According to some people, though, the greatest gain is the West turning a collective blind eye to Al-Sisi’s human rights record and continued violations; suppression of all political opposition; the stifling of civil society; and the imprisonment of journalists and blocking of the media. Western states are basically rewarding him for more than 10 years of repression.
Some people?
Mahmoud Hassan’s piece today challenges us all to remember the facts associated with Fattah al-Sisi’s unlawful suspension of Egypt’s 2012 constitution and the free vote of her adult populace. For while Hassan speaks of Gulf State support for the present Military Autocracy Sisi presides over and of a level of substantial EU aid, he manages to entirely overlook the enormous extent of US support for Egypt’s military – since as long ago as 1978 and the Camp David Accord.
In the present circumstance it is hard for outsiders to gauge the true in-majority sentiment and inclination of Egyptians, vis a vis their political and economic future. The Arab Spring delivered them their sole opportunity to make their voices heard in a truly democratic fashion and presented Mohamed Morsi with a sadly short lived opportunity to engage ‘the populace as a whole’ in a national venture of renewal.
That Camp David’s participants did and today’s US Presidential power brokers continue still to have so little confidence in the democratic process as revitalising process: is clear.
That the US continues (instead) to wield her power to abet tyranny and to actively deny renewal process: is both cruel and (on present trends) counterproductive.