Yesterday saw the first multi-party election Egypt has ever had. Nine candidates ran against 4-term incumbent Hosni Mubarak, including Numan Gumaa from the New Wafd Party and 40-year Ayman Nour of the Tomorrow Party, though not the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Mubarak represented his own ironically-named National Democratic Party.Last Tuesday the ever-wry BBC, reporting on this event, told listeners that "Egyptians elections are being held tomorrow. We should know Mubarak's margin of victory by Saturday."
Allegations of abuse are already flying, including charges of voter intimidation, votes being taken away before people could mark them, and intenrational obsevrers being blocked from polling stations. A consortium of Egyptian artists gathered to protest
But, if you had any doubts about where illiterate laundrymen-turned nationalistic singers stand on whether Mubarak deserves a fifth term, look no further than jewel of the Nile Shaaban Abdel Rahim. In his latest song 'The Word of Truth', Rahim lavishes praise on the 76-year-old premier. "Oh president, you do not need any words," he sings, "The people are happy because they feel secure." Rahim goes on to list Mr Mubarak's many feats, ranging from the construction of 'new cities' to the advent of the 'incredible metro' in Cairo. Mr Mubarak is also credited with bringing satellites to Egypt and making running water and mobile phones readily available to the general population. Rahim is generally regarded as something between kitsch and camp by Egypt's 'cultured' society, who derisively refer to him as 'Ludwig Shaaban'.
All joking aside, this little charade in honor of democracy is nothing new; autocratic regimes have been calling themselves 'republics' or 'democratic republics' or even 'Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriyas' since 'democracy' became the accepted ideal after World War Two. While some might see this as a sign of progress in that formerly regimes must at least go through the motions of allowing public participation in government, my fear is that it's much easier to stifle dissent and calls for democracy if at least some people are fooled into thinking they've already got it.
UPDATE: Mubarak has been declared the winner with 88.6% of the vote - 4 point higher than he got six years ago in what he admitted was a rigged election. So, you see, dictators can embrace democracy too.
3 comments:
I remember when I was in Egypt. They had to call in a hazmat team just to Hosni, Hosni, Hosni down.
"it's much easier to stifle dissent and calls for democracy if at least some people are fooled into thinking theyve already got it" Like here in America. We too are willing to trade democracy for security and as long as our store shelves are filled with commodities we think we have free choice.
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