Dissenting, Opposing Realities

The peaceful protests in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, unopposed by the government for the first week of action, somehow managed to deteriorate from civil disobedience into unlawful destruction as government buildings were set on fire, the country's national museum was ransacked if not sacked, and private homes invaded, while shops were being looted and destroyed.

This was a peaceful demonstration, one that the international community swooned over, as an absolute sign that the Arab world was beginning finally to awake to democratic reform.

And then Egyptians who began to experience the very direct fallout from the ensuing chaos, organized their own neighbourhood protection units when the hated police were withdrawn after having been accused of brutality against the protesters. Shop owners closed their businesses, not willing to leave them open to be invaded and looted.

People were unable to travel to work, to medical appointments, and elemental necessities of life threatened to become scarce, even as gas stations closed down for lack of deliveries. Bakeries began to run out of government-provided flour, as deliveries were unable to proceed on schedule.

People became desperate for normalcy, for security, for a return to the familiar. Those who were not protesting but who had sympathy with the protesters now became impatient and just wanted the protests to stop. International news organizations excitedly reported everything they saw and heard, not from a nuanced or even perspective, but from a seemingly slanted one that matched the demands of the anti-government crowds.

And when the pro-government protesters, those who were satisfied with President Hosni Mubarak's promise to step down in September after an orderly progression to a more representative type of democratic government matching the peoples' wishes, they were labelled government stooges.

And the anti-government protesters met them with the same kind of hostility they levelled at the government. These are the people who demand a democratic government, yet they were unprepared to share the Liberation Square equally. They declared they and they alone were in possession of Tahrir Square and pro-government supporters were denied entry. Steel barricades were put up, the stone bricks that comprised the paving of the Square were pried up for ammunition to toss at political adversaries.

The national army attempted to reason with the protesters, that it was past time to clear the Square and return to normal, that the message had been heard loud and clear, and absorbed, and appropriate action could be assumed would be taken; the anti-government protesters professed, after all, to love and trust the military which had never turned against the people and vowed not to on this occasion.

But Tahrir Square was not vacated, and protesters both anti- and pro-government lustily lobbed rocks and homemade incendiary bombs over the heads of the remaining Egyptian army soldiers, there to protect the Egyptian people. People died, people were injured in their hundreds, some seriously; revolution is serious business and people professed that they were prepared to give up their lives for their ideals. Some did.

And then things turned ugly in other ways, with the anger of the administration over the reporting of the international media. No nation, no government, no people likes to be humiliated on the public stage. The international media is full of nothing but the revolutionary demands in Egypt that has taken not only the Arab and Muslim world by surprise, but all those international espionage agents who are supposed to know what's going on, but evidently do not.

The Egyptian government is being painted in the drab, darkly menacing colours of tyranny, deserved in part, but nothing equal to what other countries in the Middle East experience.

Suddenly the foreign media assumes the mantle of sinister international interference in the affairs of a proud and sovereign nation. Doing the work of the disruptive, anti-government protesters, the Islamists-in-waiting. And they have become targets of angry, humiliated and shamed Egyptians, encouraged by the anger of the administration, furious that foreign heads of state are dictating to the government of Egypt how they expect it to proceed.

Foreign reporters were writing that the pro-government protesters brought weapons with them, and there were reports of gunshots. Yet Al-Jazeera, no friend of the Egyptian government, has reported that it was members of the national army, witnessing violent clashes between the opposing sides that elicited warning fire well above the heads of the crowds.

There are incessant reports that the violence was initiated by the pro-government groups, acting at the instructions of the government. These are theories that come readily to the minds of those who report what they know their news bureaus want to hear, not proven facts. Only time will give proof to the allegations. Or not.

Meanwhile, a one-sided, not a neutral reportage is ongoing, infuriating the country, although not the anti-government protesters. Government supporters began their anti-protest intrusion waving signs and chanting pro-government slogans; it was the anti-government protesters who belligerently denied them passage to the Square and who initiated the violence.

Most Egyptians want all of the anger, the heated rhetoric, the destruction, pillaging, looting, work stoppages, food scarcity to come to an abrupt halt. They want order and security to be re-instituted. They may also wish for the government to make the transition it has promised, but they are not prepared to undergo the chaotic, anarchic, life-disturbing mess any longer. The country's economy is bleeding, and most people are aware of that, too.

There is this fear stated by a young Egyptian that encapsulates other fears and worries:

"I saw a lot of reports all over and many of the people are saying enough protests are not pro Mubarak. They just want security and life back...I don't trust that if Mubarak leaves the Muslim Brotherhood won't try to take over. We need time to elect someone like Amr Moussa (the head of the Arab League). If Mubarak leaves now, which some say he could do tomorrow, then who knows what will happen.
The Muslim Brotherhood are making interviews left and right ... I'm worried about the Islamist movement happening now in Tunisia that was once more liberal than Egypt and their leader is supporting the Brothers in Egypt. Mubarak only has a couple of months left and I want him to leave with some pride, not when the international government says he must go."