Protests against the Sisi regime from unexpected quarters

Crescent International

How did the videos posted by contractor Mohamed Ali recently achieve what the Egyptian opposition TV channels based in Turkey — “the legitimacy channels” — failed to achieve in six years?

How was he able, armed with nothing more than a mobile phone camera, to mobilize the Egyptian public into overcoming their fear through which Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and his regime have imprisoned them since 2013?

These are the tough questions posed by Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh, a regular contributor to the Middle East Monitor.

In her response to the hard-hitting questions Dr. El-Fetouh provides several good reasons, one of which is the fact that “Ali is not affiliated with any political party… what’s more, he worked for the corrupt regime and learnt some of its secrets, giving him credibility. Ali was an eyewitness who lived in the shadow of this corruption and profited from it, then rebelled against.”

Mass demonstrations by the people of Egypt against the despotic Sisi regime caught many by surprise.

Many decent human beings worldwide hope that it will be a spark that will bring down the NATO-backed murderous regime.

Will the Sisi regime crumble, is a question many people are asking. At this stage it is difficult to give a definitive answer, however, al-Sisi’s regime is facing an unprecedented crisis.

One of the biggest setbacks for the Sisi regime is that the protests began eliminating the fear factor in the Egyptian society and removed the untouchability aura from al-Sisi himself.

According to the Middle East Monitor, the UAE-based Khaleej online reported that there were military officers trying to jump on the protests’ bandwagon and declared support for the former chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Sami Anan, who is currently under arrest.

Meddling of the most corrupt Egyptian institution in the political process carries no good news for the Egyptian people, but if it creates infighting within Egypt’s most despotic institution. The people of Egypt could attempt to use this to their advantage.

It must be remembered that one of the reasons the Egyptian revolt failed to eliminate the NATO backed system in 2011 was because the masses lacked a God-conscious leadership capable of rising above petty politics.

Currently, all potential leaders of the people are either in prison or in exile.

This factor makes it very difficult for ordinary citizens to organize themselves and create immunity to al-Sisi’s political machinations that can easily confuse and distract the leaderless masses.

If the situation in Egypt escalates, it is unlikely to turn into an organized ouster of the current regime. Rather, it is likely to be a series of revolts and clashes that will loosen the regimes’ grip to rule Egypt.

Within this process, as the regime begins to lose control, established socio-political forces could potentially mobilize the masses and this time push the army out of the country’s political life and into the barracks where it rightly belongs.