A planned day of protest on Sunday, the first anniversary of the election of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammad Mursi, in Egypt was likened to a day of reckoning, with good reason.
In plain terms, Egypt is facing a moment of truth for its so-called revolution, which was supposed to bring prosperity and democracy. Instead, after a year of the rule of Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood, millions of Egyptians have a deep sense of anger and betrayal, with the country facing the threat of civil war.
President Mursi came to office promising to be a president for all Egyptians. Since then, the divisions deepened by his rule have pitched the nation into crisis. Sunday saw millions of Egyptians flood the streets nationwide in a massive outpouring of anger and frustration.
As Mursi’s opponents mobilize for protests aimed at toppling him, he shows no sign of flinching. Instead, he is digging in, backed by Islamist allies determined to shield him from what they see as an attempted coup.
That he should battle on regardless, fending off a storm of criticism reflects Mursi’s approach during a year in which his efforts have been obstructed by political unrest, resistance from vested interests within the state and failures by a government that seems to lack vision.
As hopes for consensus have faded, Mursi has ploughed on regardless, casting his opponents as spoilers who have rejected his attempts at outreach. His allies, meanwhile, have been whittled down to Islamists at the extreme religious right.
Addressing his supporters last week, Mursi said the conflict threatened “our nascent democratic experience and threatens to put the whole nation in a state of paralysis and chaos”. In a pattern seen before, he offered concessions, but these were dismissed as too little by the opposition.
Critics have depicted Mursi as a puppet of the Islamist movement that launched him to power – a claim rejected by the presidency and the Brotherhood. But former members of the presidential staff have cited the group’s interference as their reason for quitting.
One of the shortcomings was Mursi’s inability to engage all Egyptians into this new “democratic project”. Egyptians must exercise restraint to prevent a complete collapse of the democratic process, which will take some time to mature and to bear fruit.
From this distance, Mursi seems to have been a major disappointment to many Egyptians and the military is now becoming restless as disorder and lawlessness become the order of the day. Egypt is suffering from political uncertainty and economic deterioration.
The country is starkly polarized between pro-government supporters and the secular opposition. It’s a country where pressing problems of rampant unemployment and an economy on the brink of collapse are masked by ideological fissures that threaten to dislodge a nascent political democracy.
The head of the armed forces has warned that they will not let the country slip into anarchy. But if the armed forces are forced to contain civil unrest, it will be most harmful for Egypt’s democratic future and a pretext for taking over the reins of power.