Egypt: We had correction of democracy, not revolution or coup – Envoy

All these, according to Egypt’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Ashraf Salama, were too much for the people to bear for another three long years, especially as Morsi was never prepared to reach any consensus or effectively respond to the pulse of the people, thus necessitating the need for a correction, even if by military force, […]

All these, according to Egypt’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Ashraf Salama, were too much for the people to bear for another three long years, especially as Morsi was never prepared to reach any consensus or effectively respond to the pulse of the people, thus necessitating the need for a correction, even if by military force, of dissonant approaches to governance which were damaging Egypt’s much cherished democracy, and not necessarily a coup. Excerpt:  

Since the crisis started in your country, we’ve not heard anything official from your mission on the issue, what’s the real situation?
Egypt is a great country that has suffered for so many years from undemocratic governance and military rule. We started our democratic march with the people and continued our democratic process by the people because we believe that the people are the core of democracy and I think Egypt will emerge from this current democratic crisis very soon because of the people’s will. We had the January 25 protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak supported by the military. We elected our president but we should have elected our parliament members first but it was not done in the right order and procedure. We wanted to give a chance to a democratically elected president who was nominated by a very small number of the electorate. The whole number of people who voted in the election was just 22 million of which more than half voted for Mohammed Morsi and the remaining votes went to his opponent but majority of the people were not happy with the process and didn’t vote because they didn’t like the old regime and the new one that made only 22 million votes out of 90 million eligible voters. Egyptians gave the chance but unfortunately the elected government did not really fulfil the people’s dream, expectations and his own election promises which is the dream to make life better for the people. There were a lot of promises he gave on the economy, poverty and a lot of things. People have not even witnessed one change in the country, the country is going down. The situation was deteriorating. The people never experienced any development during his stay in power. Egypt’s debt was multiplying to the extent that our external debt increased to 30% in one year of his stay in office as president. They were always taking decisions as the minority, not as the people’s government, the gain of the administration was within the minority who supported him. During his stay in power he was trying to distribute the nation’s cake among his people. These really raised a lot of anger within the people and this is one of the things he was doing.  Women were under-graded in many ways and he imposed a lot of restrictions on the media to always satisfy the Islamic brotherhood only. Our culture which is the main culture in the whole region, culture of history and art, were all going down and suppressed. So there was a lot of separation in one year and that of course was the main reason for the outburst of the people and it was the first biggest outburst with 33 million people out on the streets calling on him to step down.
Are you saying the people’s protests actually led to the army’s decision to remove the democratically elected president?
It was not a military coup and I am confirming it, it was not a military coup because the people gave 48 hours ultimatum that they would come out after that and take over, that is number one and number two is in the last days of his stay in office, he was asked to meet with the opposition and to fix a date to hold early elections which he refused completely, saying he was going to stay there. His kind of decision really outraged the people. Instead of improving his image and gaining more popularity he was provoking people. He attacked the courts, the judges, the media and other institutions in a very strong ways that all of them turned against him.
The point is, when the people came out, what happened? They were like, how would they let the Islamic brotherhood out-root again? They came to stay, they didn’t come to have a certain term and leave. There was a big problem, like inability to defend our democracy in one year, which will make us to lose the democratic path forever. They were far from the Egyptian interests, his interest was not Egypt’s interests, not for economy and not for anything. We did not see any strategy that they would do something better for the country. It was only for special interests all the time. We are a moderate country and we never had violence in our country for 5000 years or killings because of anything. So what we did was trying to maintain our self esteem and our dignity. The problem is they had a small group of people that will die for them, the kind of brain-washed people and these people convinced a wide range of people with money and jobs. These people were desperate to vote for him and when he started they found nothing and were neglected completely. So they turned against them.
 Does that mean that the army sided with the opposition?
What we had was not a revolution but a correction of our democratic path, how? When 33 million people who want to survive in a nation come out to protest a government and said who will help them? The police came first and said they were with the people and when these people were on the streets there was no single incidence of violence because it was done in a civilised manner and with lot of slogans that they wanted a better life. We didn’t see any bloodshed and then the army stood with the people because standing with Morsi would make the situation like Syria against the people. The chief of armed forces asked Morsi a week before to please conduct an election because people were revolting and were not ready to surrender but instead he only said he was there to stay while his last speech was the worst ever anybody could say. This is not the right thing to say because such statements made people hate him and even some of those with him turned against him because they were provoked by the speech. He said “I am the legitimacy, I am going to stay and nothing can change it”. So the military said they had 48 hours to do something, they called the Muslims, Christians, educated and all the opposition, sat down with them and asked them what they wanted, saying they were not in power and what to do to help the president and nothing happened after the 48 hours. So army came and said Egypt had an interim government, not that the army has taken over. This is the first time in history we had people’s coup, we refer to history books and Egypt makes history, Egypt teaches and people learn from us. So there is always the first time in the world. It was not a military coup at all but people’s will for better life led to that and we are persistent to keeping that and the army said they gave the rule to the people. People were not happy about our constitution because it was more of a rigid one. This was a people’s coup and it has to be respected. They said they wanted this and the army to give them their rights and not for them to take over. No military rule, no emergency law.                                          
