Democracy in Egypt

Democracy in Egypt


What does it take for a person or according to the Washington Post a group of 30 young Egyptian college graduates to finally say enough is enough. Fed up with the conditions of which they had to live and also with the government they demanded that Hosni Mumbark turn over his authority to Vice President Omar Suleiman. The Egyptian people are tired of having this tyrant leader and are ready for democracy. The Egyptians believe in Omar Suleiman to manage the transition into a democracy.

Unlike many revolutions and uprisings we have seen in the past this one is one of few non violent revolutions. The Egyptians held a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience and labor strikes. This began on January 25 2011 know as the "Day of Rage" and did not finish until February 11 when Hosni Mumbark announced his resignation from office.

How did a group of 30 Egyptians start a revolution? One of the reasons is that social media such as Twit Pic, Face book, and You tube helped communications. The reason which social media played a major role in the revolution started when a Face Book page was created to honor the death of Khaled Saeed. Khaled Saeed was a young man who had been brutally beaten and killed by police officers in Egypt after having video evidence implicating members of the Egyptian police in a drug deal. Khaled Saeed was arrested in a cafe then taken to the street and beaten till he died. Then social media was used as form of communication and also used to confuse police officers to where the protests would be held. The government of Egypt went as far as shutting down the internet completely throughout Egypt in efforts to stop the protesters but failed.

The Egyptian revolution was inspired by the success of the revolution in Tunisia. Many believe that the success of all these revolutions will spread out as a chain reaction into other countries with tyrant leaders who are fed up and want a democracy. Evidence of the chain reaction has already been seen as Bahrain continues to revolt. How can this be linked to the Egyptian revolution as we can recall on January 25th when the Egyptian revolution started it was named Day of Rage and now in Bahrain they announced their own Day of Rage. More evidence of the chain reaction that has begun can be seen in Kuwait. The people of Kuwait are fed up with their Prime minister and are demanding he steps down. The people of Kuwait have also used social media to spread the word. A group named Fifth Fence posted on twitter that the people of Kuwait shall protest on Tuesday.

Even after Hosni Mumbark stepped down new problems are arising. The women of Egypt who stood side by side with the men during the revolution now feel as if they aren't treated as they are suppose to. They find it extremely unfair that the committee that will rewrite the constitution is made of all men. They feel as if they are being cheated out of what they also fought for. The female activist Nawal El Saadawi is one of the leaders speaking out for women and also one of the women organizing the million women march that is being advertised on face book.

After all the struggle that the Egyptians had to face in the past month they have finally taken a few steps forward into achieving their goal and starting a democracy. Even though it is only the beginning at least they got rid of their tyrant leader and are going to hold their first free election soon.


Johnny-Olivo@hotmail.com
©Johnny Olivo 2011