Breaking: Egyptian Military Asks Protesters to Stop
Posted: February 2, 2011 Filed under: Breaking News, Egypt, Yemen | Tags: 2011: days of revolt 11 CommentsJust got this on Houston Chron alerts, coming from the AP at 4:07 am Central (just a little after noon in Cairo):
CAIRO — The Egyptian military called Wednesday for an end to more than a week of demonstrations demanding President Hosni Mubarak step down immediately after nearly 30 years in power.
“Your message has arrived, your demands became known,” military spokesman Ismail Etman said on state television in an address directed to young protesters. “You are capable of bringing normal life to Egypt.”
Internet service also began returning to Egypt after days of an unprecedented cutoff by the government.
Mubarak’s embattled regime and the powerful military appear to be making a unified push to end a street movement to drive the 82-year-old leader out.
Note: I saw this news alert early in the morning and missed a few words in the first sentence so it read like “the military calls for Mubarak to step down.” My apologies if you read the original title of this post, which I went back and corrected immediately. The military have asked the protesters to stop, not the other way around.
Minkoff Minx will have a morning post up shortly, so I’ll just leave this here until then for anyone who’s up this early in the meantime.
Update, via Huffington Post/Reuters — Yemeni President won’t seek re-election either:
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key U.S. ally against al Qaeda, said on Wednesday he will not seek to extend his presidency in a move that would end his three-decade rule when his current term expires in 2013.
Eyeing protests that brought down Tunisia’s leader and threaten to topple Egypt’s president, Saleh also vowed not to pass on the reins of government to his son, but asked the opposition to hold down on protests.
“I present these concessions in the interests of the country. The interests of the country come before our personal interests,” Saleh told his parliament, Shoura Council and members of the military.
“I call on the opposition to freeze all planned protests, rallies and sit-ins,” Saleh said.
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Think it’ll work?
Seems obvious to me that Mubarak’s and the military’s goal is simply to get everybody to go home peacefully. But the only concrete change (firing the government, bringing in a Mubarak hoodlum as VP) is no change. Reminds me of Obama’s brand of change. And Mubarak saying he won’t run in September is just words; they’re the right words but protesters want more than words. Unlike Obama supporters in this country who keep making excuses for no change, Egyptian protesters demanding change seem really to be serious. Problem is, the protesters are not providing a means for the change, they seem to be waiting for someone else to do that, and nobody else seems to have any concrete idea or specific demand beyond Mubarak stepping down. And demanding free and fair elections, as right as that is, is only a slogan if there isn’t a solid plan for how to make that happen. There needs to be a person or a group coming up with specifics and mapping out something to negotiate with.
The thing that strikes me about this generation’s notion of change, both in the Obama movement and now in Egypt, is that they’re good at voicing that they want change, and in gathering together in a friendly way to demand it, but that seems to be as far as their imagination can go.
As Hillary tried to explain during the primaries, real change is doing the hard work to make it happen.
I don’t think the Egyptian protesters are without a plan. They’ve had 30 years of Mubarak. They’ve had opposition blocked from forming in their country. You don’t think they aren’t planning something when they get together? I believe there are some highly educated and/or highly resourceful people amongst that crowd who are thinking strategically and perhaps keeping their cards close to their vest right now because they too do not want to reveal too much and have their plans toppled. This is a process for them, much more so than it is a process for Obama who is just plain chicken and doesn’t really seem involved in a process but rather is trying to piggyback on what’s already happening and make it look like it’s what he wanted.
They have gotten Mubarak to not seek re-election and the American government forced to start distancing themselves from what is now being referred to as the “Mubarak regime” in the Western press as opposed to just the Egyptian government. It’s more than the Obamaphiles have gotten changed here.
Well if they have a plan beyond protesting it would be a good idea for them to let somebody know. Right now they have the attention of the world, every major news outlet has correspondents there, and support is on the people’s side. If they have a plan what advantage is there in keeping it close to their chest, what are they waiting for?
