More Trouble in Egypt

And I really need coffee.

Egypt is today (20/11/11) enduring it's second day of violent protest/rioting following a million man protest in Tahrir Square on Friday (18/11/11) called by the Muslim Brotherhood. Although the Brotherhood have played somewhat loose with the truth and succeeded in whipping the public into a general anti-military frenzy the protests are actually against an incredibly narrow and technical aspect of constitutional law.

Back in July the Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Ali al-Selmy published a discussion document on the principles that would guide the drawing up of Egypt's new constitution. The vast majority of the document was accepted by all parties as being rather sensible. The only dispute is over article 9 and article 10 which concern the role of the Egyptian military. Article 9 makes the military the property of the people rather then the legislature and while the President will remain as commander in chief article 10 will set up a National Defence Council that will oversee and effectively run the military. There are also concerns in some quarters that article 9 will keep the military budget secret and prevent groups like the Muslim Brotherhood running a paramilitary wing as Hamas do in Palestine.

By introducing these articles al-Selmy is trying to achieve two things. Firstly he is trying to create a separation between the power of the military and the power of the President. This is so if Egypt again finds itself in a situation like it was in during the revolution where the President is ordering the military to shoot protesters it is easier for the military to refuse without fear of being executed for mutiny. The second thing al-Selmy seems to be trying to do is create a role for the military as the guardian of Egyptian democracy similar to the role the Turkish military plays as the guardian of Turkish secularism. Rather then being an attempt by the military to grab power this seems to me to be a well thought out attempt to build in a safeguard so if in 10, 20, 50 years Egypt is unlucky enough to get a Hitler style figure who rises to power through the democratic process but then uses that power to do away with the democratic process they can be stopped. Most modern democracies actually have similar safeguards it's just that because those safeguards are in place no-one tries to do away with the democratic process so the safeguards don't get talked about or used. The fact that the Muslim Brotherhood are so opposed to this idea makes me worried about what they've planned.

As for the proposal that the military budget appears as a single item and a single total in the national budget I've got a problem with that being overly secretive. However I think the military will have some flexibility on the issue and I'm sure the best way for the Egyptian people to find a solution is to vote in the November 28th election for a candidate who will challenge the military on the issue rather then take part in protests and riots that may well cause that election to be cancelled.



Edited at around 22:35 on 20/11/11 to add:

This al-Selmy discussion document is a completely different document from the Constitutional Declaration of Febuary 13th as amended on March 20th and March 23rd 2011 but because I think everyone in Egypt is sort of learning as they go at the moment no-one is really sure what to call it.

Obviously I have read a copy in English but it's not the easiest document to get hold of. That makes me wonder how widely it's been published in Arabic in Egypt and if it hasn't been widely published is that because after all the years of secrecy under Mubarak no-one's published it because the military hasn't told them they're allowed too?