This House believes that Egypt's Revolution is failing

After months of political uncertainty and rampant violence, Egypt’s Revolution is not delivering on its promises according to 62 percent of participants supporting the motion ‘This House believes that Egypt’s Revolution is failing’. The issues of the dignity of the individual, institutionalised corruption and accountability were raised in a heated discussion at the New Arab Debates in Cairo, the final vote showing a significant shift for supporters of the motion from 54 percent in a poll taken before the start of the debate.

Speaking for the motion, political activist and liberal blogger Mahmoud Salem said “It’s the only revolution in the world that hasn’t honoured those who did it but gave military salutes to the killers… We had a referendum whose objective was not clear, ‘democratic elections’ that are completely fraudulent,” he continued, “if you don’t have democracy, dignity, accountability, then how is it working? Revolutions take time, but this revolution is getting aborted”.

“People went out in the millions, how are you saying it is failing?” Moderator of the New Arab Debates, Tim Sebastian asked Mr. Salem. He replied that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had created a new model for a new Egypt. “We have a system that’s corrupt but still functional, it only looks right”.

The speaker against the motion began by objecting to the title of the debate, Khaled Al-Qazzaz, member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party’s (FJP) public relations team said: “I don’t think people came with that same attitude towards Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall”. He continued, that people had an expectation of a new Egypt transitioning into democracy, and the success of the revolution came at the cost of “people dying and giving up their lives in order to move on into a phase of new Egypt,” with people “standing up for what they believe in,” even against SCAF. Mr. Al-Qazzaz said the revolution brought dignity back to Egyptians worldwide.

“Where is the dignity when people are being beaten and kicked on the streets?” asked Moderator Tim Sebastian. “What steps are you taking to remove corruption?” Mr. Al-Qazzaz replied that the FJP voiced their condemnation and filed reports and complaints against specific individuals. “I believe the revolution was successful in the first phase but now we’re building our democracy,” he said.