I think first they needed to believe it was possible to remove Mubarakl.
I turn 30 in March, so I guess I put myself in the shoes of the youth there timeline wise… if Reagan had been my president from birth to now (I am gagging just thinking about it, but now that I think about it, from Reagan to Obama is almost just as bad)… but anyhow, it would first take the step of being able to believe that the complacency can be broken for a real call to action, to planning to flow forth from there.
As far as the advantage… I’d think there is a huge concern of being ambushed or co-opted.
After what happened with the PUMA turning into flypaper for Sarah Palin Nation–and that’s a MUCH smaller example compared to the enormous scale and scope of what’s going on now–I have to say I can understand being guarded with an uprising or movement.
I appreciate your insight, being their generation.
And we’ll see how this plays out, maybe the cards will fall into place, I hope so.
But my criticism stands. I don’t care what the oppression is, if there’s an uprising with no plan you end up with whatever fate hands you. If you’re lucky, good, if you’re not then it’s a missed opportunity. And I think the Egyptian protesters don’t have a plan beyond protesting and demanding change.
Just for the sake of comparison, even though there were lots of differences in variables, take what Martin Luther King accomplished with his demonstrations versus what gays accomplished after the spontaneous Stonewall riots. Substantive legislation followed King’s efforts because there were definitive leaders and they were specific about what they demanded. Gays not so much. So gay liberation in the 70s turned quickly from protest to parade (I joined the march in 1970 up Sixth Avenue -was it 6th?- I was 14, and there were a few balloons but it started as a protest march from the Village to Central Park, and by the time we got to Central Park it had started to turn into a party, and in subsequent years it was a parade that led to a dance party). Not that the party wasn’t great but the lack of focus on political action left gays totally vulnerable when AIDS appeared and we didn’t have needed laws in place and practically no powerful allies. A lot more could have been accomplished by gays after Stonewall but the younger gays who protested didn’t know what they wanted except for the oppression to stop.
It’s not a perfect example, obviously, but I think there are lessons in there.
And, they’re very important lessons for the MTV Generation to study and to listen to those who have come before them on…
Let’s put it this way. If a month, three months, six months from now, etc. the protesters stayed in the same place, stagnant, not evolving at all, then I’ll grow increasingly wary of their ability to follow through on their demands for freedom and democracy. But, for now, I’m more inclined to give them their moment to grow. I think Tunisia gave them hope for the first time that they could seize any sort of control over their own destinies and have any semblance of self-governance. I don’t think the majority of them imagined themselves out in the streets just a month ago. So this is baptism by fire for them. In order for them to choose a leader, they first had to begin to fight for the fact that the choice was in fact theirs to make. Mubarak was a symbol of 3 decades of failed and imposed leadership. They want him gone because without him gone there is no question of who will lead them to even answer. Removing him isn’t the entirety of their demands–it is their first step in formulating a means/method. The first step is the hardest–but the next hardest step is to keep on making the next step.
If these protesters are not studying from history, they will repeat it. If they are studying, they will make their own history. Egypt’s culture and history goes back much longer than America’s. They have a lot to study from.
Thanks for the vid of Hillary. Man, doesn’t it feel like ages since the ’08 primaries? Hillary is so right in that clip… real change IS doing the hard work to make it happen!
Or as I wrote in my “hope against hope” essay… Positive reframing of thought is rethinking things in a way that is constructive rather than destructive. It must be met with a positive reframing of actions — a plan.
Since you mentioned Reagan, and you liked that vid of Hillary, here’s another you’ll enjoy that I intended to put in a front page post about Obama and Reagan. And there are people who say nobody could have known.
I loved it then when she interrupted him interrupting her and said “I didn’t talk about Ronald Reagan” and I loved it now. ROFL
This one seems pretty prescient, since she’s the one answering the 3 am, 6 am, 4 pm, and every other call!
I wish we had Hillarycare: