KimBadawi/Getty Images. All rights reserved.What became of the Arab Spring? The heady optimism that saw dictators fall like dominoes under the irresistible momentum of a popular uprising has now been replaced by a harder edged disillusionment. We shouldn’t be surprised. The pattern of events that followed the Arab Spring was not unusual in terms of post-insurgency dynamics. History is littered with evidence of popular uprisings that gather momentum and then fragment into competing, volatile pressures.
In Egypt this was played out on a very visible scale courtesy of ‘Tahrir Square’. As the multitudes poured into the centre of Cairo, it was easy to forget that the incompatibilities of their political alignments had very different endgames. Nowhere was this more evident than in the exuberant optimism of the young who, connected into a global world, envisaged their lives in very different ways from either the Muslim Brotherhood or the anti-Mubarak establishment. For this group in particular freedom of expression was central to their energy but it has now become apparent that what they wanted was inimical to a political elite accustomed to absolute control as a precursor to privilege and power. Predictably, given Egypt’s human rights record, the repercussions have been ruthless. Yesterday’s ‘Young Turks’ are today’s political misfits, rebadged as naive and their voices recast as sedition. The administration of President Sisi, intent on maintaining the military’s grip on civic life, has cracked down hard on any public expression that breaches the State’s rigid view of permissible dissent.
But why would a country that showed itself so courageous in confronting Mubarak’s police state now be content to sacrifice its hard won gains? How can a populace so enraged by repression come to accept a regime that has gone further than Mubarak ever dared?
