A strange weekend, an even stranger encounter, ending with the strangest of news! In short, a group of old friends and I met at a café after a long hiatus. Naturally, the topic of conversation was the revolution, with police reform being a central focus. By chance, an old mutual friend, who happens to be a police officer, passed by.
He wasn’t invited and did not sit with us despite our gestures to join. He greeted us quickly and warmly, as men often do to show fondness—or perhaps it was just a formal, overzealous gesture. The entire encounter, lasting less than a minute, culminated in his question, posed either jokingly or mockingly: ‘So, how’s the revolution going, guys?’ This was followed by loud, almost hysterical laughter before he left abruptly, leaving us staring at one another, confused by this ‘joke’ that amused no one. We could not help but wonder what had happened to our high school classmate, who now seemed to be suffering from some mental affliction. Eventually, we decided to ignore the incident to keep the gathering enjoyable.
By Saturday morning, a news article appeared on the Shorouk Gate website titled: Tens of Generals Dismissed in the Ministry of Interior’s Purge. Notably, the term ‘purge’ was enclosed in quotation marks, suggesting scepticism from the writer, who seemingly did not believe that any real purge had taken place. Perhaps the author is one of those ‘idealists’ who believe that no revolution is complete without genuine reform, and that what we are witnessing now is merely an unbearably clumsy charade.
Anyone following the developments in the Egyptian police force post-revolution would have expected the new government to conduct a full-scale cleansing—an intestinal, renal, and surgical removal of all corruption in this chronically diseased institution. But contrary to revolutionary logic and norms, none of this happened, despite the police force’s dramatic collapse on the night of January 28th. It should have been replaced with a healthier system.
The Sharaf government and al-Eissawy’s security leadership attempted a feeble makeover, likely expecting the enraged public—families of hundreds of martyrs and thousands of injured—to accept it. Their efforts did not extend beyond renaming departments and relocating implicated officers to other divisions, as though they would not encounter actual citizens. The absurdity reached its peak with senior officers under trial continuing to work, receiving official salutes from court guards as they entered and exited the dock—a caricature almost too ridiculous to believe.
Since this superficial makeup failed to hide the rot, the same horrors of torture-to-death, police brutality, and street-level bribery have resurfaced. Reports of these events in the press suggest that the revolution has done little to alter this grim reality.
In light of this, it seems the Minister of Interior—who, for the sake of his reputation, should have resigned by now—has decided to enhance appearances slightly with a reshuffle of assignments and retirements. However, this reshuffle fails to align with the critical demands of this tumultuous post-revolutionary phase. The disregard for revolutionary legitimacy is glaring.
To summarize, the Ministry of Interior has completed the final arrangements for a comprehensive reshuffle of police officers, set to be announced within days. This includes retiring some generals, though the fate of certain figures remains unclear. One such individual has had his service extended six times despite surpassing the legal retirement age. In a bizarre twist, this same reshuffle decided to transfer several officers from the dissolved Police Coalition to new locations, after some of them insisted on forcibly retiring all officers loyal to former Minister of Interior Habib el-Adly.
This absurd scenario leaves us questioning who is being rewarded, who is being punished, and for what exactly. It is a bizarre evolution of what was once called ‘reform,’ starting with failed attempts at applying makeup to hide blemishes, and now creeping toward a cosmetic procedure akin to giving lip fillers to a woman suffering from leukaemia.
This article is originally published by AlBorsa in Arabic and later AI-translated by South Push.