Before It Is Too Late

I voted against the amendments , yet most reports show the result would be between a 65-75% "Yes" vote. We fought for our rights to choose and decide our own future without intervention or dictation from any party what so ever, and part of that democratic process we endured a lot to achieve is to accept the majority's decision, so yes we have to live with that "temporary constitutional announcement" that is due to be announced by Tuesday.

We -the No voters- lost the battle but not the war, the next battle will be the parliament elections which will probably be within 60 days of the announcement. What went wrong this time? A lot.
 First,the Muslim Brotherhood (who proved they deviate miles away from the doctrine of Islam and they are not our "brothers" at the end of the day), played some dirty tactics, from deliberately rephrasing certain interpretations of the religion for their own interest to bribing the needy, a practice copyrighted to their long time rival and superior the National Democratic Party.
Second, most of the No campaigning started late,quite late actually, or at least it started reaching the mainstream at a late stage.
Third and the most important, the battle field was the wrong one, most "No" campaigning took place online through social media and forums,whereas the real battlefield was the street where the NDP remnants and MB succeeded in luring people to their ideologies.

Bottom line: next battle is a decisive one, the parliament to be will phrase a new constitution, so it has to reflect our needs and demands, so we have to reach to more people.We all have to leave our sofas and cubicles and talk to real people -average Mo's- , the online community represents only a small portion of the population, most illiterates and uneducated are unaware of our ideas, we need to change their culture. We have to spread awareness; that their vote is not for sale, that the cleric and the devout do not always know best and they have to be aware of their duties as well as their rights.

The last point applies to ElBaradei campaigners too, he is sweeping most online polls and gained lots of support and endorsement from the intellects , but what happened today in Mokatam is a very strong alarm, the average citizen still hasn't changed his perception of him drawn by the NDP and the state media.
Its never too late for them though, but everything should start now before its too late.

Fight fire with fire, thats what they say for situations like these.

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.