Saturday, February 12, 2011

18 DAYS TO END 30 YEAR DICTATORSHIP, WHAT NOW? DEMOCRACY CANNOT FLOW FROM THE BARREL OF THE GUN

It took valiant Egyptian youth only 18 days to end a 30 year dictatorship. Good riddance Hosni Mubarak.

By freezing Mubarak's bank accounts, Switzerland has thrown the gauntlet to all other Governments to freeze his assets and return the looted wealth to Egyptian people.

For now the military has taken charge of Egypt, however this cannot be a satisfactory solution. Egypt has been ruled by military dictators ever since King Farouk was deposed in 1952. If the military stays in charge for a while, they may get comfortable in their new role and become an obstacle in the way of an open and a flourishing democracy, which is what the Egyptians want.

The preferred solution is, for a Supreme Court judge to head the interim Government comprising civilians whose task it should be to return Egypt to normalcy, start rebuilding the economy and hold fair, transparent and democratic elections so that power can be transferred to elected representatives in four to six months. Military's role should be restricted to maintaining law and order only.

Also, the current Egyptian constitution is in shambles and beyond repair, the interim Government should immediately appoint a Constitutional Commission comprising eminent Egyptian jurists with a mandate to draw up a new and democratic constitution. After the elections, the first order of business for the new parliament should be to approve or amend this constitution as it deems fit.

The Egyptian military has seen people power in the last 18 days, so hopefully they they will respond to their aspirations. However, if they get greedy and go for power grab, the outcome for the Military will probably be far worse than it was for Mubarak.


EGYPT CELEBRATES

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