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Celebrations and protests continued on Monday in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, three days after Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak stepped down. The vast majority of anti-Mubarak protestors have left. Many people who come to the square are just Egyptians who want to celebrate what they call a “new Egypt.” Others are still there protesting, though now it’s mainly about the economy.
Ironically, the country’s much hated police are demanding better wages. Labor unions and others around Egypt are calling for more, and better, jobs. Whether the protests are over is far from clear. One thing is certain, though: the military is now in charge.
This past weekend, the military dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution, and announced that elections for parliament and president would be held in six months.
But not all Egyptians completely trust the military, and some anti-Mubarak protestors said they plan to stay in the square until their demands for reform are met. On Sunday and Monday, the army began clearing the tents on Tahrir Square, allowing traffic to flow there for the first time in more than two weeks.
Some of the small band of protestors left in the square got into scuffles with the army. As soldiers cleared tents, protestor Mohammad Gouda said he wants to stay.
“Today and tomorrow and all days,” Gouda said. “So we will open the road, and talk about the future.”
But Mohamed Abu Basha, an economist at an investment bank who participated in the protests from the beginning, said on Saturday that he thinks the protests should end — for now.
“Life has to go back to normal. Let people go back home and sleep a little bit and think about the future,” he said. When asked if he trusted the military, Abu Basha said, “From what I have seen throughout the past 18 days, I will trust the military. The military acknowledges that this belongs to the people. I don’t think they’ll try to make a coup.”
Most Egyptians interviewed in the days after the military assumed control said they trust that it will make good on its promises for reform. Egyptians respect the military for not taking sides in the confrontation between protestors and Mubarak’s regime.
They cheered the tanks that rolled into the streets after protestors beat back the much-hated police. Salma Shaysh, a student at American University of Cairo, was one of the thousands of Egyptians who cleaned streets and painted curbs over the weekend in a show of civic pride.
She said the military has the people’s interests at heart. “There has to be a minimum of trust between us and the army, and up till now they’ve earned our trust,” Shaysh said.
She said if the military tries to thwart democratic reform, it will see how the people react. “We won’t shut up. We will come down to the streets and protest if they do something we don’t like.”
But although the military is issuing decisions that meet with protesters demands, it is making decisions largely on its own, without consulting opposition groups. Amr Hamdawy, a political analyst who took part in negotiations with the Mubarak government before it stepped down, said right now there are no negotiations.
“They might be talking with some people, but there are no signs of organized negotiations,” Hamdawy said. “It’s kind of a single actor game right now. What is assuring is that they are not taking us in an opposite direction,” Hamdawy added.
On Sunday night, the military did meet for the first time with young activists, including Google executive Wael Ghonim, one of the protest organizers. During the meeting, the military said it planned to assemble a panel of jurists who would suggest constitutional amendments in ten days.
A national referendum to approve the reforms would be held within two months. Hamdawy said that meeting is not enough. The military needs to sit down with actors from all of Egypt’s political parties and movements.
“They need to be pushed to establish an institutional dialogue. Fine, they are managing the transitional period, but we need other actors to join in,” Hamdawy said.
He and other pro-democracy activists said the tasks facing the country are huge, and the military can only benefit by keeping the transition to democracy transparent. First among the tasks is abolishing the emergency law that prohibited meaningful political debate and competition in Egypt.
Also on the list is rebuilding the police force, which collapsed in the face of anti-government protests, and investigating the corruption of the former regime, which many allege stole billions from the Egyptian people.
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