Egypt: Political Parties in Service to SCAF

Egypt: Political Parties in Service to SCAF


Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Cf. Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, “The Arab Counterrevolution” (New York Review of Books, 29 September 2011); Hatem Maher, “Egypt’s Revolution Youth on the Backfoot as Parties Steal Limelight” (Ahram Online, 2 October 2011); “Political parties and movements across the spectrum are deeply divided over the meeting on Saturday that gathered Armed Forces Chief of Staff Sami Anan, the second highest ranking member of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), with representatives of 15 out of 50 of Egypt’s political parties.  The participants, including al-Sayed al-Badawy, chairman of the Wafd Party, and Mohamed Morsy, head of the Freedom and Justice Party, signed a statement following the meeting in which they expressed their support for the ruling military council, a move that infuriated other political actors.  ‘This is a game, ‘ said Ola Shaba, an activist from Egypt’s leftist Popular Socialist Coalition Party.  ‘The SCAF wants to tell people that political forces support its visions and agree on its timetable.  The reality is that the SCAF is in a major dilemma since it runs the country with the old tactics of [former President Hosni] Mubarak.’  Some activists expressed their frustration online, creating Facebook pages attacking the political parties that participated in the meeting.  One of those pages entitled ‘Those Parties Don’t Represent Me’ said that the document is simply a ‘document of submission’ to the SCAF” (Ahmed Zaki Osman, “Political Parties Divided After Some Sign Document in Support of Military Council,” Al-Masry Al-Youm, 2 September 2011).




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