The Second Egyptian Revolution Without Violence - Democracy in Action

President Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood are out, as Egyptians pull off their second successful mostly non- violent revolution in under three years. There was no violence at all until pro-Mursi supporters clashed with police or civilians. Over 300 were wounded and 7 died.

But anti-Mursi protesters were never interested in violence. They wanted change. Two mostly peaceful revolutions is an impressive record in a region not noted for its democracy and an era where everybody is quick to resort to violence. Up until last night there was no evidence of police or military in the streets and Tahrir Square where hundreds of thousands gathered to chant “out, out” and celebrate in advance the demise of a president who didn’t keep his election promises and wasn’t doing his job properly. 

A president who created a government out of an unpopular party, excluded opposition and commandeered the Constitution for a month. Ironically, though, he gave the military the power to over-ride him. 

In the US when democracy is stifled by a conservative section of the government, people who protest are very civilized. There’s a lot of expression of outrage and frustration but no violence, which is good, and no real action, which isn’t so good. Essentially those who want to see change believe they have to wait until the next election and work hard to wake the masses up to the importance of voting. Overt military takeovers are prohibited, and that’s very good. It’s government of the people by the people. Or it’s supposed to be.

But although we hold onto the theory of democracy, that we are the ones with the power, we don’t really claim it fully. And in reality we place all the responsibility on elected leaders. You fix this. But that can be impossible for a leader when sectors of opposition parties that have gained power through non-democratic means create a stranglehold, as Congress has done since 2008. Who’s got the power then? 

Whoever controls that sector and in today’s world it’s corporate interest, which is the antithesis of true democracy. Either this happens or elected leaders break promises they never had any intention of keeping. So something’s wrong with the way we do democracy in the West.

Egyptians have shown us again what democracy in action really looks like. Last night CNN had live coverage of the phenomenal celebrations in Tahrir Square, with anchors and reporters speaking to various Egyptians about the impending change in government. All of them were asking the question – is this a military coup and isn’t it contrary to democracy? Nobody spoke to a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood while I was watching, and no doubt if they had the answer would have been categorically yes.

They would have been wrong, though. Democracy is about the will of the people and the majority rules. When Mursi was elected a large number of Egyptians hadn’t participated in the elections. He won the vote, but it wasn’t the will of the majority. 

About 13 million voted for him. About 12 million voted for his rival, Independent Ahmed Shafik. But voter turnout was just over 50%. A lot of the people who opposed Mursi didn’t vote. Which is also a democratic right. Does it mean they have no voice? No. 22 million signed a petition to get rid of him. That’s true democracy in action. It’s what we don’t often do in the West.  

This wasn’t a military coup. It was about deposing an elected leader who wasn’t doing his job well and who broke his election promises. It was about unseating a party that had been trying to gain power for 85 years and piggy-backed on a revolution and, with Mursi’s blessing, commandeered democracy. Rational demands were made on Mursi. He refused to listen. So a petition was started. When even that had no effect, many of those 22 million took to the streets and voted with their feet.

When politicians behave like outlaws in the West we complain but do nothing. In reality it means all bets are off. You push me around and I must take it lying down? Not if I’m an Egyptian! 

I understand the fear of the military playing any role in this. I don’t like it either. Especially that military, even though many of the old generals are gone. But Egyptians got rid of the Junta that had no integrity and absolute power. They got rid of Mubarak and Mursi. They’ll do it again if this military steps out of line. 

It isn’t civilized in the way that we know in the West. But democracy is an organic animal and this era is about the people educating themselves, learning to flex their muscles and take responsibility for holding leaders accountable. In Egypt it’s very clear that leaders have two options: pay attention and do your job properly or you’re out. We could do with some of that in the West. Imagine if Democrats banded together like this. In the last election there were about 63 million registered Democrats, 47 million Republicans, and 32 million Independents. And Congress is controlled by a group of Republicans that aren’t even representative of their own party.

Egyptians deserve congratulations for what they’ve achieved. Most remarkable to me is what they achieve without violence. When the first revolution happened, so much of the media reflected Western gloom and doom for the country. The same thing is happening again along with Egyptians don’t understand how democracy works. It’s not true, though. They understand it better than we do. When you take action you’re bound to make mistakes but that’s how you learn.

The Brazilian Revolution - Quality of Life Trumps Football

In an era of mass communication it’s surprisingly easy to know very little about a country’s people. My assumption about Brazil was that everybody was crazy about football and up until protests erupted recently I presumed everybody was excited about the Confederations Cup and the Olympics. Clearly I was wrong. What started out as a righteous objection to the price hike of transport was just the tinder catching fire. That something so sacred as football is being sacrificed to a greater need says a lot about how far Brazilians have been pushed.  

Now it’s practically a full-blown revolution as the middle class riots against corruption, poor services and government mis-spending, which includes the inordinate cost of hosting the World Cup and the Olympics. More than a million people demonstrated on Thursday in 80 cities around the country. Compare this to 100 people protesting lasting year about the hike in bus prices.  

It’s starting to look a bit like Egypt. With one major difference; President Dilma Rousseff paid attention and praised Brazilians for their courage in speaking out peacefully. As the protests got violent she didn’t support the violence, but she hasn’t used it as an excuse to shut the door.  

Perhaps that’s because she was radical student herself and can identify with the protestors – many of whom are young and demonstrating for the first time in their lives. Or maybe it’s because she’s taken note of history, and power hasn’t intoxicated and blinded her as it has many activists who led revolutions only to become harsh dictators. Whatever the reasons, partly at Rousseff’s command, bus prices were restored to what they were in quite a few cities, and on Friday she called an emergency meeting with various relevant ministers.  

