The Meaning of Egyptian Protests

Last Spring, protests in Egypt led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak and a move towards democracy. The Egyptian army took over temporary control of the country, since the military was the only national institution with broad public support. The ruling council of generals promised free elections, and the first part of those elections has gone ahead as planned. The Islamist parties won a convincing majority in the first part of those elections, and are favored to win the next round of voting as well. Once the new parliament has been seated, the generals will still be in charge until a new president is elected next Spring. In other words, the army came into power as a result of the rebellion and it has systematically moved towards a democracy.

So here's the problem: for the last month more and more protests have occurred in Cairo and elsewhere around the country. In recent days, these protests have become extremely violent. Something like 20 people have died. The protesters say that they want the army to leave power immediately. Of course, the question is why are these protests occurring? The army has given no indication that it will prevent a move to democracy; the generals are supporting that process. The army has not be repressing any portion of the population. The economy is struggling, but that will not change if the generals are ousted. So again, who is protesting and why?

I have yet to see a cogent report from Cairo that answers these two simple questions. It would not make sense for the Islamists to protest. This group seems destined to take over the government on the strength of its popular support. It certainly is not an attempt by the old Mubarak supported to take back the government; there is no connection among the protesters to that group. No one is saying that it is any particular group that is protesting, and no one has yet explained just who the protesters want to take control of the government, just that the army should go.

Clearly, there are some articles that try to explain the protests, but nothing definitive is coming forward. So Egypt is in turmoil and right now it appears to be turmoil for the sake of turmoil.

Hopefully, things in Cairo will soon calm down. Egypt is too important a country to undergo a national psychosis.