Since the bloody coup that ousted the first democratically elected president in Egypt, Dr. Mohamed Morsi last July, a growing movement against the coup has evolved and progressed in the entire country challenging the power grab by military. This Anti-Coup movement since the very beginning had clear demands including re-instating the 2012 constitution and restoration of the Shurah Council, the Upper House of Parliament. However, the major demand was reinstalling of the president. This can be expected from the point of view of Muslim Brotherhood, the organisation whose political party, the Justice and Development Party, Morsi headed, yet the demand for his return has been from the whole Anti-Coup movement that grows to include different walks of the Egyptian society. While Rabaa sign (that refers to the sit-in where thousands of Anti-Coup movement protesters were killed by security forces last August) became a sign and slogan for that movement, we still find pictures of the ousted president raised and demands for his return made by many who one day were against many of his policies.
REASONS BEHIND MORSI’S SYMBOLISM
1- Dr. Morsi was the first civilian who was elected president of Egypt. While this may sound ordinary in many countries, it has a deep significance in Egypt. For decades, Egypt was ruled by military officers and for centuries it was ruled by monarchs. This was the first time thanks to the 25 January Revolution when the Egyptians managed to elect their own ruler among others who competed in an open contest, something Egypt has never witnessed before. Morsi became a symbol for the power of people to choose who rules them.
2- As mentioned above, Morsi became president as a result of the free and fair elections with just a slight margin over the ‘deep state’ candidate, who also belonged to the military institution. This happened as the fifth electoral contest (two constitutional referendums, two parliamentary elections and a presidential one). This happened in an open political environment dominated by civilian powers with different outlooks and attitudes. This was a major gain from the revolution that opened the political life in front of all Egyptians after it was only dominated by the president’s party and a cartoonish opposition.
After the coup, all these fair elections, not only the presidential one but also their consequences, were cancelled and thrown in the rubbish bin. Despite a roadmap that entails new elections under the military rule and the restoration of Mubarak Police State and his politicised judiciary, Morsi’s return became the symbol of the civilian politics that led to his election and continued during his sole year of governance.
3- In Egypt, not only the president’s position was occupied by an army officer but all the influential positions were dominated by army personnel. Many governors, city mayors, and managers of the state-owned firms were occupied by former army officers so that it has become widely thought that army officers only retire to prepare themselves to hold a position somewhere in the governmental body running Egypt. Although Egyptian politics was run mainly by the National Democratic Party of Mubarak, the real actors in the country were the military, which have the decisive say on who will sit on the throne of Egypt.
Although this equation was disrupted by the revolution, the military did not give up and tried to regain its privileges. This was very clear in the support that the military candidate in the presidential race, General Ahmed Shafiq, enjoyed. However, Morsi’s victory twirled their efforts to square one and for the first time the commander-in-chief of the army became a civilian. Despite that, although the constitution voted on in 2012 maintained an autonomous position for the army, it was very hard for the army to lose such tremendous privileges they enjoyed in the past.
In a leaked record for General Sisi, he mentioned that no president whatever his background may be (Islamists, liberal, leftist), would understand the position and importance of the army in Egypt. This is why the Anti-Coup movement supporters insist on the return of President Morsi as a symbol of defeat to an institution that runs the country for decades with iron fist and lately with blood.
4- Some would disagree with some policies or decisions adopted by Morsi; however, at a certain moment, he was seen as a symbol for the revolution against its opponents. This was very clear in two situations. The first was in the second round of the presidential race when he stood against the candidate of the military institution supported by remnants of the old regime.
The second one is in this current crisis, where he insisted not to bow-down before the military coercion postulating himself as the legitimate president of Egypt under the constitutional framework of the country. The Anti-Coup movement does not recognise what happened in Egypt at July as only a military coup but as a full blown counter-revolution. They emphasise that all the practices and pillars of Mubarak regime were restored in place at the expense of every gain achieved by the revolution. Aside from the debate upon how the president worked in his single turbulent year in office, he is seen now as a symbol for the January Revolution against those who used tanks to enforce the counter-revolution forces in Egypt.
For the reasons mentioned above, Morsi’s symbolism has gone beyond the personal or political affiliation to a broader meaning for a country that refuses to relinquish the gains it seized in its revolution three years ago.
[The writer is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee of Freedom and Justice Party, Egypt]