Since Mandela's death, talk of his experiment, particularly in post-Apartheid South Africa has bubbled to the surface of Egyptian debate. The main point being made is that Mandela's greatness stems from his ability to forgive and look forward. The thesis then is that everyone should forgive the MB and the MB should forgive everyone. And that this will ultimately be possible when a Mandela-like figure appears on the scene (most likely Baradei is implied here). I believe this is a rather simplistic view of both post-Apartheid South Africa and post 30/6 Egypt.
First of all the Mandela experience as laid out in the Egyptian intelligentsia is not exactly the historical Mandela or the historical South Africa. The narrative given is a hand wavy account of Mandela forgiving his persecutors while at the same time setting up a system for "transitional justice." This perfectly suits the revolutionary mythology built up in Egyptian media over the last three years, namely that there is an international norm and standard to achieve some form of extra judicial justice during transitional periods. Also, that there would be no stability or advancement unless such "transitional justice" is exacted.
In fact what Mandela did was to completely shred any concept of "justice" during the transition. This was done for pragmatic purposes. Mandela realised that justice means so many things to so many people. Justice to the countless Blacks living in townships meant revenge on the White society that for so long subjugated them. Justice for the warlike Inkatha in Natal simply meant independence after so many years of fighting the good fight. Justice to many Whites would be revenge on Mandela's own ANC for very real acts of terror it committed. Trying to extract justice would then be an open invitation to tearing the country apart. Moreover, trying to shake the boat would simply mean that the elite who oiled the machine of the state would suddenly abandon it, leading to a catastrophic breakdown that would worsen the lives of everybody. So Mandela opted instead to symbolic and largely voluntary truth and reconciliation tribunals where truth was shared by all sides, and everyone forgave everyone. A brilliant feat of very noble very immaterial very effective PR.
Let's review what happened in Egypt post January 25th 2011. Rapidly, a narrative was setup by the same people who now cling to the model of Mandela. The narrative was that there would be no moving forward until the regime ancien was held accountable for its crimes. The crimes started out as specific incidents of protestor deaths and rapidly mushroomed and ballooned into hazy accusations of political responsibility for ailments that are as old as the unification under Naarmer. The accused started out as a few leaders and mushroomed into a large network of very legitimate interests that covers millions of people in the Delta and Middle Egypt. The demanded method to achieve said goal started out as criminal courts, and when criminal courts failed to prosecute the nebulous accusations, demand was made for extraordinary tribunals. All along the MB pushed along the concept of the centrality of vengeance, using it as a pretext for purges. Purges that were naturally followed by replacement with MB cadres. The process was steadily approaching the army and was already tearing the judiciary apart.
Somewhere along the way, perhaps through a central intelligence but more likely through a distributed realisation, a recognition was made that this was a road to perdition. And 30/6 happened.
Now all of a sudden the Mandela narrative is surfacing from the same people who talked about "transitional justice" for thirty six long months.
The Mandela model is irrelevant. First its window of opportunity has closed. The Mandela approach should have been taken immediately following the stepping down of Mubarak. Instead the focus turned immediately towards imprisoning him. Second, there is really little one can compare the MB to. The MB is not an ethnic or religious minority as the Whites were in South Africa. Islamists can, in a way, be considered a religious minority. But beyond an initial euphoric spate of teasing bearded men in the street immediately following 30/6, there is no sign that Islamists are being targeted in Egypt just because they are Islamists.
Instead, Egypt has decided to purge a secret Brotherhood whose membership, funds, and activities are all clandestine, and whose loyalties lie clearly outside the borders of the country. One might argue about the methods (and the appropriateness of their violence), the possibility of the purge succeeding, or even if it should be attempted. But one should not argue that we can use the same approach Mandela used to bring the MB into the fold. The MB has demanded nothing and continues to demand nothing in very explicit terms other than ruling Egypt and transforming it according to their cultist aspirations. The MB has no intention on becoming an open organisation, membership will remain secret, its internationalist pan-Islamic strain will remain integral, the sources of its income will remain mysterious, its fascist views on transforming society will remain integral.
I am all for calls to keep the authority in check while it is fighting its fight against the MB. And I think that signs like today's acquittal of hundreds of MB detainees by courts shows that the state apparatus still chooses to remain professional. However, I am completely against any illusion that reconciliation with the MB is desirable or even possible. Reconciliation between Islamists, mainstream Muslims, and Christians is a must. The destruction of the death cult called the MB, as an organisation, is a necessity.
