Military takeover in Egypt is reminder that the country is essentially military

By Barrack Muluka

If the military is not with you, you will not ascend to power. It is not what the ballot box says that matters. It is what the military wants

Our people say that the rabbit smiled at the salt that would cook it. Had he known that he was about to cook, he possibly would have thought twice before smiling. The Egyptian rabbit is smiling. It is kissing the salt that is a military coup in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria. If only this rabbit knew how to look into the seeds of time! Africa has previously celebrated dozens military chaos only to come to rue.

 The mob and the army eventually overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected President. Mohamed Morsi was bundled out on Wednesday. Cry the beloved country. Egypt will have to go through worse times before it can know better. The coup has been in the offing since November.

Then the military accused Morsi of usurping extra-legal powers. They also accused him of trying to install Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia. It was always a matter of time. The guillotine would descend, sooner or later.

The military takeover in Egypt is rich in lessons. First is the reminder that the African State is essentially military. This is regardless of the guise. Either the military sponsors it, or it takes direct charge. The civilian African Head of State reigns as the protégée of the military. They install him and instruct him. It does not matter that the country goes through the recurrent farce of a Western style democratic election.

In Algeria, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Togo, Mali, Madagascar, Wherever – the story is the same. If the military is not with you, you will not ascend to power. It is not what the ballot box says that matters. It is what the military wants. Africa’s so-called electoral commissions, law courts and other civilian institutions of justice are in the end caricatures. They do what the men in uniform want when it comes to determining matters of State power.

Once installed, you become the most dignified errand boy. You do what you are told. If you think that you have some powers of your own, you are in for a rude shock. This is what Morsi ignored. He thought that he was the President of Egypt.

Put together with the fact that the mob has been understandably impatient for change, everything else played up very well towards his deposition. The Egyptian military is of course disguising itself behind an interim President, Chief Justice Adly al-Mansour.

At the time of filing this column, the African Union (AU) is expected to organise itself to express concern, if not to condemn the military takeover. This is the second lesson from Cairo. AU Member Heads of State recognise the military coup de tat in Cairo for what it is. Our civilian Heads of State are very wary of the return of the overt military State. What they do not acknowledge, however, is that they themselves reign not because they are good leaders, or that the citizens want them, but because those who command the military want them. The African State serves not, therefore, the interests of the country, but the interests of the commanders.

Uganda, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Togo, Equatorial Guinea, Burkina Faso and Rwanda are some of the best examples of the least disguised of the military dispensation in Africa today. The military men simply metamorphosed into “civilians” and continued to do what they were doing, in a new guise.  In Uganda, the army can even burst into the law courts, stop court proceedings and take away some of the litigants.

It unapologetically locks them up in jail without trial. The laws of that country do not allow for this. But then who said the African military is subject to the law? In Zimbabwe and elsewhere, top soldiers instruct electoral commission officials what numbers to announce in a presidential poll. Sometimes they are instructed to only declare the winner, without any numbers.  In Kampala, they are today locked up in a military class struggle for the presidential succession.

The third lesson from Cairo is about the hypocrisy of the Western nations and their so-called democracy. From the very outset, they were wary of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood Movement. The West has been alarmed at the Sharia-based Constitution that Morsi has been trying to impose. The coup must come as great relief to Western capitals, regarding what they see as Islamic fundamentalism.

But of course this goes against their mantra of democracy. Expect them to make some passing feeble sounds about “democracy” and “rule of law” in the next few days. This should, however, die out. It did in Algeria, in the wake of a most shameless abortion of the democratic process in 1992.

The West was afraid of the impending unassailable victory by the Islamic Salvation Front. The ensuing chaos and bloodletting was preferable.

Back to the people of Egypt, it is unlikely that they are anywhere near the glory they dream of. Expect the Brotherhood to dig in and fight back. Already, the military are stoking the fires. They have arrested Morsi and issued arrest warrants for several hundreds more. In the eyes of his supporters, Morsi will rise to the status of a martyr.

This is especially if the military should persist in bringing up laughable charges against him. They have been rummaging around for something and have already found two possible charges. One is that Morsi escaped from jail during the uprising that overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak. The other one is that he insulted the judiciary. The second charge is to be preferred by the judiciary, whose former head is now the interim President.

Expect to see a lot of witch hunting in Cairo in the coming months and more unrest. Expect to see more street protests and faction riots and fights. Expect to see the military lose patience with the protesters. The kissing of soldiers by civilians in the streets of Cairo is unlikely to be more than a short-lived honeymoon.

To paraphrase former US President Ronald Reagan, Cairo ain’t seen nothing yet. Yes, the rabbit smiled at the salt that would stew it.