For hundreds of years political philosophers have played around with different concepts of government even as there appears to be a unanimity of scholarly opinion that democracy ranks as one of the finest forms of government because of a combination of factors including but not limited to the fact that the opinion of the majority carries the day just as the interest of the minority is also protected.
Political historians attribute the emergence of the concept of democracy to the dominant practice of civil administration that characterized ancient Greece and the political concept of democracy was popularized through various scholarly documentations that were made by some original thinkers and persons revered and regarded as fathers of philosophy such as Plato, Socrates among many other Ancient philosophers.
Although these earliest thinkers believed and indeed wrote voluminous intellectual texts to demonstrate the overwhelming utilitarian value of democracy far and above all other forms of government such as Authoritarianism; monarchy, and dictatorship but democracy did not become the dominant world player as the most popularly accepted form of government not until the world witnessed two devastating global wide conflagrations known as world war one and world war two which cause an unquantifiable human and material calamity.
The end of the second world war resulted in the formation of the United Nations which in 1948 undertook the introduction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] which contain some of the finest provisions on how best each nation of the global village ought to respect the fundamental human rights of her citizens so as to promote egalitarianism and development of the human race. The human rights are fundamental because they are inalienable, inviolable and universal.
In the preamble to the universal Declaration of human rights, the framers let us know that recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, Justice and Peace in the World.
However, there are several political developments that have contradicted and violated these provisions encompassed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights even as most countries that profess democracy as the best form of government have often failed to pragmatically bring into effect the implementation of these provisions that safeguard the human rights of their citizens.
In the last few months, Egypt has made news for the very reason that twice the population revolted openly and changed an authoritarian government headed by the retired Air force General Hosni Mubarak and conducted a general election in which about 14 million returned Mr. Mohammed Morsi of the Moslem brotherhood as the President of Egypt. A year after, nearly 18 million ordinary Egyptians again revolted demanding the resignation of Mohammed Morsi for turning what out to be a democracy to another autocracy. But the then President failed to heed the voice of the people and when the unity of Egypt was under imminent threat of disintegration, the military which sees itself as the traditional custodians of the territorial integrity of Egypt struck and removed Mr. Mohammed Morsi on July 3rd 2013.
Contemporary political historians claimed that the military’s move against Mohammed Morsi followed four days of mass anti-government protests and Mr. Morsi’s rejection of an army ultimatum to resolve Egypt’s worst political crisis since Hosni Mubarak was deposed in 2011.
Historians recalled that after almost two months in detention at a secret location, state prosecutors announced on 1 September that Mr. Morsi would stand trial for inciting murder and violence. Morsi like his predecessor Mr. Mubarak has descended from presidency to prison and the situation is a perfect demonstration of the fact that political power is transient.
The charge reportedly relates to the deaths of at least seven people during clashes between opposition protesters and Muslim Brotherhood supporters outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012.
Mr. Morsi went on trial alongside 14 senior Brotherhood figures, on 4 November 2013.
The deposed president is also under investigation over his escape from prison during the uprising that forced Mr Mubarak from power, including that he conspired with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, so says media experts with considerable knowledge of Egypt.
When he came to power in June 2012 after a narrow election victory Mr Morsi promised to head a government “for all Egyptians”, but critics complained he failed to deliver during his turbulent year in office, so say historians.
They accused him of allowing Islamists to monopolise the political scene, concentrating power in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement to which he belongs. It got to a point that the religious minorities like the Coptic Christians were afraid to worship freely in Egypt because of the overzealous activities of Moslem fundamentalists who got official cover from the Mohammed Morsi-led Moslem Brotherhood administration.
Moreover, critics said Mohammed Morsi’s government mishandled the economy and failed to deal with the very issues that led to the uprising that brought him to power: calls for rights and social justice. Majority of those who clamored for his ousting were young women and youth cut off from the mainstream of politics and the economy.
Media historians’ reports that public opposition to deposed President Morsi began building in November 2012 when, wishing to ensure that the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly could finish drafting the country’s new constitution, the president issued a decree granting himself far-reaching powers to the consternation of such entrenched power blocs like the military.
One among the major fault lines of the deposed Mohammed Morsi-led presidency was that he curtailed the basic freedoms of worship of the Coptic Christians who are now the minorities.
Morsi’s administration was also accused of attempting to inaugurate a theocracy in a country well known as the bastion/cradle of civilization whereby secularism and freedom of worship were respected.
The Coptic Christians of Egypt came under considerable attacks by loyalists of the Moslem brotherhood and these series of attacks made people to ask question regarding the capacity of the American trained doctorate degree holder Mr. Mohammed Morsi to govern Egypt and lead it into becoming a respectable democracy and a voice for freedom and human rights.
But why will anyone in Egypt seek to drive away the Coptic Christians when historically they are traditionally Egyptians?
A quick dash through the website of www.touregypt.net shows how original the Coptic Christians are Egyptians and these facts would then lead one to ask why the vicious religious-motivated violent attacks staged against them by members of the Moslem brotherhood.
From the scholarly website aforementioned, the fundamental fact that is self evident is that the word Copt is an English word taken from the Arabic word Gibt or Gypt. It literally means Egyptian.
While this writer is not in any way an apologist of military overthrow of political power, but there are few facts to show that what happened in Egypt which resulted in the removal of President Mohammed Morsi may not qualify purely as a military overthrow since an overwhelming number of the ordinary people wanted him out and the man appointed as interim head of government to Supervise another election is the civilian chief justice of Egypt – Adly Mansour.
Or is the voice of the people no longer the voice of God?
The challenge before the interim administration in Egypt is to ensure that the deposed President Mr. Mohammed Morsi and his staunch members in the deposed Moslem brotherhood-led administration are accorded their due legal rights and are not witch hunted.
The interim government in Egypt and the military backing it must realize and accept the fact that Egypt cannot exist in isolation and as a member of the United Nation which subscribes to the Universal Declaration of human rights, Mr. Morsi and other political detainees must be given fair trial because Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provide thus; “Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.”
Again, the interim government in Egypt must rapidly put structures on ground to conduct a free, fair, peaceful and transparent election to usher in a fully democratic government that will use all extant legal frameworks to promote and protect the fundamental rights of all Egyptians to practice their religions without let and/or hindrance.
The World waits for Egypt to reclaim its pride of place as the cradle of modern civilization just as the economy of Egypt can no longer be consistently stifled by insecurity because Egypt thrives on tourism and tourists can only visit when there is peace and tranquility.
* Emmanuel Onwubiko; Head, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA; blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com; www.huriwa.org.
