This article argues that politics exists in new forms, standards, and actors in Egypt, despite the siege, expropriation, and the desire to camouflage it by the post-2014 regime, which succeeded in mobilizing significant mass sectors to support this trend.
This new policy has escalated and its presence will grow strongly in the coming days, because many parties - knowing or not, wanting or not - are contributing to this revival movement, especially since the new policy finds its roots in the intersection areas between four determinants: Changing the structure of the state in terms of functions and roles The market economy - especially in its neoliberal nature, the societal changes in its cultural and value dimensions, and finally the geostrategic changes in the region and the world around us.
This escalating recovery does not necessarily translate into political action;
The dilemma of the gap between demand and response to it still exists inside and outside the regime's institutions.
The excess of politics, if not absorbed by political institutions, will lead to a threat to stability and destabilize "national security", which Egypt cannot bear now, as a state and society.
To make matters worse, reviving politics after its disguise is not a mechanical engineering act;
It is related to the extent to which society and its intermediary institutions - such as unions and parties - are able to absorb the surplus of politics, especially since there was - in a previous period of time - a relative acceptance by mass sectors of politics in their belief that this is a way to restore order - in exchange for the chaos - which they lost, and pave the way Necessary for the dignified living and economic well-being they promised.
Fulfilling politics has killed ideas, initiatives and methods of thinking about them, and increased the weakness of the intermediary institutions that could have diverted the demand for politics towards channels beneficial to the state and society.
We are now in the stage of normalization with politics, especially from the regime and some political parties, but there are also procedures, policies and propaganda that work to perpetuate the agenda of depoliticization by mobilizing social groups by spreading a rhetoric of panic from chaos and preserving the state and its national security, and by using conservative Religious, social, and familial purposes to assert control and domination over society, and to transform all this into a firm belief that spreads in the state bureaucracy by training in it, as well as in the national security courses held by some state institutions for its employees, and in society through its propaganda.
The politicization of the regime after the expropriation takes several manifestations, the most prominent of which are:
Responding to the social pressures imposed by the economic crisis by expanding social protection programs and increasing subsidies with a review of some fees - traffic fees, for example - and laws such as the Reconciliation Law for Building Violations.
Several dialogue processes were launched: a national dialogue aimed at integrating and assimilating some political parties and elites affiliated with “January” after years of exclusion, and a dialogue on the state ownership policies document, which aims to define the limits of the state’s role in the economy and give space for the private sector to restore its size to ensure response to the prescription of a fund International monetary restructuring the economy, and finally;
The announcement of the economic conference and the appointment of a number of businessmen as advisers to the Prime Minister and the change of the Central Bank governor come as a way to reconcile with the large business and capitalist elite in Egypt, and to address the repercussions of some economic and financial measures taken to preserve the remaining cash reserves, and to absorb the mounting criticism of what happened Economic policies over the past eight years, which required the president himself to engage in defending these policies.
As for the response of the parties and the political elite in Egypt to the demand for it, it is - in general - below the required level, and it lacks the ability to be creative and present new ideas and initiatives, and this is another talk.
Conclusion: The revival of politics in Egypt falls in a position between the two: a response after death, and a continuation of its extraction after its revival.
Although the campaign operates in a closed authoritarian context;
It was able to pass on its discourses and demands to large segments of citizens, and it was able not only to reach official and unofficial institutions;
Rather, it also prompted it to interact with it and justify the current government positions and existing policies and the reasons that prevent the government from adopting the main campaign demand.
pension policy
We inherited from politics in the Arab uprisings - before and after them - a number of characteristics that have become an inseparable feature of a large segment of political action in contemporary times, and I have previously called them the “pension discourse” for years;
They are:
local policy;
It is rooted in local networks in the countryside and smaller cities.
its direct claims;
Minimum wages, exams, the fourth primary semester course, and improving Internet services.
It does not necessarily translate itself into general national reforms;
Like democracy or education reform.
Ideology is marginalized and not necessarily based on national, class or religious discourse.
Without leadership, the coordinator or coordinators play the primary role in it because it is characterized by spontaneity or initiatives with specific goals and duration.
It is based on decentralized networks rather than hierarchical organizations...etc.
In a study under publication by the distinguished researcher Ahmed Mohsen - a specialist in public policies - on the “Internet without Borders” campaign launched by a number of young people specialized in information technology to address the poor service provided by companies in this field, the researcher draws our attention to a number of features that characterized the campaign By using the two million hashtag #UnlimitedInternet_in_Egypt.
Public grievances have been transformed into a more organized form thanks to the likes of this campaign, which is an attempt to pressure the Egyptian government to introduce reforms in internet service provision, and to include policies to solve this problem on the government's agenda.
