25th of May; Another Day of Illusion

On Thursday, 25^th of May, 2006 protesters demonstrated in front of the Judges Syndicate surrounded by a great number of riot police forces. The judges organised a stand in front of the Supreme Court House. The stand began after the demonstration and ended before the latter. The Judges Syndicate, the Supreme Court house, the Lawyers Syndicate and the Journalists Syndicate are all placed in a big rough square that was totally surrounded by thousands of riot police forces.

A closer look at the scene reveals many points:

• The number of judges was claimed to be 500.

• The number of protesters was claimed to be 300 – I personally doubt this number because this was not what I saw.

• The Muslim Brotherhood had no presence as they indicated earlier.

• The protester were mostly all activists.

• The protesters' slogans were mainly resentments and rarely uttered the aims of the different movements that were present.

• The protesters mainly belonged to Kifaya.

The judges outnumbered the protesters and this has a strong indication of the unpopularity of their situation in the eye of the public. The Muslim Brotherhood stated days before the stand that they would not participate unless the judges invite them to do. This reveals many points about the Muslim Brotherhood but this is not our issue for the time being. The very fact is that the Muslim Brotherhood aid withdraw caused a dramatic decrease in the number of protesters. An instant popping assumption is that the previous demonstrations were relatively big ones out of the Muslim Brotherhood participation. Bearing in mind that the 25^th of May was highly popularised relative to many previous days, the assumption becomes qualitatively proved. This strongly indicates the unpopularity of the whole scene among the public.

The protesters were mainly activists who are involved in the current Egyptian scene. Most of them put Kifaya's logos on their chests. If this is to prove a thing it again proves the unpopularity of the scene in the eye of the public.

The demonstration slogans almost could be considered grudges. The slogans showed a preference of relating the Egyptian crisis to the current regime. This is true for sure. However, the slogans of such a demonstration, which was organised by supposedly organised movements, were expected to refer to the movements' common methodologies or even aims for the desired change. It counts to chant “our freedom is killed” but it counts even more to shout “we need (or will do) 'something' to revive our freedom”. This brings out a very faulty view. This view demonstrates how the different movements target people's suppressed anger while they lack any views about re-forming the Egyptian society. The result turns out to be very disappointing. A result that failed to group the public together to say no. A result which shows how these movements comprise different elites which are separated from the regular Egyptian.

There was a unique woman who participated in the demonstration. She was wearing “Glabyah” and holding a plastic black bag (kees eswied). She was carrying no signs or logos. At the end of the demonstration she was hopping around asking whether the demonstration was done. When I saw her I felt happy. She is just normal and she wants her voice to be heard or at least that is what I thought or loved to think. For me she was the most respectable person who attended the play. I could behold no more “normals”.

Who are the regular people?

Most Egyptians think that it is of no use other than harming the self to participate in demonstrations or involve in the current scene. They simply believe that when they go to jail in the name of freedom they will find no one and no money to get them out of it again. Bearing in mind that many of the Egyptians suffer from poverty which weakens those poor classes at the end of the social hierarchy/order, it becomes apparent that many have the very right to think naturally in such a way. It is not an illusion that most of the Egyptians belong to those classes. People who belong to these classes have very distorted thoughts about society and their public awareness settles down to nearly nothing. A malfunctioning education system, a very hard economical state, a cultural heritage that has been distorted and a resulting very clear sense of individualism all of these combined stop any thought of public bragging.

Also there are Egyptians who belong to the middle class suffer the pattern of thinking I mentioned above. And those mainly belong to the lower divisions of the middle class. Many of those at higher ends carry very distorted identities that compromise a mixture of conflicting thoughts and views. These identities enforce many of them to stay away from the scene as they think it is of no use to live in this country in the first place. The very prior aim of those is to go to the next level and join the next class at higher position in the social order...which is the rich class or at least the lower divisions of it.

If those social and political movements target people, then they have failed. Because their methods of loud shouts cannot persuade anybody who carries one of the former patterns of thinking to change his/her mind. The reason is that these methods explain neither the political and societal state in Egypt nor any methodology to bring about a change. I am really wondering what do these movements aim at? Do these movements fool themselves or fool the people?

What are the relationships among those movements and organisations and the international players? Who do they target? And what is the role of money in the play?

If it is not for the public then for whom the bell tolls?

The corrupted Egyptian regime must be changed by the Egyptian people not by elites separated from people claiming leadership.