Rebuilding a Nation

In recent news, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi testified at the most exciting trial in Egypt's history, since Hesham Talaat Mostafa. The testimony seemed like it would not take place as through out the past few weeks. Tantawi failed to appear on September 11th and attempted to submit a written testimony instead. Unlike the previous sessions that were held in August, this session was not televised or open to the public. This could prove to be a potentially lose lose situation as both the public and Mubarak could suffer from this. The public lost a good few hours of programming which included the same amount of yelling, fist fighting, incoherent speech, and camera whoring as the finest reality show on TV. On the other hand, Mubarak lost the sympathy of the sentimental Egyptians who couldn't bare to see him lying down and preferred to imagine him going to sleep every night crouched like a tiger.

Following Omar Seuliman's testimony last week where he appeared without his one man entourage, Tantawi took the stand behind close doors. Rather than give a yes or no answer which could have brought the case to a close, Tantawi rambled on for an hour without burying or saving Mubarak. A lawyer choosing to remain anonymous stated that "Tantawi failed to provide evidence one way or another." This seems to foreshadow the remainder of the endless trial which is only proving to anger the victim's families and the rest of the Egyptian people victimized by not being able to see Mubarak pick his nose on public television anymore. Protesters failed to bring up the post-regime atrocity committed by Mubarak just mentioned and instead chose to protest the repeated postponement of this trial. Mubarak's health has deteriorated these past few months and despite the healthy appearance of his luscious ebony locks, he has a history and apparent plethora of illnesses. He also has a history of being very old. This is leading the Egyptian people, who are never too far from drawing conclusions based on only a few clues as exemplified by the outstanding work of Inspector Krombo week in and week out, to the conclusion that Mubarak could die before a verdict is reached.

This session of the trial was especially eye opening as Tantawi's failure to provide evidence that would incriminate Mubarak further exacerbated the point that the Supreme Council of Armed Forces is no different than the previous regime. Tantawi instead chose to state that he had not attended the high level meetings in which the decisions to use live ammunition against protesters were made. This could be true as the season of Gossip Girl was heating up at that point and it may have been difficult for the field Marshall to pull away but seeing as how the internet had been cut, it seems highly unlikely that that would be the reason. So why would Tantawi miss such an important meeting? It couldn't just be to possibly acquit Mubarak of the more serious charges, could it? The idea of someone with so much power being so corrupt is unseemly and difficult to imagine given the history of Egypt but that may in fact be the case. It would seem Tantawi is trying to prove Mubarak was not responsible for the deaths of the Jan 25th protesters who died in the events of Jan 25 as Hamada Hilal explained in Rebbecca Black fashion.

This lack of progress in the case coupled with the belief that the army will not relinquish power easily and have free elections, is leading people to envision a bleak future for Egypt. This is leading people to contemplate going back to Tahrir Square in order to finally ensure that their demands will in fact be met this time around. In which case you might want to consider throwing out your old Camo pants because the army theme of this protest might not be appropriate, however a cowboy theme might be taken into consideration.

The actions or lack there of taken by Tantawi seem to suggest that he is attempting to help Mubarak get off. The act of the powerful looking out for the powerful is certainly not a new occurrence in Egypt. It appears that corruption is still running rampant much to the dismay of the Revolutionary hopefuls that envisioned a better Egypt where that would not be the case. Although this may not be the most profound event which suggests the corruption the revolution was spawned to eliminate still exists, this is not an isolated incident. This is not the first time that something questionable has occurred in the post revolutionary era. Bearing that in ming, Egyptians should and will stay vigilant and no longer be complacent.