Do not pass go
IN THE four months since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian politics have rocked along in a see-saw fashion. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has assumed interim powers in advance of elections scheduled for the autumn, tilts in favour of the status quo. Its members—18 ageing generals—seem instinctively shy of risk and bewildered by the noisy civilian world into which they have stumbled. Their reluctance to move rouses suspicions among the wider public. Pressure for prompt, tangible evidence of revolutionary change builds, culminating in threats to reignite the massive protests that toppled Mr Mubarak. The military men buckle, and cast a few concessions to the crowd. Equilibrium is briefly restored until the next surge of public passion.
Such was the background to the decision, on May 24th, to refer the former president, his two sons and a fugitive billionaire associate to trial on criminal charges which may include murder. Last month Mr Mubarak and his sons, who spent the first weeks after their ouster in a secluded resort, were arrested in response to massive protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square. As their incarceration dragged on (the 83-year-old Mr Mubarak has been held in a hospital rather than prison), doubts arose as to the government's will to prosecute them.
Not only did the generals, all of whom served most of their careers under the command of Mr Mubarak, himself a former general, show little sign of sharing the public's outrage over growing evidence of the former first family's gross abuses of power. The army's imposition of swift, draconian military justice on civilian activists, and its deployment of thuggish military police to quell protests, contrasted jarringly with the relatively mild treatment enjoyed by hated strongmen of Mr Mubarak’s regime. Although dozens of these men are in custody or under investigation, few have been sentenced and only one, a low-level police officer tried in absentia, has been convicted for his part in the killing of more than 800 people during January's unrest.
With much of the disparate movement that organised the revolution calling for another huge gathering in Tahrir Square on May 27th, Egypt's hesitant rulers again budged. Not only are the Mubaraks now certain to face trial, a development that is unprecedented in any Arab country. The government's apparent bid to stem public anger in advance of Friday's protest included the sacking of several top police officials and the amnestying of many civilians held in military prisons.
Such efforts to show good will are effective, up to a point. Many Egyptians have tired of the turbulence that has dogged the country since the fall of Mr Mubarak and would be ******* to let the soldiers rule in peace. Parts of the political spectrum, most glaringly Islamist groups, led by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, have sought to score tactical gains by praising the military and condemning its detractors. Yet the protests will go ahead, nevertheless, if only because a broad spectrum of Egyptians has concluded that they are the only thing the generals listen to. This strange dialogue looks set to continue through a long, hot Egyptian summer.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsb...pts_revolution
Do not pass go
