In the wake of the military seizure of power in Egypt last July, US secretary of state John Kerry praised the coup leader General Sisi for "restoring democracy". Last November, in a sign of approval for the new regime, Kerry visited Cairo where he said that Sisi’s "road map" to democracy was "being carried out to the best of our perception".
Tomorrow marks the first step in the road map – a constitutional referendum. The primary purpose of this referendum is to strengthen the already stifling grip of the army and security forces on the Egyptian political system.
In no way can the referendum be called democratic. There are thousands of posters urging Egyptians to vote yes, but on my visit to Cairo last week I did not witness a single one urging them to vote no. The reason for this emerges from a very worrying report from Human Rights Watch out today.
Campaigners against the constitution are being arrested and charged with "attempting to overthrow the regime". The main opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, has been declared (on no evidence) a terrorist organisation. There are reports today that the political party Strong Egypt, which claims to be liberal, has been forced to suspend its no campaign because of the recent arrests.
General Sisi (Photo: AFP)
Meanwhile, General Sisi says that a successful vote this week will license him to run for the presidency in a poll later this year. This is very sinister.As Bruce Riedel powerfully points out here, the coup d'état which restored military rule in Egypt is being seen by al Qaeda as validation of their murderous ideology.
Senator Kerry (and William Hague’s) attachment to the brutal military junta in Egypt is looking increasingly unbalanced and bizarre. It is time we woke up to what is going on.
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.