the status quo is poised for a return!
not that mubarak is coming back. or even sulieman, the former security chief and israeli favorite who was mubarak's hand-picked successor.
nope, in voting yes, the big winner is not some much even the islamists, as the western press exclaims. instead, it's the dreaded institutional stability that is the catchphrase for everything being controlled out of washington and tel aviv.
from an AFP story summarizing the results:
The Muslim Brotherhood threw its huge influence and organisation behind a "yes" vote, although youth groups that spearheaded the protests which forced Hosni Mubarak to resign as president last month had called for a "no" vote.yep, it was kind of obvious, with the accelerated timetable that the military put the nation on for its return to "democracy", that the desired result was being ram-rodded through the electorate.
They argued that the timetable set by the military was too tight for them to organise at grassroots level, that the Muslim Brotherhood would benefit and that the changes to the Mubarak-era constitution were too limited.
the military, which assumed power in the vacuum of the departed previous leadership, is tied inextricably to its US military-industrial complex patrons to go against the flow. the popular will forced mubarak out, but besides his departure the shape of things to come does not appear to be tied to the will of the people.
check out the stats on the latest vote:
More than 14 million Egyptians approved the constitutional amendments and four million said "no," organising commission chairman Mohammed Attiya said.
A total of 41 percent of the estimated 45 million eligible voters turned out on Saturday to seize their first taste of democracy, after 18 days of demonstrations ended Mubarak's 30 years of authoritarian rule, he added.
far from starting with a popular mandate, the electorate of egypt is either too uninspired by their choices, or too unmotivated to keep pressing for more change -- or to complete the process the revolution put in motion. i'm not sure which, but it's all to obvious that if a people doesn't stand up and emphatically make its wishes known, someone else will be glad to step up and make the choice for them.
the US would be glad to supervise. washington has long preferred reliable dictators to populist democrats -- especially those who might nationalize industries coveted by foreign investors. in the absence of compliant autocrats, the US will countenance a strong, right-wing fundamentalist regime, so long as its leaders are available for purchase by US corporations.
what the US' primary interest is the kind of stability that protects business interests, the kind of stability that allows the IMF to stage a hostile takeover of the state's assets, and shield investors from the consequences of forced austerity on restless populations.
what the people of egypt -- and many others in similar situations -- will find is that the new boss will, indeed, be like the old boss. a new face on the package, but inside the same old bullshit. only by the time the people have their predictable WTF reaction, it'll be too late to do anything about it.
should've stepped up when you had the chance, sucka!
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