Think of this as Egypt trying to get rid of its very old very disastrous KKK.
First of all the Mandela experience as laid out in the Egyptian intelligentsia is not exactly the historical Mandela or the historical South Africa. The narrative given is a hand wavy account of Mandela forgiving his persecutors while at the same time setting up a system for "transitional justice." This perfectly suits the revolutionary mythology built up in Egyptian media over the last three years, namely that there is an international norm and standard to achieve some form of extra judicial justice during transitional periods. Also, that there would be no stability or advancement unless such "transitional justice" is exacted.
In fact what Mandela did was to completely shred any concept of "justice" during the transition. This was done for pragmatic purposes. Mandela realised that justice means so many things to so many people. Justice to the countless Blacks living in townships meant revenge on the White society that for so long subjugated them. Justice for the warlike Inkatha in Natal simply meant independence after so many years of fighting the good fight. Justice to many Whites would be revenge on Mandela's own ANC for very real acts of terror it committed. Trying to extract justice would then be an open invitation to tearing the country apart. Moreover, trying to shake the boat would simply mean that the elite who oiled the machine of the state would suddenly abandon it, leading to a catastrophic breakdown that would worsen the lives of everybody. So Mandela opted instead to symbolic and largely voluntary truth and reconciliation tribunals where truth was shared by all sides, and everyone forgave everyone. A brilliant feat of very noble very immaterial very effective PR.
Let's review what happened in Egypt post January 25th 2011. Rapidly, a narrative was setup by the same people who now cling to the model of Mandela. The narrative was that there would be no moving forward until the regime ancien was held accountable for its crimes. The crimes started out as specific incidents of protestor deaths and rapidly mushroomed and ballooned into hazy accusations of political responsibility for ailments that are as old as the unification under Naarmer. The accused started out as a few leaders and mushroomed into a large network of very legitimate interests that covers millions of people in the Delta and Middle Egypt. The demanded method to achieve said goal started out as criminal courts, and when criminal courts failed to prosecute the nebulous accusations, demand was made for extraordinary tribunals. All along the MB pushed along the concept of the centrality of vengeance, using it as a pretext for purges. Purges that were naturally followed by replacement with MB cadres. The process was steadily approaching the army and was already tearing the judiciary apart.
Somewhere along the way, perhaps through a central intelligence but more likely through a distributed realisation, a recognition was made that this was a road to perdition. And 30/6 happened.
Now all of a sudden the Mandela narrative is surfacing from the same people who talked about "transitional justice" for thirty six long months.
The Mandela model is irrelevant. First its window of opportunity has closed. The Mandela approach should have been taken immediately following the stepping down of Mubarak. Instead the focus turned immediately towards imprisoning him. Second, there is really little one can compare the MB to. The MB is not an ethnic or religious minority as the Whites were in South Africa. Islamists can, in a way, be considered a religious minority. But beyond an initial euphoric spate of teasing bearded men in the street immediately following 30/6, there is no sign that Islamists are being targeted in Egypt just because they are Islamists.
Instead, Egypt has decided to purge a secret Brotherhood whose membership, funds, and activities are all clandestine, and whose loyalties lie clearly outside the borders of the country. One might argue about the methods (and the appropriateness of their violence), the possibility of the purge succeeding, or even if it should be attempted. But one should not argue that we can use the same approach Mandela used to bring the MB into the fold. The MB has demanded nothing and continues to demand nothing in very explicit terms other than ruling Egypt and transforming it according to their cultist aspirations. The MB has no intention on becoming an open organisation, membership will remain secret, its internationalist pan-Islamic strain will remain integral, the sources of its income will remain mysterious, its fascist views on transforming society will remain integral.
I am all for calls to keep the authority in check while it is fighting its fight against the MB. And I think that signs like today's acquittal of hundreds of MB detainees by courts shows that the state apparatus still chooses to remain professional. However, I am completely against any illusion that reconciliation with the MB is desirable or even possible. Reconciliation between Islamists, mainstream Muslims, and Christians is a must. The destruction of the death cult called the MB, as an organisation, is a necessity.
Think of this as Egypt trying to get rid of its very old very disastrous KKK.
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