July 3, 2017
REPRESSION WAS THE POINT:
Egypt 'worse off on every indicator' since 2013 coup : After a revolution and a military coup, Egypt faces abuses to a degree unseen in the Mubarak years, analysts say. (Zena al-Tahhan, 7/03/17, Al Jazeera)
[S]isi's rise in June 2014 was supposed to herald a new era of stability. He introduced rapid economic reforms, such as slashing fuel subsidies and raising taxes in an effort to ease unemployment and generate long-term revenues. He also initiated several new infrastructure projects, including the expansion of the Suez Canal and the country's farmland area, which he said would make Egypt more self-sufficient and generate jobs. As violence dwindled, tourism revenues increased.Yet experts say the temporary stability, which has begun to erode, came at the cost of public freedoms."Some Egyptians have accepted the return of some of the 'old guard' because they believe that, for all its faults, the Mubarak regime brought them more stability than the Morsi regime," Sarah Yerkes, a fellow at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera. "In the long run, this type of thinking is irrational - Mubarak was only able to control Egypt for so long - but in the short run, some people are willing to put up with more repression [and] less freedom in exchange for what they perceive to be greater stability."
Shortly after Morsi's removal, the military-backed interim government embarked on a crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters, many of whom who continued to stage counterprotests and express their support for Morsi.In August 2013, the army and security forces attacked a demonstration in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, killing some 1,000 Morsi supporters. Human Rights Watch described it as "one of the largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history".And in a widely criticised mass trial, Egypt sentenced hundreds of alleged supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to death - "the biggest mass sentence given in modern Egyptian history", according to Amnesty International. The movement, which is Egypt's oldest, most influential Islamist group, was also banned and had its assets seized before being declared a "terrorist organisation" by the government."The violent repression of Morsi's supporters sent a stark message to all Egyptians that under the resurgent authoritarian rule of the Sisi regime: Dissent will not be tolerated. Along with the mass imprisonment of over 50,000 people, this has ensured that opposition to the regime has remained limited in the years since," Abdullah al-Arian, a professor of history at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.
No one thought the coup- would improve things for Egyptians; it was supposed to shut them up.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 3, 2017 5:16 AM