Why didn’t the army wait for another election for the people to remove the president instead of the ousting option, do you think that was the best way to ask for the people’s right?
If it were a normal party that was in power, not a party with a hidden agenda like this one, that option of waiting for another election would have been better. This party has a lot of hidden agenda and there was not nothing directed at people’s welfare, no single project. They were completely destroying and having problems with the people in the country. There is no result to show for his one year in office as a president. There was also a lot of fear about the democratic trend not turning into a dictatorship because before the announcement, he gave himself a lot of liability by promising people that he was going to do something for them before the revolt started. He wanted to take all responsibilities without allowing the governance machineries to carry out their own duties. There was a lot of discrimination and it was really frustrating. Our democratic path was really threatened and the people said if he had to stay, democracy would never survive and people were ready to safeguard democratic rule. If he really cared about the people he should have self-dignity and step down when our external debt rose to 30% in just one year, if he doesn’t care, we as a people care and it was a biggest surprise for 33 million people to come out. We never had up to that even during Mubarak’s time. We could not wait for another two three years to do that.
What is Egypt doing to correct the impression within the international community including Nigeria who condemned the removal as a coup?
Now, there was a lot of misrepresentation in the media and there is always the fear of Islamist groups, many countries have their own agenda about the relationships with the regime which is a big one because a lot of the countries related with them with a lot of fears. So to have a kind of truce with these groups, when this happened in 48 hours no one expected it, so there was a lot of contradicting positions and it has been reconsidered because there was a big kind of decision of keeping businesses with the regime then they found out it was not the right thing. The EU was very supportive as a whole with only one or two countries expressing worry about it but they are adjusting now. The other countries, especially the Arab ones are supportive of the system fully. The US was not supporting in the beginning because they are allied to Egypt and did not expect the change too soon. Until they found out what was going on, that it is a democratic path by the people. There was a visit by the American under secretary who was in Egypt over the incident and he met with all the officials and he expressed support for them. There is reconsideration from them.   But in the case of the AU that was very unfortunate because the AU countries had a conference for peace and security the following day in Egypt where we requested the AU not to listen to Morsi or take hasty decisions but to just find out what the situation was all about and be objective. We said we don’t want their support or opposition, just need for them not to be hasty in decision but unfortunately, there were so many countries that condemned the action. It was not really considered with a little bit of time, it was taken right away and that was very questionable for us.
Nothing has been heard of the ousted president, where is he?
Well, he is not in prison, he is kept in a place which is very safe for the time being. If we want to keep someone for questioning, there is also other institution that can do that but it is not the military, it is an issue of national security for his own protection and safety. We want the situation to stabilise before we allow him to come out because we don’t know what can happen. He is being kept in a very safe place and there is also a statement from the ministry of foreign affairs that he is in a safe place because of his dignity.      
Will the Islamic brotherhood be allowed to participate in the next election when it is held?
There will be a referendum for the constitution which would be done in the next two to four months and this would be followed by the parliamentary elections which we didn’t have before Morsi became president and we didn’t have a parliament. Now the parliament will be elected and then after that the presidential election will come up between now and the next six to eight months but the procedure for the constitution amendment has to come first. The Islamic brotherhood has been asked to also contest. What I want to add here is that I am very proud of the choice of interim leaders because they are very intelligent people. The problem with other people is that they aren’t intellectuals but refused to seek the support of those who are intellectuals that can help them. There is also a committee for national reconciliation that will help reconcile the people and the opposition and even the Islamic brotherhood. We are even calling on the Islamic brotherhood in this reconciliation process but they don’t want to be part of it.
How possible would the reconciliation be before the election, as there are continued protests and cases of killing in the country?
The protesters are people who wanted problem in the country because they kill. A lot of factions started killing the soldiers at check points. They are trying to be like if you don’t want us in power we are going to make life hell for you and with that, terrorism starts and now we are facing a little bit of terrorism. We are trying to maintain it and that is why we are allowing people to protest in big squares and closed the whole capital. The army and police are having minimum casualties while more are coming from the protesters.
How comfortable is your new set of rulers with Nigeria’s present position on the development?
We are very close to Nigeria and in recent times we’ve had good relations and integration even with the whole of Africa and we are very proud of that. I can understand Nigeria’s worries but I want to say that they should not worry because it is the people’s will and aspiration and not a military coup. It was the people’s will and it has to be respected because how do we support our 33 million African brothers and help them. What 33 million Africans need is better life and nothing more. What they are saying that the police took over power, the people were supported by the police and army because there would be a very serious crisis if they didn’t come into the picture to resolve it. The president refused to make any consensus on the people’s demands and when they press too much the people may explode and this could lead to serious crisis. Nobody explodes from just a little touch. We want democratic changes and we want to clarify that. We want our close friends to understand that with us. We believe in Islam, Christianity and all values of religions as a power of support in life and not to be used as a target to disrupt. We are concerned about making our brothers in Africa understand that Egypt is now dispatching presidential envoys to Africa to meet with the presidents to explain and to tell them what the development in Egypt is all about because sometimes most of the western media can be misleading.