Rejoicing in the streets of Egypt #2

A "Letter from Cairo," written by Victor Willi who is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, gives a perspective on why the people turned against President Morsi and demanded his ouster.

". . . Morsi had to leave, since he has failed on every front during his short-lived presidency. It was not primarily about his economic failures . . .  The primary reason was that the president of Egypt was loyal to his clan, the Muslim Brotherhood, before he was loyal to his country. This became ever more evident throughout the year.

"The race to the bottom started in November 22, 2012, when he issued a presidential Constitutional Declaration, putting himself over and above the law. Since then, his regime systematically imprisoned and tortured opposition figures; his flacks repeatedly tried to put a ban on any sort of freedom of speech . . .;  he and his clan of Brothers pushed a constitution through the Shura Council, a constitution that made the president immune from any sort of criticism; he exerted repeated efforts to undermine the judiciary system; he even included Hamas, a Palestinian national organization, into the Egyptian governmental system; and he tried to undermine the state by replacing national and provincial leaders with Muslim Brotherhood apparatchiks. . . .

"The clearest indication for the president's failure and total lack of understanding what is happening in his own country was his speech two days ago. Once again it showed the Brotherhood's limited understanding of democracy, which is restricted to the mechanics of voting, elections and ballot boxes, while showing precious little appreciation for the values that make up the essence of a democracy, such as the rule of law, citizenship, equality and human rights . . . ."

This clears up some confusion for me, wondering how the people could have cheered his election just over a year ago, and now demand his ouster.   It also makes me more hopeful, because this seems like a continuation of the revolution -- to correct a mistake -- rather than disgruntled masses too impatient to wait for the change they want.

If the military lives up to its promise of truly being disinterested in ruling and does bow out as soon as a stable civilian government can be established -- then this might turn out to be a necessary and a good corrective step.

Ralph