In the early days of violence perpetrated by the army against protesters following the resignation of former President Hosni Mubarak, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued an apology. The statement, presented with the utmost respect, claimed that their ‘credit’ with the Egyptian people justified their actions. Indeed, many chose to overlook those missteps in gratitude for the army’s role in supporting the revolution.
However, the same public, whose political awareness has soared in a matter of weeks, now watches with mounting frustration as a series of perplexing events and questionable decisions unfold—compounding an already complex situation, and one that is decidedly not in the army’s favour.
Chief among these concerns is the military’s puzzling selectivity when it comes to purging elements of the old regime, a process that any revolution demands. This is exacerbated by the painfully slow pace of action. Together, these factors fuel the current state of confusion and instability, marked by the proliferation of legitimate protests and the machinations of the remnants of the former regime.
One of the partisan daily newspapers recently published remarks attributed to a police officer, stating that the police would not return to restore security in the streets ‘until the public understands the value of the police and kisses their hands’, as the officer brazenly put it. While the Minister of Interior referred this officer for investigation, the larger question remains: why has the military council not taken decisive and unequivocal measures to reform this deeply corrupt and psychologically toxic institution?
Purging, in this context, does not mean indiscriminate arrests or the elimination of everyone opposed to the revolution, even though such actions are arguably justifiable in the logic of revolutions. Rather, the ordinary, long-suffering Egyptian citizen demands—within the bounds of the law—that all who committed crimes of murder, torture, and systemic corruption, not merely theft, face justice without selectivity or delay. The process should avoid the current farcical charade of selectively highlighting one crime over another or determining the order of accountability arbitrarily. What is needed is swift, thorough justice to bring about the stability so desperately sought. Without serious reform, the political puppet show we witness with growing dismay will continue unabated.
The people have willingly accepted the need for full legal procedures to ensure fair trials for Mubarak and the criminals of his oppressive regime—a regime that produced countless perpetrators. However, it is baffling that Mubarak and his family have yet to face trial. Even more troubling is the repeated revelation, whenever a high-profile figure is summoned for questioning, that tens or even hundreds of complaints and reports had already been filed against them—sometimes long before Mubarak’s fall. Is one report not enough to drag these blood-soaked criminals into court? Why does it seem that this burden of accountability always falls on us, the citizens, both before and after the revolution?
What happened in Tahrir Square last Friday—the death of a protester and injuries to 71 others—cannot be undone by hundreds of military statements or thousands of ‘top-up cards’ to replenish the military council’s credit with the people. No amount of apologies will suffice unless the armed forces, and their council with its vague strategy, address the remnants of the oppressive former regime and their continued manipulation of the country’s fate and security. Without a logical and decisive purge, carried out with the urgency that any revolution demands, the situation will only worsen.
This article is originally published by AlBorsa in Arabic and later AI-translated by South Push.