The announcement of the final results of Egypt’s presidential election sparked a wave of celebratory cheers in Tahrir Square, and relief among the tens of thousands gathered there that Ahmed Shafiq, the self-proclaimed admirer of Hosni Mubarak, was not declared victorious.
President-elect Dr. Mohamed Mursi will be inaugurated by the end of the month as the first civilian president in the nation’s long history. The celebratory period will likely be brief, however, as questions over the division of power remain unanswered.
Indeed, it was the division of power that brought the tens of thousands of demonstrators to Tahrir Square earlier this week in the first place, an angry response to the military junta’s disbanding of parliament and declaring itself the sole legislative power in the nation last weekend.
Mursi has already engaged in a war of words with the junta over the past few weeks, promising to see the nation transitioned from military to civilian rule. With parliament already gone this could be an uphill battle, but is one that is sure to remain the foremost concern in Egyptian politics.
It is obvious that Egypt is not yet a democracy when its elected president is powerless while its puppet military has selfishly and illegally grabbed all the power, and has dissolved people’s parliament. Therefore, the revolution must continue if democracy is to succeed. The boot must be confined to the barracks where they belong.
Democracy — In direct proportion to your property
The 50% of Egyptians who refused to vote, who showed contempt for democracy, who acted as if pure corruption was this thing called democracy, were they the 50% most wealthy? Not hardly.
So, democracy in Egypt is now ruled by the 50% who own the most property, actually who own all the property, the reverse of what honest men think democracy should be.
And so, our only hope is that someday the honest people in Egypt out-number the dishonest. For there can never be a secular solution to a criminal government, until there is a moral solution to an immoral society.