Tamarod’s No Turnout Turns Debate into Seminar
BY AHMED EL SEBAIE AND
MAHMOUD FATHI
Tamarod failed to show up at a debate titled “A Revolution or a Coup” scheduled with Muslim Apologist, Fadel Soliman, in an event that was held on campus Wednesday.
Hassan Shahin, official spokesperson of Tamarod, accepted an invitation to participate in the debate, but Shahin’s phone was switched off hours before the event and did not show up, said Ahmed Medhat, president of the student-run organization Model Council of Ministers (MCM) and event host.
Tamarod is a grassroots movement that was founded as a form of opposition to former President Mohamed Morsi. The movement reportedly collected 22 million signatures, taking to the streets on June 30 demanding Morsi’s removal after one year in office.
The debate initially aimed to present an analysis on Egypt’s situation following June 30, that left Egyptians divided on whether the incident was a popular revolution or a military coup d’etat.
After the commencement of the event, Soliman, Senior Director of Bridges Foundation, decided to deliver a seminar through which he expressed his opinion on the topic and proposed a series of questions for the absent Shahin to answer.
“You would think that I believe that June 30 was a coup; in fact, I believe it was a revolution,” said Soliman, adding, “It was a counter revolution to that of January [2011].” He went on to explain the military’s role in interrupting a state of democratically elected institutions.
“We need to solve the political catastrophe we are sitting in. You are on the verge of starting a military rule that could last for a possible 60 years,” said Soliman. “What comes by the polls has to be displaced by the polls not by mass demonstrations, not to mention the army’s siding with one class over the other,” he added.
Soliman said that it would be an unjust comparison between the wrongdoings of the Morsi regime, and that of the current transitional government.
A nation-wide outcry started during Morsi’s reign as president after a Nov. 2012 constitutional declaration, amended solely by the former president, gave him judicial immunity and the authority to “take any measures he sees fit in order to preserve and safeguard the revolution, national unity or national security.”
“Both are wrong but what are we trying to compare?” he said, adding, “I am talking to you about more than 2,500 cases of murder in a duration of hours. People were being shot by live ammunition in the chest and head.”
Thousands of Morsi supporters protested in Cairo’s Rabaa Al-Adawiya square and other areas around Egypt following his removal. After remaining in the square despite the army’s warning, the protest was dispersed using violent measures, in what was referred to by Human Rights Watch as “the most serious incident of killings in modern Egyptian history.”
Following Morsi’s removal, several churches have been burnt and police and army officers have been targeted by armed groups.
Soliman said that it is hard to predict a big turnout at future elections of any sort, after millions of votes, which led to Morsi’s appointment in 2012, were neglected as of the 2013 coup d’etat.
Towards the end of the event, MCM introduced AUC and Cairo University Political Science Professor, Ahmed Abd Rabou, who agreed to come and speak on a very short notice.
Abd Rabou analyzed the Egyptian political scene since June 30 from an academic point of view. He argued that classifying June 30 into one of those two classifications is not very accurate.
According to him, June 30 cannot be classified as a military coup because the people took actions and carried out mass protests before the military took any action, which does not happen in military coups.
He also said that those who regard June 30 as revolution have to take into account that the military is now in control, and the country does not seem to be heading towards the right direction.
