Egypt's empty revolution - Thought Leader

The people of the land of pharaohs will not find what they are looking for because they do not know what they want.

It has been 30 years now that they have lived under one man’s dictatorship.

In fact, all these three decades they have willingly collaborated with a leader who regarded himself as successor to those who delivered their freedom from the Ottoman Empire.

When the empire was overthrown, the self-anointed new rulers who liberated the country took over the power that was lost in the streets.

And this they did with great fanfare and roaring voices from the people who saw the success of the revolution as the coming of a new age.

But looking back, the current ruler went on to stay in power for 30 years.

It is only now that the people of Egypt feel that it is time for them to break their silence and collaboration with their own oppression.
Now they gather in what they call Freedom Square in Cairo in great numbers to sing, dance, kneel, pray and scream their wishes to their gods.

If I were an Egyptian I would not do it without knowing what is to come next.

I would not bother with revolution without thinking about “who should come next and on what terms”.

But it is their country and they have the right to make their voices heard, to do the revolutionary thing, now.

There are many people around the world, including in our own country, who rejoice on the developments that have engulfed not only Egypt but Tunisia, Sudan, Ivory Coast and Kenya, to name a few African countries.

No doubt there is a big ferment in the Arab countries, now.

The talking heads called analysts and academic intellectuals want us to believe that what is happening is similar to the 1950s “wind of change” that former British prime minister Harold Wilson claimed was blowing through the continent.

Some are so excited that they think there may be a similar uprising in nearby Zimbabwe or Libya, for instance.

I have listened to many people on TV and in real life who talk about what is happening in Egypt.

“Mubarak must go. He must just go.”

These are the voices of women, children and men who shout this demand under the noses of military vehicles that have not yet opened fire on them.

I heard that the commanders and soldiers have promised that they will not shoot their own people for demanding freedom and “democracy”.

But I have seen this before and felt the passion and frenzy of these people.

The Egyptians have behaved in the same manner as people in Eastern Europe who brought down not only tsars but other military dictators.

In Egypt today, just like it has happened in many other parts of the world, the people happily say: “Freedom and democracy. We want freedom and democracy.”

But I know that they will not find what they are looking for.

It is all part of the phenomenon that ANC leading thinker Joel Netshitenzhe called “phuma ngingnene”, which means it is the turn of new rulers to come into power to eat.

There are many opportunists who will gang up as the new leaders to take up the cry of the people.

They will see the power that is lying scattered all over the abandoned Freedom Square and pick it up for their own selfish ends.

They are always lucid, cold and rational men who understand the game of politics.

The situation has reached a point of no return and will, inevitably, push out the current leader and his cronies.

It is then that gangsters posing as new leaders will take over by pretending to be messiahs that will take the people of Egypt to the “Promised Land”.

They will pretend to eliminate their self-interest and greed and show a detachment that is concerned with the wishes of the people.

And as soon as stability prevails and they have been given legitimacy and power through the ballot box, they will spit in the faces of the people.

The people of the land of the pharaohs will not find what they are looking for.

Even as we speak, all they want is for Mubarak to go without working out in great detail what it is that they want.

But that is not enough!

The people of Egypt — just like the people of Russia, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kenya and any other country you can think of — will fall into the same trap of not knowing what they are fighting for.

It is their right to be angry at a dictatorship they kept in power for a generation and now demand that he should step down. Well, what do they hope to gain by it because whoever gets into the shoes of Mubarak will realise how comfortable they are and not want to get out of them, too?

History continues to repeat itself because people do not learn from it.

Their bringing down Mubarak does not, in essence, change anything or solve their problems because they do not know what they are looking for.

They may get a new constitution, maybe but let us wait and see without expecting miracles.

What is the purpose of a revolution if it has neither a blueprint nor a leadership that knows what should happen next?