Arab Spring is ‘a myth’, says former Egyptian politician
(Vatican Radio) As Egyptian troops were deployed in the streets of Suez Saturday morning,
a former member of Hosni Mubarak’s political party said the Arab Spring is “a myth”
and the situation in Egypt is worse now than it was before the uprising two years
ago.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are demonstrating against oppression
and asking for freedom and democracy again,” said Hossam Badrawi in an interview Vatican
Radio. The former secretary-general of Mubarak's National Democratic Party was in
Rome for a series of conferences at the Centro Euro-Arabo.
His comments came
as news media on Saturday reported the deaths of eight protesters and one soldier
in clashes in Egypt’s urban centres. About 450 people are also reported to have been
injured. Current President Mohammed Morsi appealed for calm as clashes between demonstrators
and police in central Cairo continued into the early hours of Saturday.
Badrawi
said the 2011 revolution generated great hope, but the general climate now is one
of disappointment.
He lamented the erosion of human rights in the country,
with the marginalization of the Christian Copts, the increase in requests to marry
minor girls—with proponents claiming that laws preventing marriage before the age
of 16 are not Islamic—as well as the practice of female circumcision.
“Religion
has nothing to do with (the marriage of minors). It is common sense and human rights,”
Badrawi said. “We’ve been fighting for years for the rights of women. It does not
make sense that after a revolution led by young, inspiring people, … that we end (by)
reducing women’s rights, marginalizing the Copts and creating a religious state.”
A
reformist, Badrawi was called for six daysinto Egypt’s ruling chambers. He
met face-to-face with Mubarak to ask him to step down and leave the country in order
to start a democratic process. He said he convinced Mubarak by recalling the fate
of Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu.
Badrawi observed that when revolutions happen
without clear leadership, a country usually falls into the hands of the organized
minority and ends up in a state worse than it was prior to the revolution.
He
concluded saying the future of Egypt depends on the energy of the young people and
their desire for change.
Listen to Luca Attanasio’s full interview with
Hossam Badrawi: