>For the last time, Egypt is not like Spore

>Introduction -

As the days go by, I note that there is an increase interest among Singaporeans in the internet world, on the topic of the demos in Egypt. There are still many who feel that we should also “stand up” against our tyrannical govt, the way the Egyptians are doing. I find the comparison of Egypt’s situation to Spore’s off the mark.

In my last post on this topic, Singapore political scene is nowhere near Egypt’s, I mentioned that the Egyptians are not just asking for the ouster of Mubarak. They are also asking for the removal of foreign interference (in particular the US) and the return to a more Islamic friendly governance.

That is certainly not what these cyber Singaporeans would be asking here. Removal of PAPpy govt, yes. Non-interference from foreign countries, perhaps. A move towards Islamic governance? Is that what these cybernetters are asking for?

US backed govt corruption the trigger, Islamic govt the “silver bullet” -

That’s about sums up what the Egyptians have in mind. While the US backed govt is corrupted, and that’s what triggered the protests, it is the belief that an Islamic governance would end all that. Suddenly, for the first time in 30 years, all parties who have been supporting the corrupt US Lackey Mubarak Regime are worried. That includes the US and Israel of course.

The biggest opposition influence in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood. This organisation is banned in Egypt and as such, the Muslim Brotherhood cannot form a political party to contest elections. But that has been circumvented easily. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood stand as independent candidates – and they have been doing quite well, considering the oppressive Mubarak Regime. See link below.

The Muslim Brotherhood: Who Are They?

The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in Egypt, and members have been arrested for their participation in it. As a means of circumventing the ban, supporters run for office as independents. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, the Brotherhood’s candidates (who ran as Independents) won 88 seats (20 percent of the total) to form the largest opposition bloc.

20 percent may seem small (but definitely better than Singapore). But this is under an oppressive regime. If the Mubarak Regime goes, these same candidates won’t be standing as independents but under the Muslim Brotherhood banner. It can be easily concluded that MB would be forming a majority voice, if true fair elections are held today.

What is worrying to US and Israel, is that MB does not just operate in Egypt. Its influence covers the region. Continued from the same link above…

The Brotherhood is a movement, not a political party, but members have created political parties in several countries, such as the Islamic Action Front in Jordan and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank.

In Bahrain, the Muslim Brotherhood is represented by the Al Eslah Society and its political wing, the Al-Menbar Islamic Society. Following parliamentary elections in 2002, Al Menbar became the joint largest party with eight seats in the 40-seat Chamber of Deputies.

The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood was formed in 1942 and is a strong factor in Jordanian politics. The Jordanian Brotherhood has formed its own political party, the Islamic Action Front, which has the largest number of seats of any party in the Jordanian parliament.

Although Iran is a predominately Shia country and the Muslim Brotherhood is Sunni in doctrine, Olga Davidson and Mohammad Mahallati claim the Brotherhood has had influence among Shia in Iran.

In the north of Iraq there are several Islamic movements inspired by or part of the Muslim Brotherhood network. The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) holds seats in the Kurdish parliament and is the main political force outside the dominance of the two main secularist parties, the PUK and KDP.

The Brotherhood has been tolerated by the Saudi government, and maintains a presence in the country. The Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait is represented in the Kuwaiti parliament by Hadas. Always close to Egyptian politics, Sudan has had a Muslim Brotherhood presence since 1949. Somalia’s wing of the Muslim Brotherhood is known by the name Harakat Al-Islah or “Reform Movement” and has inspired many Islamist organizations in Somalia.

Like their counterparts elsewhere in the Islamic world in general, the Muslim Brotherhood has influenced the Tunisia’s Islamists. Many believe that the Muslim Brotherhood was the fermenting cause of the revolution in Tunisia that recently overthrew the government.

The international media have been reporting on remarks by Yemeni cleric Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, in which he raised suspicions that the United States intends to send troops to seize Yemen’s oil resources and strategic Red Sea and Gulf of Aden coastlines if Yemen’s government collapses. The United States has accused the sheikh of having ties to al Qaeda, but Yemen’s government has openly allied with him in the past and still courts his support. But what media reports have failed to mention is Zindani’s role as leader of the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood or the Brotherhood’s role in Yemen’s recent uprising.

The Brotherhood has also been strengthened by the large number of Libyan students who became members or supporters of the Brotherhood while studying abroad in the United Kingdom and the United States, and have returned home to spread its ideology.

Since 1982, the Brotherhood has ceased to be an active political force inside Syria, but it retains a network of support in the country, of unknown strength, and has external headquarters in London and Cyprus. The leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood is Ali Sadreddine Bayanouni, who lives as a political refugee in London. Membership in the Syrian Brotherhood became a capital offense in Syria in the 1980s, and remains so, but the headquarters of the MB-linked Palestinian group Hamas is located in Syria’s capital of Damascus, where it is given Syrian government support.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Israel is divided between the southern and northern branches. The southern branch is represented in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, while the northern radical branch boycotts Israeli elections.

Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, was allowed to participate in the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) 2006 election, and in 2007 they claimed Gaza for themselves and threw out the PA from Gaza. The Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007 was the first time, since the Sudanese coup of 1989 that brought Omar al-Bashir to power, that a Muslim Brotherhood group ruled a significant geographic territory.

Is Gaza a foreshadowing of what’s to come for Egypt and perhaps other countries in the Middle East?

The Muslim Brotherhood is currently playing an active role in the unrest in several Arab countries. Hammam Saeed, head of the Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan and a close ally of the Hamas’s Damascus-based leader, Khaled Meshaal, recently said, “Egypt’s unrest will spread across the Mideast, and Arabs will topple leaders allied with the United States.”

It is not an understatement that the Muslim Brotherhood is a force to be reckoned with. It is about the only Muslim organisation in the world that is able to hold influence on both the Mid Eastern and African Muslims at the same time. And its influence is growing not just in numbers, but in intensity as well.

To the people of Egypt, corruption from the US backed lackey govt of Mubarak is the trigger that set them out in the streets to protest. The remedy to that widespread disease, which is corruption, is the return of political Islam to purge those corrupted puppets.

Get the picture now?

Conclusion -

I don’t think Singapore cybernetters truly understand what the Egyptians really want. Stop using Egypt as “an example” for us to note to have the PAP replaced. You may be asking for much more than you realise – unless you’re asking that political Islam replace all the corrupt leaders in Spore, Msia and Indonesia.

Is that what you are asking Singpaoreans to support? If not, stop using the Egypt example.

>Singapore political scene is nowhere near Egypt’s

>Introduction -

I note that some bloggers in Singapore are “encouraged” with the demonstration (and mayhem including violence – isn’t that sadistic?) that’s happening in Egypt, and alluding the political situation to Singapore. It seems that they are saying that if Egyptians can demonstrate against a tyrannical government, so can we.

I am not going into the what and whys of the reason of Egypt’s political mayhem. I am just going straight to the elephant in the room that everyone misses, or at least, pretends that doesn’t exist – ie Egyptians are effectively moving towards Islamic governance, and that’s just tip of the iceberg because the rest of the iceberg is about the whole scene in the region, not just Egypt.

Do you really wanna “Walk Like an Egyptian”?

Before Singaporeans walk and talk like an Egyptian, let’s see what the Egyptians are asking for, on top of Mubarak’s ouster.

1. It must be remembered that the biggest opposition party that is asking for Mubarak’s ouster is the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s the organisation that was banned under Mubarak’s regime. Needless to say, the name of the organisation tells you about its ideals.

2. Non-interference from foreign governments, in particular, the US. Ah, isn’t that what Singapore bloggers who are asking for Human Rights and what not, is being detested in Egypt?

3. Closer alliance with neigbouring nations (Muslim ones of course, what did you expect?), and the distancing of ties with Israel. So is that what Singapore bloggers also want?

Egypt, a small wave of a big (Islamic) tsunami -

Those who are old enough to remember the wave of “Western Democracy” sweeping the Eastern Communist Bloc in Europe in the late 1980s will feel a sense of deja vu. Is not a wave of Islamic resurgence occurring in the Mid East region, sweeping away pro-Western ideals?

Oh, I forgot that the Mainstream Media censors such news. Or they play those kind of news down at least. So if you haven’t already noticed the Islamic wave, you can be excused. Here are the bare facts.

- Turkey, the most secular Muslim country in the world, has become more Islamic. This did not happen yesterday. In fact, it happened some years ago.

- Gazans have elected Hamas as their govt over US backed Abbas.

- Hezbollah, the organisation that whacked Israel’s armour division in the 2006 war, is now a majority government voice in the Lebanese govt. Before that, it only held a minority voice.

- Tunisians ousted a US-backed govt for a more Islamic friendly govt.

- Other Arab nations are also “waiting” by the sidelines for the right time to “oust” US backed lackey govts in their respective countries.

- Iraq, the most secular nation in the Arab world before Bush invaded the country, is now divided along religious lines. The most influential happens to be the Shias – and they are set to follow Iran’s style of governance.

- Afghans, although wrecked and torn by war, are still high in spirits. The Taliban is holding onto many small towns and they are the “shadow govt” that even the US and NATO can’t seem to erase.

Other political implications -

Egypt has long been an ally of the US. It also has a formidable military force which even Israel is afraid of. The Yom Kippur War showed that Israel cannot even match Egypt’s war tactics and machinery. And that war occurred BEFORE the Americans supplied Egypt with sophisticated weaponry!

Egypt, being America’s ally, has for the last 30 years been buying the latest military equipment from the US which can match Israel’s war machine. All that would be in the hands of a more Islamic govt, if the Mubarak Regime goes. If there is any Arab nation that is able to “wipe Israel off the map”, it is Egypt.

Oh, btw, the gas supply terminal in Egypt’s Sinai, that supplies Israel 40% of its energy needs, has been sabotaged. Israel has now about a year’s fuel supply before it starts to…..

That is an indication what these Egyptians think of Israel. Talking about Malaysia cutting off our water supply.

Egypt also shares border with Gaza. Under Mubarak, who is a lackey of US, Gazans were under siege, when Israel ordered him to close Egypt’s border with Gaza. Under a more Islamic friendly govt, you can expect that border to be opened. Not only that, you can also expect Hamas to have more sophisticated weapons (courtesy of the new Egypt, if Mubarak falls) to counter Israel’s incessant inhuman strike against Palestinians.

That would certainly change the political scene between Israel and the Palestinians, won’t it?

Egypt, if turns to be more Islamic, would set a as “motivator” to other Arab nations (ya, ya, I know some fellas would say Egypt is more African than Arab, but so what? I am talking political scenario, not geography here) to follow suit – ie call for the ouster of US lackeys to be replaced with more Islamic friendly ones.

Final Call – so do you really wanna walk like an Egyptian? -

So now you know the real scene behind all the put up scenes by the Mass Media, do you really want to ask for what the Egyptians are asking?

The mass media always hides the facts. It tries to portray that the Egyptians want “democracy” (Western style of course). What they hide is that Egyptians truly want democracy – a govt that is not backed by the US, and more aligned towards the other Arab nations, as well as more Islamic friendly.

Democracy is what the people want, not what the US wants for the people. If it is what US wants for the people, it is called “democrazy”.

So all you Singapore bloggers who have been asking Singaporeans to walk like an Egyptian, do you really understand what the Egyptians are asking for?

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Update – Related Link
For the last time, Egypt is not like Spore