Egypt: The Elusive Arab Spring
Dr Wafik Moustafa
Foreword By Michael Binyon
270pp • 146x220mm
ISBN: 978-1-908531-41-4
Price: £12.50
Publication: 15th May 2014
ISBN: 978-1-908531-41-4
Price: £12.50
Publication: 15th May 2014
Dr Wafik Moustafa presents a confident and wide ranging analysis of the situation in Egypt today, tracing it back to its origins and examining the prospects for the future.
This authoritative commentary on Egyptian affairs casts an eye back over Egypt’s modern history, taking the reader through the landmark events that have formed the modern nation, and brings the reader to a close and impartial understanding of the current political climate in Egypt.
“...bracing, sharp and, to many, controversial. He says things that many Arab politicians and opinion-makers
would rather not hear said... His criticisms of modern Egypt, a country he still holds dear for all its current
difficulties, are those that any politician ought to heed.”
– Michael Binyon of The Times
This authoritative commentary on Egyptian affairs casts an eye back over Egypt’s modern history, taking the reader through the landmark events that have formed the modern nation, and brings the reader to a close and impartial understanding of the current political climate in Egypt.
“...bracing, sharp and, to many, controversial. He says things that many Arab politicians and opinion-makers
would rather not hear said... His criticisms of modern Egypt, a country he still holds dear for all its current
difficulties, are those that any politician ought to heed.”
– Michael Binyon of The Times
Author:
Aside from his professional life as a practicing GP, Dr Wafik Moustafa makes regular appearances on the BBC and Sky as well as a host of other broadcast media. He has led parliamentary trade missions to Egypt and other destinations, and is a committed campaigner for a range of causes, from the interests of minority communities through to the importance of secular governance. He is Chairman of the Arab Conservative Network. More on Dr Moustafa here. |
Foreword writer
Michael Binyon OBE is an English journalist and eminent foreign correspondent, known for serving as The Times (of London) Moscow Correspondent as well as reporting from Berlin, Washington and all over the Middle East. He is currently a leader writer for The Times and occasional arts and books critic. More on Michael Binyon here. |
From the foreword by Michael Binyon:
Perhaps nowhere were the hopes for the Arab Spring higher than in Egypt. The poor hoped for higher wages and better jobs, the middle classes wanted freedom and the whole country demanded dignity. And no other country has seen such disappointment. After the fall of Mubarak, Egypt found itself adrift. The elderly generals who took charge were inexperienced in government, suspicious of outsiders and unsure what to do. The subsequent elections gave victory to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Egyptians were optimistic that President Morsi, the first leader elected in free and fair elections for 60 years, would bring prosperity, jobs, order and opportunity, cleaning up corruption and rising above his sectarian background to govern in the interests of all Egyptians. They were soon to be bitterly disillusioned.
Few governments have proved so inept or fallen so fast in popularity. Emerging from persecution and hiding, the Brotherhood proved utterly inexperienced, incapable of halting the economy’s collapse, interested only in Islamising Egyptian society as rapidly as possible and intent on pushing through a constitution that marginalised swaths of the population: the liberals, secularists, technocrats, women and the large Christian minority
…/….
Given all this, the overinflated expectations of the Arab Spring were bound to fall short – not only in Egypt but in those other Arab countries where dictatorships have been replaced not with democracy but with turbulence and power struggles between Islamists, militias and those idealistic young people who had hoped their social network revolution would lead to greater freedom and opportunity.
The strength of his analysis, however, is his honesty in admitting the failings of even those whom he admires and whose hopes he shares. The United States, though often unjustly maligned by conspiracy theorists, has to accept blame for some policies that have been harmful to Arab interests. Men such as the liberal Mohammed El Baradai, the former head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, were unable to engage either with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the post-Mubarak ruling junta, or with the mass of ordinary Egyptians. Turkey, which could have been a model for the Arab Spring, has recently lost its sure touch, largely due to Prime Minister Erdogan’s “problematic” conservatism.
Dr Moustafa tells us a lot about the forces that have shaped Egypt today. And his widespread contacts with the leading figures in the country’s social, intellectual and political life give him a clear-sighted vantage point to warn his countrymen, as they approach fresh elections, that, unless they are very careful and learn the lessons of recent history, many of their hopes may turn out, yet again, to be disappointments.
Perhaps nowhere were the hopes for the Arab Spring higher than in Egypt. The poor hoped for higher wages and better jobs, the middle classes wanted freedom and the whole country demanded dignity. And no other country has seen such disappointment. After the fall of Mubarak, Egypt found itself adrift. The elderly generals who took charge were inexperienced in government, suspicious of outsiders and unsure what to do. The subsequent elections gave victory to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Egyptians were optimistic that President Morsi, the first leader elected in free and fair elections for 60 years, would bring prosperity, jobs, order and opportunity, cleaning up corruption and rising above his sectarian background to govern in the interests of all Egyptians. They were soon to be bitterly disillusioned.
Few governments have proved so inept or fallen so fast in popularity. Emerging from persecution and hiding, the Brotherhood proved utterly inexperienced, incapable of halting the economy’s collapse, interested only in Islamising Egyptian society as rapidly as possible and intent on pushing through a constitution that marginalised swaths of the population: the liberals, secularists, technocrats, women and the large Christian minority
…/….
Given all this, the overinflated expectations of the Arab Spring were bound to fall short – not only in Egypt but in those other Arab countries where dictatorships have been replaced not with democracy but with turbulence and power struggles between Islamists, militias and those idealistic young people who had hoped their social network revolution would lead to greater freedom and opportunity.
The strength of his analysis, however, is his honesty in admitting the failings of even those whom he admires and whose hopes he shares. The United States, though often unjustly maligned by conspiracy theorists, has to accept blame for some policies that have been harmful to Arab interests. Men such as the liberal Mohammed El Baradai, the former head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, were unable to engage either with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the post-Mubarak ruling junta, or with the mass of ordinary Egyptians. Turkey, which could have been a model for the Arab Spring, has recently lost its sure touch, largely due to Prime Minister Erdogan’s “problematic” conservatism.
Dr Moustafa tells us a lot about the forces that have shaped Egypt today. And his widespread contacts with the leading figures in the country’s social, intellectual and political life give him a clear-sighted vantage point to warn his countrymen, as they approach fresh elections, that, unless they are very careful and learn the lessons of recent history, many of their hopes may turn out, yet again, to be disappointments.