A Counter Revolution Against The Counter Revolution

Honestly I've never heard of the expression "counter revolution" until after the January 25th revolution of Egypt. From what we all understand a counter revolution is a -revolution- or movement by any old toppled regime or monarchy trying  to abort the newly formed system so they could come back to power or try to save whatever could be saved.

A lot of speculations and  allegations about a counter revolution have been ongoing for quite some time, some may be true and have basis of reality other being of mere fiction and evidence-less.
Some two weeks ago, someone -whom i cant remember his name now, from Al Ahram Center for Political & Strategic Studies (ACPSS) was on ONTV and claimed some remnants of the old regime were running the counter revolution from what he said was "a dark room in a villa in Moqatam", others sources claimed the same but from a villa in Zamalek.
Then came the famous episode of Alaa Al Aswany and Belal Fadl (2 prominent Egyptian writers) with Yousri Fouda on the same channel last wednesday discussing the counter revolution's plans to cause nationwide unrest and their list of "100 assassinations" of public figures that may expose the old regime, the subject which Belal Fadl wrote 2 articles about in Almasry Alyoum newspaper last week. In the very same episode, the mysterious ex-police colonel Omar Affifi called from his exile in the US, according to his sources whom he refused to mention by names , there were lots of weapons and heavy arms being smuggled through the western and southern Egyptian borders to certain groups he refused to name.

So what do we have now? only some pieces of news which are mostly without any evidence or backing from other sources, so better call them to this moment as rumors. If according to the ACPSS man, a plan was being in the makes, why wouldn't he simply point out names and give the exact locations? maybe this can't be  told on tv, he could easily have informed the authorities. Same with Belal Fadl's articles, we never saw the list he mentioned. If a real race of armament was taking place inside our country, why didn't Affifi warn us where the weapons were going and to whom and against whom will they be used.

I'm not implying these respectable figures are trying to deceive us, it is just the whole thing might be part of the counter revolution and they are doing it inadvertently. Maybe they too are being fooled as we do, the real counter revolution wants to deviate us from our goals and disperse us from our real dreams. We have the battle of the next parliament elections which until now they still hold control over the masses which if we do not act swiftly we will lose their votes. They want us to be so busy discussing trivial issues -or issues that might be of utmost importance but are not effective at the end- and forget about the real work that ought to be done.

Even reading this blog discussing the counter revolution, acts as a way of diversion from the real issues, but even if the whole "100 assassinations" plot was true, and even if it was carried out, it is not the end of the road. We are 80 million, and from day one the revolution had no leader so no one will ever have control  on the people's will nor their dreams, if they kill even 1000 the rest are still willing to continue the journey till the very last breath.

Our only hope: The Army

First thing that pops up in every Egyptian's mind when hearing this word is the 6 of October (Yum Kippur) war and the Egyptian army's heroics in 1973.But ever since that date we haven't really seen the army that much except for building a bridge or stadium every now and then here or there or helping helpless governments over the course of the last 38 years in some bread distribution problems.

But where was the army when we needed them most? On Thursday 10th of February, they held an urgent session of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces and announced the council will be in continuous session.What was different this time that the council was in session without the country's president who by law is the Supreme Commander of the armed forces, this was a sign that a minor coup was taking places or they were trying to pressure Mubarak to the hilts to step aside.On that particular day rumors were very wide spread across the nation that a coup was on its way, these rumors were fed by some claims that foreign embassies called for their nationals to leave immediately for fear of a coup and what instability that may follow.

However, next day Omar Suleiman-then VP- announced Mubarak's resignation and handing his powers to the supreme council, to this date no one is sure if he has done so by his on will or under pressure.My main point is not why or how it happened as this matter will be the subject of lots of debate for years to come and only history will tell one day.

What and how the army has been ruling and dealing with things ever since is a subject to lots of questions.Why is the army slow in decisions, why are they always some steps behind just like the old regime?why were they slow in the decisions of freezing the accounts of notoriously corrupt officials after most of the assets were already transferred?why are they keeping most of the public media administration still in its place?
Do they want people to still be fed lies? Why did they play a spectator's role at the storming of the State Security (SS) buildings and left people to leave with valuable and top secret and confidential documents and then demanded people to hand them over to them after they've already been leaked to the internet?

Most of the army's highest echelons were part of the toppled regime, maybe not literally part of it but at least they benefited from that regime's corruption and policies.So a guess is that they wanted these SS documents burnt and shredded and vanished forever lest they too get exposed.

I'm not saying there is a collusion here between the army and the regime, but the army too are looking for their best interest-and the country's best interest at the same time, people can not lose the faith and trust they gave the army, it is their last hope.And in my humble opinion, we can not make it to democracy or any other system without the army in our side.