The struggle continues in Egypt as president Hosni Mubarak and his cronies keep throwing concessions to the mob in an attempt to find the minimum price that will end the stand-off. In the latest move, public sector workers have seen their pay and pensions increased by 15%, but like the government’s previous efforts such as a reshuffling of ministers and the president’s promise to retire after September’s elections, the crowds have rejected this as insufficient. They want the president to leave now.
The rest of the world is typically only interested in injustices and human rights violations if they are making the headlines in international newspapers. When this occurs, as is the case in Egypt, the primary concern seems to be not so much righting wrongs as calming the situation down so that it is no longer in the headlines. Thus the US has not been supporting the demands of the people; instead it has been supporting a “gradual transition” in which the government (which happens to be undemocratic but pro-US) retains its power.
The problem from the point of view of the protesters is that seven months remain until the elections currently scheduled for elections. Seven months is plenty of time for the government to use its powers under the Emergency Law to arrest anyone without cause and detain them indefinitely. Anyone who has been prominent in the current protests can expect to be dealt with well before September.