The Hindu Editorial Vocab - 30th March 2017 Editorial Topic 2 - Back to square one: Egypt’s restive politics
Six years after Tahrir, Hosni Mubarak is released, highlighting Egypt’s restive politics
For most of those who hit
Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2011 demanding democracy and a freer society,
President Hosni Mubarak was a symbol of repression. After his ouster, the
dictator was tried for corruption and causing the death of hundreds of
protesters. Still, his release last week, after six years of detention at
Cairo’s military hospital, was received by Egyptians as just a routine
development. There were no major protests against his release, nor were there
any rallies in support — an indication of what Egypt’s state and society have
become six years after the Arab Spring. The release was long expected. Most of
his associates and family members, who also faced serious charges, were already
released. His sons, Alaa and Gamal, accused of embezzlement of public funds,
were released in October 2015. Corruption charges against Mr. Mubarak were
overturned in January 2015. Earlier this month, he was acquitted by Egypt’s
highest appeals court of conspiring to kill protesters, paving the way for his
release.
It may appear ironic that
Mr. Mubarak, who ruled the country with an iron fist for almost 30 years and
was toppled by public protests in which hundreds were killed, is now a free
man, while Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected President, is in
prison. But this irony also symbolises Egypt’s complex contemporary politics.
Though the government of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi claims the legacy of the 2011
revolution, it took a lenient view of Mubarak-era crimes while cracking down on
Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. It is difficult to gauge the political mood in
Egypt. Despite large-scale concentration of power in the hands of the military,
the Sisi regime doesn’t face any existential threats. For ordinary Egyptians,
who went through the instability and chaos of the post-Mubarak months and the
threats of Islamisation and economic miseries during the Muslim Brotherhood
rule, General Sisi at least provided stability and order. The belief is that
compared to other countries that were hit by popular protests in 2011 such as
Libya, Yemen and Syria, Egypt is doing better, thanks to the army’s
intervention. Tunisia is the only country that internally transformed itself
into a democracy after protests. Gen. Sisi projects himself as a guarantor of order
and enjoys support among the minorities and secular sections. But the question
is if the status quo is sustainable. Order was restored at a brutal cost.
Hundreds were killed when security personnel forcibly removed Islamist
protesters from Cairo. There is no substantive political opposition. Personal
freedoms are being curbed again, while media groups and journalists are
targeted. In effect, what hundreds of protesters at Tahrir Square risked their
lives for was never achieved. Gen. Sisi has taken the country back to square
one.
1.
Restive - unwilling to be controlled or be patient
2.
Repression - the use of force or violence to control people
3.
Ouster - the removal of someone from an official position
4.
Dictator - someone who uses force to take and keep power in a
country
5.
Protester - someone who publicly shows their opposition to
something such as a law or policy
6.
Detention - the state of being kept in a police station or prison
and not being allowed to leave
7.
Associate - someone who is closely connected to another person as
a companion, friend, or business partner
8.
Accuse - to say that someone has done something wrong or
committed a crime
9.
Embezzlement - to secretly take money that is in your care or
that belongs to an organization or business you work for
10.
Overturned - to say officially that something such as a
decision or law is wrong and change it
11.
Acquitted - to state officially that someone is not guilty of the
crime they were accused of
12.
Conspiring - to secretly plan with someone to do something
bad or illegal
13.
Paving the way - if something paves the way for/to something
else, it makes the other thing possible
14.
Ironic - being very different from what you would usually
expect
15.
Rule with iron fist - to control a group of people very firmly, having
complete power over everything they do
16.
Toppled - to make someone in authority lose their power
17.
Contemporary - modern, or relating to the present time
18.
Lenient - if a person or system is lenient, they punish someone
less severely than they could
19.
Cracking down - to start dealing with someone or something much
more strictly
20.
Gauge - to make a judgment about something
21.
Regime - a government that controls a country, especially in a
strict or unfair way
22.
Existential - relating to existence
23.
Instability - a situation that keeps changing, so that you are
worried about what might happen
24.
Chaos - a situation in which everything is confused and in a
mess
25.
Misery - the state of being extremely unhappy or uncomfortable
26.
Intervention - a situation in which someone becomes involved in
a particular issue, problem etc in order to influence what happens
27.
Guarantor - someone who makes an official agreement to be
responsible for money that someone else owes, or for someone else’s behaviour
28.
Status quo - the present situation, or the way that things
usually are
29.
Sustainable - able to continue over a period of time
30.
Brutal - extremely violent
31.
Curb - to control or limit something that is not wanted
32.
Back to square one - to be forced to think of a new course
of action because your first course of action failed
