By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
DailynewsegyptDailynewsegypt
  • Home
  • Business
    BusinessShow More
    HDB targets 25% growth in profits, various activities by 2023-end: CEO
    HDB targets 25% growth in profits, various activities by 2023-end: CEO
    June 4, 2023
    Bank ABC Egypt sees 158% profit growth in 1Q 2023, after merging with BLOM Bank
    Bank ABC Egypt sees 158% profit growth in 1Q 2023, after merging with BLOM Bank
    June 4, 2023
    146% growth in net profit of Attijariwafa bank Egypt reaching EGP 434.5m in 1Q 2023
    146% growth in net profit of Attijariwafa bank Egypt reaching EGP 434.5m in 1Q 2023
    June 4, 2023
    Al Ahly Pharos tops brokerage ranking in May
    Al Ahly Pharos tops brokerage ranking in May
    June 4, 2023
    Beltone Leasing signs EGP 500m sale-and-leaseback agreement With Hassan Allam Properties
    Beltone Leasing signs EGP 500m sale-and-leaseback agreement With Hassan Allam Properties
    June 4, 2023
  • Politics
    PoliticsShow More
    Iranian, Saudi FMs meet on bilateral ties
    Iranian, Saudi FMs meet on bilateral ties
    June 4, 2023
    Egypt’s PM inspects service, development projects in Alexandria
    Egypt’s PM inspects service, development projects in Alexandria
    June 4, 2023
    FM Shoukry attends inauguration ceremony of Turkish President
    FM Shoukry attends inauguration ceremony of Turkish President
    June 3, 2023
    1 Egyptian security personnel, 3 Israeli soldiers were killed in border shooting
    1 Egyptian security personnel, 3 Israeli soldiers were killed in border shooting 
    June 3, 2023
    India train crash kills at least 207, injures hundreds 
    India train crash kills at least 207, injures hundreds 
    June 3, 2023
  • Interviews
    InterviewsShow More
    EFG Finance to launch unified platform gathering all its financing services: Alaa Al-Afifi
    EFG Finance to launch unified platform gathering all its financing services: Alaa Al-Afifi
    May 31, 2023
    I changed my artistic path to create ‘state of wonder’: Tarek Lotfi
    I changed my artistic path to create ‘state of wonder’: Tarek Lotfi
    May 25, 2023
    I adore Ramadan drama, ‘Telt Al-Talata’ series achieved great success: Ghada Abdel Razek
    I adore Ramadan drama, ‘Telt Al-Talata’ series achieved great success: Ghada Abdel Razek
    May 8, 2023
    We aim to establish Egypt as nearshore centre for Software AG for MET region: Rami Kichli
    We aim to establish Egypt as nearshore centre for Software AG for MET region: Rami Kichli
    April 29, 2023
    Egypt-Spain relations witness remarkable development in recent years: Spanish ambassador in Cairo
    Egypt-Spain relations witness remarkable development in recent years: Spanish ambassador in Cairo
    April 18, 2023
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
Reading: Traitors and the exercise in futility
Share
Notification
Latest News
HDB targets 25% growth in profits, various activities by 2023-end: CEO
HDB targets 25% growth in profits, various activities by 2023-end: CEO
Banking
Bank ABC Egypt sees 158% profit growth in 1Q 2023, after merging with BLOM Bank
Bank ABC Egypt sees 158% profit growth in 1Q 2023, after merging with BLOM Bank
Banking
146% growth in net profit of Attijariwafa bank Egypt reaching EGP 434.5m in 1Q 2023
146% growth in net profit of Attijariwafa bank Egypt reaching EGP 434.5m in 1Q 2023
Banking
Al Ahly Pharos tops brokerage ranking in May
Al Ahly Pharos tops brokerage ranking in May
Business
Beltone Leasing signs EGP 500m sale-and-leaseback agreement With Hassan Allam Properties
Beltone Leasing signs EGP 500m sale-and-leaseback agreement With Hassan Allam Properties
Business
Aa
Aa
DailynewsegyptDailynewsegypt
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Interviews
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Interviews
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • Advertise
© 2023 DNE News. All Rights Reserved.
Dailynewsegypt > Blog > Opinion > Traitors and the exercise in futility
Opinion

