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Coupkoo

With the army’s seizure of power today, Egypt has swerved again in a revolutionary trajectory that has already passed through too many phases and directions to recall.  I had imagined that the army, opposition and Muslim Brotherhood might reach a last-minute agreement.  It was not to be.  President Morsi is apparently in military custody.

No matter how distasteful and incompetent the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, I find it hard to celebrate a military coup, popular though it may be.  The Egyptian army took over when Hosni Mubarak fell in February 2011 and made a hash of governing for the next 16 months, until Morsi was inaugurated a year ago.  He was correct in claiming legitimacy derived from democratic election.  But he lost popular support as security, the economy and social conditions deteriorated.  He also failed to maintain his initial truce with the army, which was reportedly offended in particular by his advocacy of jihad by Egyptians against Syria’s Bashar al Asad. Read more

Egypt is in play

The Guardian this morning reports:

Morsi offered a series of concessions in a four-hour meeting with General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi on Tuesday, a Muslim Brotherhood source told the Guardian’s David Hearst.

All the concession were rejected, the source said. David writes:

With the caveat that this is information which can not be cross-checked with the other parties to the discussion, my understanding is that President Morsi offered the following political concessions:

The formation of a national government representing all parties

The formation of a neutral committee to change the constitution

A call on the constitutional council to speed up the law on parliamentary elections.

A new attorney general (he has already gone)

Obliques hints that if a plan was put to him to hold a referendum on his presidency, he would agree to it.

This package was rejected.

There are key differences between the opposition and Morsi on the way forward. The opposition now insists that Morsi has first to resign; that the constitution and the upper house of parliament are suspended; that revolutionary courts are established; and that a presidential council be established pending fresh elections.

The exchange shows where a political compromise may lie if the principle of not toppling a democratically elected president is upheld.

The key issue here is Morsi’s resignation.  He intends to hold on to his position as the democratically elected and legitimate president.  Some of those who want to see democracy in Egypt agree that his removal by the military or street demonstrations would be a terrible precedent. Read more