Some of the demonstrators’ placards have read “Halt evictions”, “Come to the street. It’s the only place we don’t pay taxes”, “Stop corruption. Change Brazil”, "We don't need money for World Cup, we need money for hospitals" and “Government failure to understand education will lead to revolution”. The message is clear. The middle class is awake, alive, articulate and courageous. Not willing any more to take abuse. 

It’s happening all round the world. Call me a radical but I think it’s a good thing. It signals the coming to an end of an era that’s been great for a few but miserable for millions. The world has gone from having two classes, upper and lower with no hope of the lower rising, to three where the middle class enjoyed prosperity. And if you were born with nothing you could make a fortune.  

But the dynamics have been slipping back dangerously close to a 2 class world as the middle class has lost its footing. I guess in a way that's because it still had the mentality of boss and servant. It was a thing of pride to give all your loyalty to a company. Until giving your loyalty was abused and became sacrificing your life and your lifestyle. That’s when the middle class started splitting into two. Bosses and entrepreneurs rose, and workers sank. Bosses became greedier, workers became demoralized until the boundary between the two began solidifying again. In today’s world if you’re born with nothing or you lose what you had and you land in the gutter it’s incredibly difficult to get back up again.  

But all the time the middle class has looked to be losing its power it’s been gathering a different kind of momentum: awareness that it has rights, that people can protest and make a difference. That the masses actually have the power. 

This is always how consciousness grows. When you don't know your worth you get kicked around, you give yourself away to people who abuse your trust. You get angry. You protest. You realise you can drop the boss/servant mentality. You can take your power back. It usually happens when you have nothing left to lose.

The beauty about today's world is that some leaders understand this dynamic and are either actively promoting the middle class or at least recognizing that they have to work with it. I think that’s a beautiful thing. So I'm all in favor of protest and demonstration. I hate violence but I can understand how a person can get to the point of being so constantly dismissed, disrespected and made to pay for others’ inhumanity, corruption and lousy management that they blow a fuse. 

May Brazil have as peaceful revolution as possible; may Rousseff find a way to help the people succeed in their quest for a better run government and a better quality of life. They deserve it.

Egypt in Turmoil – Empowerment Doesn’t Come Easy

Two years ago, when Egyptians inspired the world with their astonishingly successful and mostly non-violent revolution, commentary ranged from pure cynicism to the kind of unsubstantiated gloom and doom that Richard Quest specializes in.

Kofi Annan, speaking to Richard Quest at Davos in February 2011, said that obviously there was a need for reform, but “change has to be managed. I can understand there’s impatience and people want to see things move ahead very quickly but one has to be careful not to move at such speed that one creates something that is unmanageable down the line.” It sounds admirable and wise, but the problem is that real wisdom and the ability to take things slowly only comes with experience and being empowered for a long time. 

When the first democratic elections were held and there was such a poor turnout it was more grist to the mill of gloomy predictions that Egyptians would never truly get it together. 

Now Egypt seems to be in unmanageable chaos if you take a snapshot. President Morsi has declared a state of emergency in the three cities of Port Said, Suez and Ismailia following violent protests against the death sentence handed down to men found guilty for the part they played in the Cairo soccer brawl that left 74 people dead.  

The state of emergency, deaths at the hands of police, and the curfew have driven people to a frenzy and raised all manner of ghosts of how life was under Mubarak. It’s hard to get a reading on President Morsi because he speaks always with his head and not his heart, but he doesn’t seem to be a despot in the making. He just has read Egyptians wrong and doesn’t have that depth of understanding about the road to empowerment that Egyptians really need in a leader.

And the biggest problem is that Egypt had a democratic election, but Egyptians didn’t turn out in droves to vote. Out of close to 51 million registered voters, 48.15% abstained, and of those who did vote, only 51.7% voted for Morsi. Nobody changes overnight from being totally disempowered to being totally conscious of all their rights in the healthiest sense. It's a slow process. So they ended up with a man and a party who didn't truly represent the country. 

Now they’re paying the price. This doesn’t take away from the supreme courage Egyptians showed two years ago. But they’ve still got to learn how to put the same kind of effort into voting as they did into overthrowing Mubarak. And when people have been disempowered for a long time there’s a lot of suppressed rage. It has to run its course. Even when circumstances are radically altered, it’s never enough, so that rage button keeps getting pressed. 

Expressing is part of empowering yourself. I remember when Nelson Mandela was released from prison and he sometimes spoke publicly to large crowds acknowledging their right to their rage. Whites criticized him for stirring the mob, but I don’t think that’s what he was doing. He was affirming people’s right to their pain and anger, giving them a way to express, an opportunity to vent. That’s how you avoid violence.

Barack Obama said in his book “Dreams From My Father” that it takes longer to eradicate the damage done by generations of disempowerment than it took to create the damage. I think he’s right. It’s something that President Morsi doesn’t seem to have grasped yet. He has said many times that he cares about all Egyptian people, but that isn’t the same as being voted into power by them. And his actions are unwise.

But until Egyptians take all the power that is rightfully theirs and exercise it democratically they will feel the frustration of being ruled by somebody they didn’t choose. Anything that ruler does to infringe on their rights will fan the flames. The road to true and working democracy is hard, just as the road to personal empowerment. It’s not a static destination either; it requires constant maintenance and vigilance.

If you’ve been in a bad relationship where you were totally disempowered, it’s hard to face the truth that part of your disempowerment is your lack of awareness of your own rights. Once you start becoming aware and you end the relationship, the chances are that the next one will only be marginally better. But each time, you learn a bit more.

Eventually you’re free. I believe Egyptians are on that road, and that no matter what obstacles lie before them they will triumph. They’ve shown incredible courage, resilience and resourcefulness and for that they deserve the world’s continued support and admiration.