Since the arrival of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in power in 2013, the Egyptian army has been involved in an unlimited economic expansion, and its activities have covered every field, from cement to bread, fish, media and steel making.
He supervises thousands of construction sites, and monopolizes public contracts without public and private companies, but this expansion does not appear to be beneficial for the country in general.
In a joint article between Jamal Bukhari and Ariane Larvieux, in the French magazine Le Monde Diplomatique, the authors said that the Egyptian army’s powers and influence have increased tenfold since Sisi came to power.
On April 7, Sisi confirmed that the country has "strategic reserves" in health protection issues thanks to the Unified Procurement Authority for Medical Equipment, a public agency created in 2015, under the official supervision of the Prime Minister, but in reality it is headed by Major General Bahaa El-Din Zaidan .
Unlimited expansion
This statement reinforced the suspicions of many Egyptians that the army is using the health crisis to expand its grip on the economy, especially since the military establishment, since the coup of the free officers in 1952, has gradually become the main investor in the country, before becoming - above that - during the era of Sisi, the guarantor of democracy and institutions. Under the constitution.
Despite the concerns of a number of Egyptians about the expansion of this institution, this has a double advantage for the Egyptian president, in that it is the least bureaucratic, and therefore the best - according to his opinion - to complete the major infrastructure projects that he intends to establish in the country as soon as possible, as well as in terms of It consolidates its authority because the militarization of the economy brings new revenue to an increasing number of officers, who in turn guarantee the stability of his regime.
This is evidenced by - according to the authors - from the appearance of the elites of the Egyptian army in a documentary on television, and they supervise the infantrymen in their full military uniform while they spray asphalt, or they distribute masks in a crowd rushing to the Cairo metro, and from there drones equipped with cameras.
The documentary also commends the strength of the army factories, which are able to manufacture one hundred thousand masks a day, (in a country with a population of one hundred million people), and provides a military scene to show that its army is not afraid to face the Corona epidemic.
Little production, opaque and rotten
In the same context, an unprecedented study revealed at the end of last November, the damage of this device (the Egyptian army), describing it as less production and opaque, which is ravaged by corruption.
In this study, the researcher of Palestinian origin, Yazid Sayegh, from the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, in his book "Possession of the Republic .. Anatomy of the Egyptian Army", talks about the rise of the "Republic of Officers", which accelerated since Sisi's military coup on July 3, 2013.
The site pointed out that this book is an important study consisting of 250 pages available free of charge on the Internet, and distance itself from the reports of international financial institutions that do not talk about this "republic", as well as reports of critics of the Sisi regime who give this republic more than its weight in terms of Economists, while underestimating its negative role in the conduct of this same economy.
This study finds that the military sector is a burden not only on public expenditures, but on the entire economy, by establishing unusual relations with the private sector.