Draft Letter to President Obama Dear Mr President We, parliamentarians and civil society organisations from Indonesia and Malaysia, write to express the deep anger and disappointment of millions of our people at your refusal to acknowledge the ouster of Egypt’s first elected president Dr Morsi by the Egyptian Armed Forces led by General Abdul Fatah Khalil al-Sisi as a coup and stop all aid to the illegal government in accordance with United States law. Your failure to condemn the coup and stop all aid is, we believe, because of your government’s special relationship with the Egyptian military whose primary duty after the 1978 Camp David Accords is to protect Israel’s security. President Morsi, elected by millions of Egyptians in the first free and fair elections held in Egypt, was removed from his post by military officers loyal to the deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak who have no commitment to democracy. The constitution, approved by over 14 million Egyptians, constituting 64% of those who voted, has been suspended and Egypt is now ruled by the decrees of a puppet President appointed by the military. Yet, your administration has refused to consider the unlawful seizure of power by the military as a coup and continues to provide financial and military aid. Where is the United States’ commitment to democracy that your and previous administrations have been boasting about? The Egyptian military has tried to derive legitimacy for the coup by claiming that it was responding to the ‘huge’ demonstrations on 30 June in Tahrir Square and other places, claimed by President Morsi’s opponents as numbering between 17- 30 million demonstrators, demanding the President’s removal. The figures have been highly exaggerated. Morsi’s opponents attributed them to Google Earth which has now disclaimed responsibility for them. The world’s leading expert on crowd estimation Professor Clark Mcphail from University of Illinois has estimated that, given the carrying capacity of Tahrir Square, the crowd there on 30 June could have been between 250,000 to, at most, 500,000. An Egyptian expert Amjad Almonzer has estimated that throughout Egypt the number of anti-Morsi demonstrators would not have exceeded one million. Compare this with the 13 million votes obtained by President Morsi in free and fair elections. Instead of using the demonstrations as an excuse to launch a coup, the military, together with the police, should have protected the democratically-elected President and ensured that the anti-Morsi demonstrations were peaceful. By seizing power, they violated the Constitution and betrayed the trust of the people and yet your administration has not expressed even a mild criticism. Since the coup, there have been serious violations of basic human rights. President Morsi is under detention and fabricated charges have been levelled against him .Many leaders and members of the opposition have been detained on trumped up charges. Those responsible for killing peaceful demonstrators have not been detained or charged. The police, thugs under police protection, and soldiers have used live ammunition to disperse peaceful demonstrators resulting in over 300 persons killed and thousands injured Early July, in cold blood, they killed over 80 persons in the early hours of the morning while the protesters were praying in front of the Republican Guards’ club. The perpetrators of this heinous crime have not been charged and your administration, except for mild statements, has taken no effective steps to ensure an independent investigation is conducted and the criminals punished. In his speech announcing the coup, al-Sisi promised “securing and guaranteeing freedom of expression, freedom of media” but the first ‘democratic’ action he took was to shut down four TV channels sympathetic to Morsi and Al Jazeera’s Mubasher Misr. The security forces raided the offices of Al Jazeera and detained five of its staff and prevented it broadcasting from a pro-Morsi rally. Having silenced the pro-Morsi and independent media, he hypocritically called for national reconciliation while letting loose the wolves of the anti-Morsi media to demonise and scandalise the opposition leaders and poison the minds of the average Egyptian through lies and fabrications. June 30 demonstration leading to the military coup was a counter-revolution for the Old Guards to take over the reins of power from a democratically elected President and to subvert the democratic process initiated by the January 25 revolution. Eleven of the 34 ministers are veterans of Mubarak’s regime; two from Mubarak’s dissolved National Democratic Party. Egypt’s Old Guard has been planning for this counter-revolution for over a year. Its members controlled the vital state institutions – judiciary, internal security, civil service and the armed forces – although Mubarak was deposed. They destabilised the country by creating artificial shortages, failing to enforce the law leading to lawlessness, and obstructing the President from implementing his democratic programme. After the coup all these problems suddenly disappeared on which The New York Times, July 10, 2013 commented: “The apparently miraculous end to the crippling energy shortages, and the re-emergence of the police, seems to show that the legions of personnel left in place after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 