A Democracy With Fangs And Claws And Its Effects On Egyptian Political Culture - Statistical Data Included

Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Summer, 2001 by Joshua A. Stacher

. . . changes in the institutional structure of society, new modes of education, exposure to mass media, encounters with the international environment, and other concomitants to modernization that involve a transformation and expansion of individuals' environments, all generate significant confusion at the intellectual level. Individuals often find it difficult to understand their new environment let alone adjust or enjoy it, given that the world view provided by their society no longer is adequate to the task. Unable to understand, they are often unable to function; they drift into anxiety and crisis. [56]

These expressions of panic revealed the thin veneer of the Egyptian intellectual's commitment to the cause of democracy. All of a sudden they remembered that the 'masses' (once glorified by the same intellectuals) are mostly 'illiterate' and easily 'manipulated'. Hence democracy will be exploited, in their view, by 'non-democratic forces'. The bottom line in such argumentation was reminiscent of the objective of all despotic regimes to genuine political participation. [59]

Clearly, this retreat by some of the very same intellectuals who earlier voiced belief in the legitimacy of democracy gives support to the notion that intellectual political culture is still uncertain and divided. The abandonment of democratic values by many Egyptian intellectuals was not an isolated event of the early 1990s. Hafez Abu Saada, the current Secretary General of the EOHR remarks that, "The intellectuals are still scared of democracy because of the elections and the instability that war has brought Algeria." [60] Nearly 10 years after the infamous Algerian elections and subsequent coup, Egyptian intellectuals remained mired in doubt over the democratic process. Abu Saada agrees with the government's position regarding democratization in the heightened atmosphere of Islamist movements. He states, "I agree that the danger of democracy is the Islamists, I know that. The Islamists will use the democratic ways to come to power and then they will cancel the democratic process." [61] The surprising aspec t of this comment is that it comes from one of Egypt's leading human rights activist. From this, it is obvious even intellectuals whose bent is basically in favor of liberal democratic values sometimes vacillate when focusing on Egypt's political life. It is evident that this can lead to a desire by intellectuals to exclude members of Egyptian society from any democratic experiment. This intellectual orientation appears to reflect the views held by the current Egyptian regime.

In fact it is possible to suggest that the battle between the Islamists and the Egyptian government in the 1990s has further fragmented intellectual political culture:

As the Islamist movement gradually occupies a prominent place among opposition forces, Arab intellectuals divided into two camps, with supporters of an Islamist political and social platform on one side and supporters of a secularist, liberal, Marxist, or nationalist alternatives on the other side. [62]