Post Mubarak Egypt Still Suffering under Emergency Law

A protester holds an Egyptian national flag as a fire rages outside the building housing the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Egypt 
Sep. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)  

By Tatiana Herrera

The army has become the new enemy of the people of Egypt after their short lived love affair in Tahrir Square on February 11 2011, when the army rejoiced with protestors the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s 30 year dictatorship. Mubarak surrendered to the protestors' demands thereby ending his tyrannical regime marked by fear, oppression, corruption and countless human rights violations. Egypt's  military stance quickly shifted after the Parliament was dissolved and the Constitution suspended. As reported by David D. Kirkpatrick in The New York Times, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said it would appoint a committee to propose changes to the Constitution, which would then be submitted to voters. However, nine months later and violent outbursts ensue with little improvement.

Progress remains impossible as the army turns on protesters with gas and live ammunition in order to enforce martial law commonly referred to as 'emergency law'. It was put into action by the former President in May and will remain in place until June 2012. People are tired of living under the oppressive rule this law brings including allowing the military to arrest civilians without charges and trying them before military courts. Those enforcing emergency law, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, and the head of the Military Justice Department Adel al Morsy, have been accused of remaining loyal to former President Mubarak and of allowing the military to continue to exploit their power.

Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has declared that “emergency law will be used to strengthen the revolution” and that changes would be implemented. This declaration however has done little to reassure the masses that are seeing the pace of change slow down as the military pushes back elections and continues to jail and torture people. In response the citizens of Cairo have attacked police stations and more than 100 people have died in these confrontations. Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights estimates the numbers is three times as high. Protests and violence have only increased as the death toll rises and thousands remain unjustly in jail. Tensions remain high as people are left wondering what will come out of the continuous deterioration of civil stability in Cairo.

Vice President Omar Suleiman warned protestors that the violence would affect the country’s revenue as thousands of tourists have left and Egypt continues to lose has millions in tourism the past few months due to the instability caused by “emergency law.”

According to “Young, Angry and Wired,” an in-depth analysis on social media throughout the Arab Spring conducted by National Geographic, more than half of the population in Egypt has a cell phone. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube helped the youth spread their message of freedom, garner supporters and organize meeting places. Social media has bought awareness to the current state but it can only do so much. Emergency law is presently incriminating those who are fighting for change, the very people who used social media as an outlet to expose the injustices in their country and organize what were expected to be peaceful protests. Now organized groups of more than three innocently sitting at a cafe are subject to interrogation and arrest.

The government has ineffectively tried to block access to social media sites, which have been praised throughout the revolution for being a megaphone for the Arab world by providing a convergence of news that hadn’t been seen before, in real time by amateur reporters on the scene.

These protestors or civilian reporters are not professional journalists; they are an eclectic group comprised of doctors, lawyers, teachers, professionals, the unemployed and the youth of Egypt. Many need to return to work in order to feed their families.

Egyptians are reporting that their communities are becoming increasingly more dangerous, it is harder to find jobs, healthcare, and housing. That is a finding in a recent report from the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, a research hub that operates in the capital of the Arab Emirates, based on face-to-face interviews with about 1,000 Egyptian adults. 

With the direction of the country uncertain at this point one thing many Egyptians agree on is that they don’t intend to emigrate any time soon. When Ethar El-Katatney, award winning journalist, blogger and author featured on Charlie Rose was asked what people would do if the military decided to stay in power forever, she simply answered, “People will take to the streets.”