played a significant role – intentionally or not – in under the overall quality of life under the Islamist administration of Mr. Morsi……. Working behind the scenes, members of the old establishment, some of them close to Mr. Mubarak and the country’s top generals, also helped finance, advise and organise those determined to topple the Islamic leadership, including Naguib Sawiris, a billionaire and an outspoken foe of the Brotherhood; Tahani el-Gebali, a former judge on the Supreme Court who is close to the ruling generals; and Shawki al-Sayed, a legal adviser to Ahmed Shafik, Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister, who lost the presidential race to Mr. Morsi”. Tamarod and the youth leaders, given credit for mobilising the crowds, were nothing but foot-soldiers for Egypt’s ‘deep state’. What is most disturbing is the involvement of your administration in the military coup despite your claim of not taking sides. In his interview with Geo TV in Pakistan, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed support for the military coup claiming “they were restoring democracy”. Strange way of restoring democracy – the military overthrowing an elected President and appointing a puppet government. It is not surprising, therefore, that Congressman Ron Paul accused your administration of hypocrisy and called your foreign policy insane. A respected Egyptian journalist Emad Makay wrote in Aljazeera that a review of US federal government documents shows that the State Department under its democracy assistance programme has quietly funded senior Egyptian opposition figures who called for the toppling of President Morsi. He writes that the programme is part of your administration’s effort ” to stop the retreat of pro-Washington secularists, and to win back influence in Arab Spring countries that saw the rise of Islamists, who largely oppose US interests in the Middle East.” It appears from press reports that El-Sisy launched the coup after getting the green light from US and Israeli officials. On the West’s complicity in the coup, Prof. Jeffrey D Sachs, adviser to UN Secretary General, wrote: “…the feckless West – torn between its democratic rhetoric and its antipathy to the Islamists– showed its hand…the West finally gave the green light to the Egyptian military to overthrow Morsi, arrest the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership and repress the Islamist rank and file….when the push came to shove, the West sided with the anti-Islamists in subverting democracy…” El-Sisi’s attempt to mobilise the public against the anti-coup demonstrations and the threat to use violence to disperse them is recipe for a civil war that would put back for decades the democratic process initiated by the January 25 revolution. The failure of democracy in Egypt would delight the dictators and feudal monarchs in the Arab world. The immediate support given by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate with bag loads of dollars is to ensure the success of the coup so that these feudal rulers can continue to reign and deny their people basic human rights and squander the nation’s oil wealth. We urge you to abandon the US practice of relying on proxy regimes, often military dictators and feudal monarchs, to serve its geo-political and economic interests. You recognised in your 2009 Cairo speech that Muslim hostility to the West is rooted in colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims and the West’s support of proxy regimes but the practice still continues. You also expressed your commitment to governments that reflect the will of the people. In Egypt, in the last two years the Egyptian people have expressed their will in free and fair elections several times, including the election of President Morsi. Therefore, it is the will of the people that must deicide through elections whether he should go and not street mobs manipulated by the remnants of Mubarak’s regime and the military. American people’s interests can be best served only through elected democratic governments based on mutual respect and benefit. We, therefore, urge your administration and the European Union, to recognise the removal of President Morsi as a coup and not to accord recognition to the military-appointed “interim government”. Both US and EU should make a call to: 1. Free and reinstate Mohamed Morsi as Egypt’s elected president. 2. Stop political persecution and release all members of the opposition under arrest. 3. Initiate dialogue among political parties and interested groups including youths to find a democratic solution to the crisis. The military should not be involved in this political process. 4. Investigate the violent attack on demonstrations by an independent body and take action against those responsible for the attacks. 5. Lift restrictions placed on opposition and independent media outlets and freedom of expression. If the military refuses to comply with these demands, the matter should be taken to the UN Security Council for taking effective steps to resolve the conflict which, if not resolved quickly, threatens regional security. Yours Truly [To be signed by at least 50 MPs from Malaysia and the same number from Indonesia and NGOs from both countries]
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 10:32:13 +0000
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