WASHINGTON –Egypt is moving toward a more stable government but is still in danger of falling back , Egyptian Ambassador Mohamed M. Tawik said this month.
Egypt’s ambassador to the United States visited the U.S. Institute of Peace Nov. 6 to discuss U.S.-Egypt relations, the dilemmas the country faces and Egypt’s role in the international community moving forward.
“Egypt is a country with an incredibly rich history and incredibly rich culture,” Tawik said in his opening statements. “But right now there are no opportunities. In many ways Egypt is just a staircase that leads to nowhere.”
The North African country has been through a lot of turmoil in past couple of years. In January 2011, President Hosni Mubarak, who led the country for 30 years, was ousted by a popular uprising. In 2012 Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi was elected by a slim margin to office, only to be kicked out due to violent mass demonstrations the very next year, in mid-2013.
After Morsi was ousted, the Egyptian military installed Adly Mansour as interim president. Mansour was the head of the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court.
The death toll in the country has reportedly reached 2,200 since the uprising began, according to the BBC.
While things are not rosy in Egypt right now, Tawik insisted that the country is beginning to move in the right direction, despite what some headlines in America may indicate.
“There is a real lag of perception between Washington and Cairo,” Tawik said. “In Washington people are still talking about mechanics of an election. In Egypt we’ve moved beyond that and have begun to build a new constitution and a new Egypt.”
There could be a delay in a stable and working government. Egypt passed a law last Sunday that severely limited the rights of protests, marches and public meetings. The new law has been condemned by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to Daily News Egypt.
Under the new law, protesters have to get permission from the Egyptian police three days in advance before they are allowed to canvas.
The question for the Egyptian people remains, however, what will become of the country in the months and years to come.
“In the end, the choice will be a choice of direction. Do we want to go down the old path, the path of the Muslim Brotherhood? Or do we need a less ideological-based constitution?”
U.S. Institute for Peace President Jim Marshall pressed Tawik on the legitimacy of the rebuilding process: “People were literally being killed in Tahir Square by security forces in both uprisings. How would a new constitution be able to limit the authority of the police?”
Without answering directly, Tawik acknowledged the abuses and insisted that while many officers were being prosecuted for recent abuses, but it was in Egypt’s best interest to just move forward.
Marshall wasn’t letting him get off the hook that easy, naming non-Egyptians he knew who had been arrested by the Muslim Brotherhood doing humanitarian work for various NGOs.
“Has Egypt taken any steps to loosening rules for NGOs who are working to advance democracy, to advance human rights?”
Egypt currently has a law that can convict people who are working for international organizations without a license from the Egyptian Republic.
“We need to change that law, it’s not a good one. We are trying to put together a good law for NGOs, one without any kind of gray area,” Tawik said.
Despite quite a bit of wait-and-see, Tawik was confident of the country Egypt will become.
“I expect in a few months the economy will be moving very fast. Even now, our economy is not doing horribly,” he said. “Things really are not quite as bleak as people think.”
