Gorbachev backs Egypt protesters
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, whose reforms helped lead to the fall of communism, threw his weight behind the pro-democracy protests in Egypt, saying they were “well-grounded and of vital importance”.
“I am on the protesters’ side,” the 80-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner said yesterday.
His comments came during the third straight day of violent clashes in Cairo between protesters and security forces.
Demonstrators are calling for a “second revolution” to force out the generals who have failed to stabilise the country, salvage the economy or bring democracy since the ousting of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
Mr Gorbachev said leaders across the Arab world were now faced with rising calls for democracy because they had been in power for too long and had created situations where people’s voices had not been heard.
“It’s clear no one provoked them, that this conflict appeared out of the blue,” he said of the demonstrators. “Things were building up, and it all means that democracy – the way they had it – did not really work.”
He said, however, that there was no one-size-fits-all solution for the region.
“I don’t think there will be a single model for all (the protests) developing in those countries...” Mr Gorbachev said. “Each country has its own history, culture, experience – you can’t ignore that.”
Mr Gorbachev, whose policies of openness brought the democratic changes that led – against his will – to the 1991 Soviet collapse, was in Berlin to announce that the city would host the 2012 awards that bear his name.
The Mikhail Gorbachev Award, which is given to people who bring change to the world, will this year focus on addressing the sustainability of the world’s megacities and be presented in March.
Egypt’s military ruler promised yesterday to speed up a presidential election to the first half of next year and said the armed forces were prepared to hold a referendum on immediately shifting power to civilians.
But those concessions were swiftly rejected by the tens of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square, who chanted: “Leave! Leave!”
The latest stand-off plunged the country deeper into crisis less than a week before parliamentary elections.
In a televised address to the nation, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi rejected all criticism of the military’s handling of the transitional period and sought to cast himself and the generals on the military council he heads as the nation’s foremost patriots.
Significantly, he made no mention of the throngs of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square to demand that he step down immediately in favour of an interim civilian council.
Field Marshal Tantawi spoke as protesters fought soldiers and police for a fourth day in streets leading to the iconic square that was the birthplace of Egypt’s uprising, particularly near the heavily fortified Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police.
Nearly 30 people have been killed in the violence, mostly in Cairo, and at least 2,000 have been wounded.
“Our demands are clear,” said Khaled El-Sayed, a protester from the Youth Revolution Coalition and a candidate in the November 28 parliamentary election. “We want the military council to step down and hand over authority to a national salvation government with full authority.”
The military previously floated the end of next year or early 2013 as the likely dates for the presidential election, which is widely being seen as the last stop in the process of transferring power. But Field Marshal Tantawi did not mention a specific date for the vote or when the military would return to its barracks.
Furthermore, his offer for the military to step down immediately if the people so wished in a referendum was vague at best, but it also mirrored the generals’ aversion to the youth groups that engineered the 18-day uprising that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak and which are again behind the massive, anti-military protest in Tahrir Square.
His referendum proposal suggests that he has no faith that the crowds in the streets of Cairo and other cities represent of the nation’s will.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s strongest and best organised group, is not taking part in the ongoing protests in a move that is widely interpreted to be a reflection of its desire not to do anything that could derail a parliamentary election it is sure to dominate.
The Brotherhood and the military have long been suspected of having a secret rapport although both sides vehemently deny it. If a referendum is held, the Brotherhood has the resources to influence the balloting by its ability to mobilise supporters and, for the right price, portray a vote favourable to the military as the duty of Muslims.
