Egypt: Anything is possible

The U.S. has long been accused of perpetuating double standards abroad, notably as guarantor of democracy at home and patron of authoritarianism in the Middle East. The U.S. has justified this foreign policy position by claiming its necessity for stability in the region. However, supporting oppressive regimes has always been an inherently unstable venture. 

Now, due to unprecedented events that many say were bound to happen (it was just a matter of time), the Arab people and the Obama Administration are squaring off on the field of possibility. Most significantly, this field is offering some new options for all interested parties. 

Prior to the protests, and even during much of them, positions have been dichotomously presented: moderates and hardliners, secularists and Islamists, privileged elites and the people in the streets. What is emerging, as Jordan’s former foreign and then deputy prime minister Marwan Muasher points out, is a third option which is open to everyone: an inclusive, diverse and pluralistic reform movement. 

Perhaps unintentionally, the protests in Egypt have chosen this third option. Tahrir Square has been filled with Muslims, Christians, rich, poor, men, women, urban and rural, all of whom have coalesced around a unified appeal for meaningful reform. The unyielding calls for Mubarak to leave are increasingly accompanied by a growing list of concrete demands for political, legal, and social reform. The passionate revolutionaries are acknowledging that their vision of an Egypt without Mubarak, an Egypt that respects the human rights of all people, an Egypt with a robust rule of law, an Egypt without rampant corruption, an Egypt with a multi-party system, and an Egypt that re-asserts its cultural and intellectual leadership, requires a solid foundation upon which legitimate transition to genuine reform can happen.

Building this solid foundation for true reform — a reform that would be the first of its kind in the modern Arab world — in the midst of revolutionary tumult is a precarious enterprise that many predict is more likely to fail than to succeed. However, there is no room for such pessimism at this moment; optimism, be it cautious or unbridled, is the only course if true reform is to succeed. For Egyptians, this means they must unequivocally and steadfastly commit to the third option, understanding that Egypt’s future strength and prosperity will derive from its diversity, inclusiveness, and openness. This embrace of a diverse, inclusive, and open society is what made Egypt the most powerful and influential nation in years past and it is what has made the United States the most powerful and influential nation in the present. 

Having said this, the U.S. will lose its preeminent position (indeed, many say it already has) if it, too, does not embrace the third option for Egypt and other Middle Eastern and Arab countries. If the Obama Administration continues to view Egypt and other Arab nations through dichotomous prisms and, in so doing, chooses authoritarianism or, just as unpardonable, pays lip-service to overtures at reform processes, then it will jeopardize its interests in the region. More ominously, it will also have to justify to 80 million Egyptians and over 350,000,000 Arabs why, at this critical moment, it refused to usher in a new era of possibility.

Accordingly, the U.S. should, in no uncertain terms and with no hedging, acknowledge the Egyptian people’s demands for political, social, and economic reform, and commit to supporting them — not Hosni Mubarak, not Omar Suleiman, and not Ahmed Shafiq — in their immediate transition to a democratic system. The U.S. should commit to fully supporting a transition process that is legally sound under current Egyptian law but also allows for an inclusive and broad-based legal reform process (see Hossam Bahgat and Soha Abdelaty’s Washington Post OpEd on February 5, 2011). The U.S. must support a transition that is inclusive and open, one that involves all parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Further, the U.S. must continue to demand that human rights abuses will not be tolerated and that perpetrators will be held accountable.

It is time for the U.S. to ask itself what it really wants for Egypt and its people. If it seeks a transition that will arrive at free and fair presidential elections, strong rule of law, a democratic system of checks and balances, and a society unyielding in its assurance of human rights and equality for all citizens, then it must support the process that will deliver this: an inclusive, diverse, and pluralistic reform movement.

Courtney Erwin has an M.A. in Islamic law and J.D. in international law. She lives and works in Doha, Qatar.