Much Drama, Little Certainty in Egypt

Time for Harper to pick a side.

How quickly things change. When the writers in The Mark Newsroom read this Toronto Star editorial calling for Canada to publicly support Egyptian anti-government protesters this morning, we thought it was naïve. The Star’s suggestion that the “Harper government should publicly urge [President Hosni] Mubarak to bow out” seemed like a potentially reckless, although well-intentioned, suggestion, because nothing Harper says is likely to influence Mubarak anyway, and if somehow he managed to stay in power Ottawa would have alienated a key Middle Eastern ally. As we write this however, Egypt’s ruling party headquarters is in flames, thousands of demonstrators are defying curfew, and the once-feared police forces are in reatreat. It’s now clear to us that the protestors aren’t going to back down, and the only way Mubarak can stick around is by committing atrocities Ottawa could never endorse. So yes, pick a side, Mr. Harper.

“In the countries where they don’t have the democratic freedom we take for granted … social media is a vital tool of empowerment and democracy promotion,” writes the National Post’s Jeff Jedras. This is of course a common depiction of the role social media is playing in current upheavals, but something that is less often written about is how vulnerable these networks are. The Mubarak regime illustrated that point today by shutting down all internet service, and the mass protests are apparently now running on the same thing that has powered every revolution in history: good old fashioned anger.

Wary, as are others, that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood will be the ultimate beneficiary if Mubarak is toppled, the Globe and Mail warns against declaring instant democracy. “The courageous demonstrators in the streets are expressing genuine grievances, but they do not yet constitute a basis for a new government,” write the Globe’s editorialists, suggesting the wisest choice would be for Mubarak to appoint a successor from inside his government to loosen restrictions and “enact a program of gradual reform” towards democracy. The Globe might be right, but from the pictures coming out of Egypt today, “gradual” is not the word that comes to mind.