The campaign members presented themselves as part of a broader social stratum that suffers from poor Internet services.
A number of them worked on developing alternative ideas and policies that could contribute to solving the problem, and thus the campaign moved from complaint and grievance to solution and effectiveness gracefully without becoming involved in turning into a human rights campaign to demand the release of those arrested by its coordinators, or turning into a politicized campaign You defy the system by embarrassing it.
Framing the campaign in the form of a clear demand contributed to the rapid and clear reach of the main campaign requirement to large sectors.
On the other hand, this framing contributed to the participation of public figures and individuals outside the campaign members in supporting it by participating in spreading the hashtag.
Although the campaign operates in a closed authoritarian context;
It was able to pass on its discourses and demands to large segments of citizens, and it was able not only to reach official and unofficial institutions;
Rather, it prompted it to interact with it and justify the current government positions and existing policies and the reasons that prevent the government from adopting the main campaign demand.
The campaign was able to use a number of new and developed mechanisms and means in order to reach a larger number, and to increase the number of followers to interact with it without this leading to security problems for them.
While Facebook was the main arena for a number of previous campaigns;
The current campaign was widely active on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, and used a number of new mechanisms.
Decentralization and participatory among those responsible for the campaign
The campaign appears to be without a clear leader, and it was able to continue despite the enforced disappearance of one of its coordinators;
Which gives it a decentralized character.
The campaign was characterized by volunteerism, participation and coordination between groups and individuals from different backgrounds;
This contributed to the presence of flexibility in the management and implementation of the campaign, and contributed to its failure to stop when exposed to attempts of repression and curtailment by the authority. The campaign was not limited to submitting complaints only, but a number of its members worked to provide solutions as well.
Although the campaign was not able to achieve the required success according to the goals set by its organizers;
It was able to bring the issue to the government's agenda, prompting the Minister of Communications himself to respond to it. In the end, it is a successful model for proposing alternatives and continuous peaceful pressure, winning various supporters and supporters, and defining one of the features of politics in the future.
Features of the new policy
The new policy has two main features:
The first: the absence of the idea of representation
The state and its intermediary institutions such as parliament, unions and parties are based on the legitimacy of the agency on behalf of its members to represent their interests, which no longer exists now, as the public has been divided into groups whose interests vary and differ, and sometimes intersect.
Professional unions, for example, include different levels of income (the very wealthy doctors and engineers versus the underprivileged), which creates a severe disparity between members in interests and the priorities of demands.
(Please note how the discourse of the Egyptian authorities, political forces and elite continues to claim to represent a people they do not know and social classes that are no longer what they used to be).
If representation and agency are negated, then jobs and roles must change;
It moves from control and control to the role of mediation/governance and management.
For example, the role of the president has changed;
Instead of leading the entire state structures and bureaucracy to achieve state development and welfare functions - as happened during the period of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1954-1970);
He became a balance and arbitrator between the interests of the business class and general social interests, and he ruled between state institutions of varying orientations, as during the period of the late President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011).
Here we must note that Mubarak had tools at the time that helped him play this role;
The state had the remains of a strong public sector that it could use to achieve the required balance, but in light of the 2013 state’s efforts to get rid of its ownership and reposition in certain economic sectors;
Can it still play the role of balancing opposing interests or leave it to market forces?
If representation and agency are absent, then new “political” actors must emerge other than what we are familiar with. Whoever led the campaign for Internet without Borders - as I presented - non-politicized technical youth, suggested alternatives, policies and technical solutions to overcome the problem, and was able to mobilize stakeholders, not classes or Clear social groups, and none of them was invited to be represented, so the clear direct interest brought them together, and this is linked to a greater role for institutions, people and tools such as social communication, which we did not consider to play political roles despite their direct and indirect political influence.
We can refer to the Central Bank and its governor who, before he left, left us a message that was published in Al-Ahram, loaded with direct political implications, even if it was dressed up as economic.
The second: the policy of protest and objection
when protesting or objecting to a policy;
The protestors and objectors express the complained party directly;
The government is a business owner and not a political authority that represents society, and the strike is against the owner of the company as its owner and not against the private sector or crony capitalism, and the unlimited Internet is an objection to the service provider (we) company.
We are in the process of a dynamic policy that constantly changes the positions of the various parties, as well as the form of discourse to suit its direct function and not the political logic (against public authority), the capitalist (crony capitalism), or the ideological (Islamists and secularists) on which it is based.
What is actually happening - then - is redefining politics at a time when we are still thinking about it with an old logic, and we are looking for it in ancient places such as: ideologies, class, social movements and among Islamists, and among state structures only that have eroded, changed their functions and loosened their cohesion ... etc.
Politics is now made in other places, from new material, with new actors, in new fields, and according to new issues.