Traitors and the exercise in futility

Daily News Egypt
Last updated: 2014/01/04 at 9:25 PM
By Daily News Egypt 9 Min Read
Share
Wael Eskander
SHARE
Wael Eskandar
Wael Eskandar

By Wael Eskandar

The 29th of December marks Jika’s birthday. Gaber Salah, or “Jika” would have turned 19 in late 2013 had he not been killed by the Ministry of Interior under the then president Morsi. His birthday was celebrated by a few valiant friends and protesters who defied the new Protest Law by marching from his house in Abdeen to where he was shot over a year earlier. They were under a hundred. Such numbers symbolise what’s left of what was once a revolution.

There is a small section of society referred to as secular revolutionaries, who remain in opposition to the false choices of military and Muslim Brotherhood rule. As part of an ongoing campaign to silence them, the state has approached several activists and offered them governmental positions. For those who have turned it down, the security apparatus has threatened and harassed them, but the greatest weapon the state is using is the defamation campaign, which has already been set in motion.

As part of the defamation campaign, accusations of treason have been greatly damaging, sold to a public bent on believing outrageous allegations in order to justify the current reality. Almost every day, a television presenter with strong security ties broadcasts illegally recorded calls of prominent activists or media personnel known to support the 25 January Revolutionary ideals. The calls do nothing to prove treason but are aimed at character assassination of 25 January figures. When rights groups requested an investigation into citizen conversations that have been illegally leaked and the mobile provider, Vodafone, the state has brushed that aside and opted instead to investigate the same company for a puppet advertisement.

The defamation campaign comes as part of a systematic crackdown on secular opposition, rather than as a result of investigations. Why else would the regime first start by offering activists positions in the government? Why else would state security approach several of these activists explaining clearly how they knew that their accusations of espionage were not true, but that they would still use them to defame them?

One of the most revealing accounts of meetings with the state security was written by former MP Mostafa AlNagar, whose call with poet Abdel Rahman Youssef was leaked. The conversations, AlNagar reports, ensure that state security want activists to rid themselves of “illusions of democracy” and to stop talking about human rights and accountability. AlNagar is also left with promises to defame 25 January and ElBaradei supporters. But perhaps more compelling than the testimony itself is the corroboration of such messages from other activists hounded by state security.

It may be time for the secular revolutionaries to stop fighting and realise that they’ve always been traitors; traitors to the Egyptian government’s way of life and their propaganda, traitors to their injustice and traitors to their methods. These activists dare to denounce unjust laws and protest them not because they root for a person like Mohamed Morsi or Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, but because they support an idea, seemingly unfathomable to the myriad of Egyptians supporting their own personal saviours. That notion of holding on to an idea instead of a person is also treason to the Egyptian way of politics.

On 22 December, following the sentencing of three prominent activists, Mohamed ElBaradei tweeted, “Egypt: renunciation of violence, transitional justice and national reconciliation based on inclusiveness. Anything short: exercise in futility.”

ElBaradei’s words seem far removed from what’s happening, but they directly address what is happening in Egypt, an exercise in futility. While the connotation is that the state will not achieve stability due to its failure to address the basic needs of society, exercises in futility had a heavy toll, from the brutal illegal crackdowns and detentions of Morsi supporters to the defamation, harassment and imprisonment of secular activists and rights defenders.

The truth is that Egypt has been undergoing an exercise in futility for some time. The same Mubarak era tactics were used by all regimes, from the time of SCAF to the absent Adly Mansour, and all the more forcefully now to regain control. Defamation was a tactic employed under both SCAF and Morsi. Whether it is the farcical NGO trials attempting to undermine human rights and their defenders or moral accusations aimed at portraying activists in an immoral light, whether as traitors or infidels, the tactic hasn’t changed, but the ferociousness and efficiency of the attacks have been improved.

