It was just a little under two years ago that I watched on with all sorts of excitement. Today, I watch on with bewilderment. I don’t quite get how a nation of people could cheer on or be interested in pushing for a military coup. I guess Egyptians and Pakistani’s share that one thing in common, they prefer the order of military dictatorship over the chaos and inadequate inefficiency of democracy.
With a 48 hour deadline looming, will Egypt get pushed toward a military coup? Granted I am no big fan of Morsi, in fact these days, I feel even Erdogan who I had reason to admire has slipped into a authoritarian absolutist mentality when it comes to rule. Majority rule doesn’t mean there is no minority voice in governance. But who am I to judge this, when Bush and the Republicans were in power, they didn’t bother to consider that their mandate didn’t give them absolute power. Quite the contrary they rammed through the deregulation of the financial markets, plowed through a horrible Patriot Act and took us to war.
Absolutism in politics stem from the idea that you’ve been given a mandate, but does that mean carrying out your will without considering the broader public. Both in Turkey and Egypt I have found myself disheartened by the actions of governments formed and run by Islamically oriented political parties. Its easy to curb rights and to squash opposition regardless of your religious orientation, power is all consuming that way.
With hyper capitalism moving Turkey forward, I wonder at what expense is it coming at, and is Islam and Western Capitalism even compatible? In Egypt its about institution building, Moris and his party haven’t been given that opportunity, its only been a year. But far more disturbing has been the squashing of the press, of NGO’s and of the opposition.
Another shared experience in Turkey and Egypt I observe is the absurdity of the claims made by both heads of states. In Turkey its a foreign conspiracy and in Egypt the protests don’t exist if one were to only look at the Muslim Brotherhood website. Fault doesn’t solely lie in the corner of on person, or party, but its shared between all interested segments of society. To deny that there is a problem or to deflect it as the problem being a creation of outside forces is a serious breach of leadership.
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