he's one of the good guys or the corrupt ones, and there are good cops, some even died defending banks, prisons, police stations against thugs unleashed from prisons by the corrupt ones, don’t assume all cops are bad. Gawad who was shot by a rubber bullet in the eye said he holds no grudge against cops, because he knows that not all of them are the regime's dogs
• Be a law-enforcer: if you saw a friend or a relative breaking the law, gently ask him/her not to, remind him/her of those who died for a better Egypt, don’t harass girls on the street, keep our Egypt  safe and sound and clean

if the police wants Chaos,we aren't giving it to them.

counter-revoultion

Counter-revolution

Is it true or we are just paranoid?

I had an argument with some people about the revolution and it’s after effect, and how the revolutionaries are worried about the counter-revolution, the only comment he had is that we destroyed the country and now we are paranoid group of people who would stay trapped in what happened and won’t start rebuilding what they destroyed. That was one of the reasons why I wrote this piece on the counter-revolution.

First: I’ll start mentioning why it’s more likely that the counter-revolution secanrio is more likely

1. I’d like to mention that the counter-revolution scenario was mentioned by Hasaneen Haikal who has lived most of his live with presidents and world leaders, wrote his own books and some people call him the “political fox” plus some Journalists as Belal Fadl.
2. When a person stays in charge of a country for over 30 years, the number of people benefiting from his ruling (and thus his followers and supporters) increase, those who prove themselves loyal get appointed as officials, some of these officials are still in their positions up to this moment
3. You’ll judge for yourself when you’re done reading with this article.

Second: who are the people leading this counter-revolution?

1. Police-officers who would be found guilty of violence against protesters, some of them would even be accused of murder (an officer called Wael Al-Koumy killed at least 5 people with his own personal gun)
2. Officials who are still loyal to Mubarak or his followers (like Ahmed Shafik and Omar Solieman)
3. People who are looking to benefit from the rise of a system like (if not identical to) Mubarak’s system (appointing people of trust rather than people of experience).
4. Basically any official who would be prosecuted and found guilty on any crimes of corruption.

Third: what’s their goal?

1. Save their neck: as I mentioned, some of them are accused of murder, others of crimes that would lock them away for life, some are expecting at least 3-10 years in prison, for officials that are used to spending millions per month, that would be worse that sentence to death.
2. Save their money: they believe they didn't work for 30 years just to give up their billions worth of assets when a group of people ask them to (Mubarak’s fortune is 70 billion dollars, others range between 8-18 billion dollars). They hope that counter-revolution would give them time to carry out these 2 goals.
3. Gain back the power they once had: if the counter-revolution was carried out as they plan, turned out to be as strong as they hope, may be it’d give them the push they need to be in charge again, not necessarily through Mubarak, some new face would do the trick.

Fourth: what’s their plan?

1. Lets forgive and forget campaigns: they are most obvious on the internet and facebook, claiming that we shouldn't waste time to prosecute the corrupt officials and focus on rebuilding on our country, some even went as far as trying to make the revolutionaries feel guilty about what they did to Mubarak. So, you’d find pages entitled “we are sorry Mr President” and “lets honour Mubarak, son of Egypt and it’s leader” and other provocative pages on facebook.
2. Sympathy with Mubarak: to support the point above, they start mentioning rumours in newspapers as facts and news, saying that Mubarak is in bad conditions, depressed, his sons are fighting, having health issues (at times I expected that they’ll say that Suzanne Mubarak filed for divorce from him). I believe this is also to try fight off people asking for him to be trialled and jailed by making them feel like they ruined Mubarak’s life, toying with people’s emotions knowing that the kind nature of the Egyptians would allow them to achieve this goal.
3. Sabotage the relationship between people and Army: by not releasing the political prisoner’s as the Army asked them to, then releasing some and saying they’ll only keep those who were involved in law violations (it’s worth mentioning that the police is an expert in framing people, they may even put drugs in a person’s wardrobe just to get rid of him or just put him in jail). I also believe what happened yesterday was part of this plan, the NDP has followers everywhere like a malignant tumour that already spread.
4. Workers protests and sit-ins: also to serve the previous points, of course when these protests and sit-ins start the Army will not find it hard to believe that the revolutionaries started it, and it’d be hard to try and convince them otherwise. It’s noticed that these protests violate the simplest rules of revolutionaries: peaceful marches, Aljazeera showed videos of workers protesting and throwing rocks at a building breaking its windows. It’s also worth mentioning that they have personal demands like a raise, some of their demands is un-achievable in the current times. I may sound paranoid but I also believe this is also NDP work (NDP has over 3 million member. So, it’s not that hard to imagine).
5. Spread Chaos: Lara Logan attack, the chaos you can easily notice on the roads, the relative lack of security, all aim to cause a massive chaos that would lead people to hate the revolution and actually long for the days of Mubarak. Even the traffic was turned chaotic, my city is now more crowded than ever, the cars that weren't allowed in the city can now enter freely without one police officer intercepting them. police is basically not working and aren't doing their job.
6. Change skins: like snakes and lizards do, this is the best way to describe them, NDP’s attempt to change names, logo and slogan is just a try to get back in political life in a more acceptable forms, Hossan Al-Badry (the ex-general secretary of the NDP) is calling for formation of a party called 25January party, the thing that made Ghonim ask people not to make such party because that day belongs to all Egyptians.Also, they didn't bother to make an anonymous group of people start such party, they asked to start such party themselves (my personal opinion is that they still treat Egyptians as a group of people who aren't smart enough to realize what the NDP is up to)
7. Make a leader for the revolution then take him down: that would help, along with spreading the chaos, the workers sit-ins and protests, and making people sympathize with Mubarak, destroy the image of the revolution. They made Ghonim the revolution leader (which he denied, said he wasn’t even a hero, he was in prison for 12 days while people protested and died for freedom, kept emphasizing the fact he's just a part in a machine called Egyptian), then tried to destroy his image, called him a Zionist, accused him of not being a patriot because he lived outside Egypt and married an American, even some accused him of working for Iran and many other contradicting opinions and accusations.
8. Divide and Conquer: policy they have been using against the Egyptians for a long time that Nawwara Negm said a Muslim told her they shouldn't protest because Christians would get the US to occupy Egypt while a Christian was afraid the Muslims would kill all Christians in Egypt, the contrary happened in Tahrir square where you found a Christian girl helping a Muslim guy to prepare for prayer, Christians protected Muslims while they prayed and vice versa, the Egyptian nation united regardless of religion or believes any one had, that made them furious. So, the next thing you know a priest is killed, Bahaes homes are burnt and a try to divide the nation again took place (also the church that was blown up at Chrimas eve turned out to be Habib Al-Adly’s work to help divide the nation so they wouldn’t protest)

We should beware of what the government is trying to do, the counter-revolution scenario has become more obvious and more noticeable than before. Egyptians shouldn’t let the government have its way and we should always be united. United we kicked a president. Divided we couldn’t even buy bread for dinner