Activists are already tracked down, defamed, accused of malicious foreign funding, assaulted and imprisoned, much like the old ways. Protests are dealt with violently much like the old ways. Oppressive laws to counter any threat to the state are established much like the old ways.

Egyptians decided to give the new faces of the regime a chance, which means that the injustices counter, reset by the removal of Morsi, will have to accumulate once again until injustices seep into the everyday lives of ordinary Egyptians. Justice remains absent and the term reconciliation would mean an end to the current plan of complete annihilation of any form of opposition (although actual reconciliation with old regime figures is ongoing anyway).  So the regime continues every day in its exercise in futility to give the current order a lifeline.

Perhaps even activists have been undergoing that same exercise themselves. They have been trying to convince Egyptians that they’re not traitors, that they believe in a different way of life with fewer injustices and more freedoms and more loyalty to values rather than individuals.

It is difficult to know whether it really is an exercise in futility on their part, but I cannot help but draw a parallel with the story in the movie, The Battle of Algiers. The movie talks about resistance between the years 1954 and 1957 when guerrilla fighters were prepared to fight for the independence of Algeria. They were crushed by French paratroopers, yet a few years later, people rose up and fought the occupation without a direct intellectual link between the movement and the uprising that ensued.

Will people reject the crackdown on humanity and activists before complete eradication? Will people wait and then take matters into their hands again when oppression once again permeates their everyday lives?

Perhaps the rejection of the regime’s old oppressive ways can be seen as treason. Maybe that’s why people are supportive of the treason rhetoric pushed by the regime’s intelligence agencies. This too may change by time. However, until it does, there will be no room for those who want to challenge the current accepted norms of repression and injustice. There will be no room for these types of traitors who want to challenge the status quo, not until Egyptians themselves turn into traitors of this sort, traitors to injustice.

Wael Eskandar is an independent journalist and blogger based in Cairo. He is a frequent commentator on Egyptian politics and has written for Ahram Online, Egypt Independent, Counterpunch, and Jadaliyya, among others. He blogs at notesfromtheunderground.net.

You Might Also Like

Egypt and France discuss joint cooperation in the health sector 

Opinion| Russia and China promote stability in the Middle East after the US withdrawal from the region

Opinion| The American debt crisis and the 2024 elections

Opinion| Tips for startups operating in the tough environment of emerging markets

Egypt, Italy discuss joint cooperation in environment

TAGGED: activists, Daily News Egypt, DNE, Egypt, politics, revolutionaries, Wael Eskandar
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Email Print
Previous Article Amr, Esraa and the Travolta Predicament
Next Article Magdi Yacoub receives the 2014 UK Order of Merit
3 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ad image
Ad image

Stay Connected

Facebook Like
Twitter Follow
Instagram Follow
Youtube Subscribe

Latest News

HDB targets 25% growth in profits, various activities by 2023-end: CEO
HDB targets 25% growth in profits, various activities by 2023-end: CEO
Banking
Bank ABC Egypt sees 158% profit growth in 1Q 2023, after merging with BLOM Bank
Bank ABC Egypt sees 158% profit growth in 1Q 2023, after merging with BLOM Bank
Banking
146% growth in net profit of Attijariwafa bank Egypt reaching EGP 434.5m in 1Q 2023
146% growth in net profit of Attijariwafa bank Egypt reaching EGP 434.5m in 1Q 2023
Banking
Al Ahly Pharos tops brokerage ranking in May
Al Ahly Pharos tops brokerage ranking in May
Business
//
Egypt’s only independent daily newspaper in English. Discuss the country’s latest with the paper’s reporters, editors, and other readers.

Quick Link

  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Interviews
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

© 2023 DNE News. All Rights Reserved.

Join Us!

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss our latest news, podcasts etc..

Zero spam, Unsubscribe at any time.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?