Dispatches from Cairo #3: Expectations vs. Reality

The third installment of my Dispatches from Cairo series is now posted on The Daily Organ.

A malaise has settled over Egypt’s population as the ever more complicated saga of how best to move towards democracy unfolds. As the politically-engaged debate increasingly ideologically charged issues of election law and the “continuing revolution”, large swathes of the population want nothing more than for elections to be held, and for life to go on.

The debates are, for the most part, extremely valid. The path to democracy was never going to be an easy one, and the hastily wrought unity of Tahrir Square was never going to last. Arguments rage over the electoral process, the implications of imposing supra-constitutional principles before elections to “safeguard” the revolution, and how far the legitimacy of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to make these kinds of decisions extends.

The problem is that the slogans of the revolution made it all sound so simple: remove the dictator, democracy will reign. Done. The end. Egypt will become an enlightened utopia. Sadly, there was no “one vision” for what that would entail; sharia law, a secular constitution, or something in between.

The general feeling of hostile indifference also stems from the overwhelming impression that nothing has changed. The old guard still dominate in the form of SCAF and leaders of business, industry and the media. Now there is even a word for it: ‘flool’ literally meaning ‘the remnants’ referring to the remnants of the old regime.

While there are still some die-hards keeping up with every political development, many just want some semblance of “normal” to return to the country in order to allow economic recovery to begin, and socio-economic conditions to improve. And while so much focus is on events in Cairo it is easy to forget that millions of Egyptians live in Upper Egypt and Sinai, where revolutionary spirit never took a hold in the first place.

The revolution has been hard on ordinary Egyptians, damaging incomes through loss of tourism and causing high rates of inflation. Disenchantment is high, and while hope still remains, more and more there is sense that people expected too much too soon, and are now disappointed.