May 23, 2011

Dear SCAF, man up and handle some criticism!



When I first heard about the call to dedicate a day to blog criticizing the violations and the abuses by Supreme Council of Armed Forces, I didn't really think it would pay off. The day has kicked off and so far 160+ posts have been written. This has both inspired me to write and confused about what more I can add to what they have already said.

The SCAF claims to have sided with the people from the very beginning of the revolution. I wonder if that claim can really be validated when we look at the current context. The SCAF has controlled the media; tortured and detained people; militarily tried civilians; let thugs terrorize innocent citizens; witnessed sectarian violence rise without really doing anything about it; and the list goes on and on. This either shows that the SCAF never sided with people, or is really clueless about how to handle our country. Maybe the SCAF found itself in a situation that has to be controlled and so they wanted to minimize the damage going on for their interests so they decided to take power and start a poorly-enacted play!

So far the SCAF has shown little tolerance to criticism and some activists have been tried with a very interesting charge, namely defaming the army!

However, this can be somehow seen in positive light. I remember the day when we were never able to criticize the army or even talk about it. The army's taking over has made its performance an easy target for criticism and appraisal, a precedent in the last few decades. Only Maikel Nabil took the lead in breaking that taboo during Mubarak's rule and started his struggle against militarism and compulsory recruitment of Egyptians into the army. Maikel is paying the price for sharing his opinion about the army and now spending a 3-year sentence in jail. 

I cannot really predict what's going to happen next. However, I can hope for things to get better. As long as the Egyptians are aware of what's going on and still able to criticize their surrounding then what's next is going to be fine. We can do it!



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