The City of the Dead in Cairo is an ancient graveyard that
for decades has been home not only to the dearly departed interred there, but
for their relatives as well. The mausoleums not only house the dead, but one
million family members who are some of the most marginalized people in Cairo.
It is not unusual for generations of family members to be undocumented- without
birth certificates or identity papers. Many never attend a school. To the
government, these people are not only dead- they never existed in the first
place.
In the run up to the first election since the military coup overthrew
the Morsi government, Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has made no
electoral promises and guaranteed only one thing- that the going will be more
difficult for Egyptians in the coming years.
In Cairo the pictures of Sisi are everywhere-from the shops
in old Islamic Cairo, to the bridges over the highway, to the buildings
downtown, they are plastered on taxis, donkey carts, and Mercedes automobiles.
The slogans range from “Egypt is my mother and Sisi is my father” to “The Lord Jesus
invites you to vote for Sisi in order to bring to an end the Muslim Brotherhood”,
(when churches burn it may be important to remember this one).
It was most disheartening to see banners hanging high above
Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the revolution. The place where Egyptians of
every sort gathered and talked about change and what they hoped for their kids
in the new Egypt- the Egypt they were imagining together. An Egypt free of the Mubarak
regime and their cronies, free of the corrupt business elite, and free of the
military’s influence over the government. Tahrir Square, whitewashed and
sanitized like all the massacre sites around Cairo, holds no hint of the young
people who gave their lives for their country and their dreams. They too never
existed. In the center of the square sits a monument to the martyrs erected by
the hypocritical coup government, defaced the day it was unveiled, today a tombstone
for the revolution. All of Cairo is a graveyard, a new City of the Dead and
Sisi’s visage looks down on it all.
Outside several polling stations around the pro-military Abassaya
neighborhood the atmosphere was festive and the cult of personality that
surrounds Sisi was in full bloom. The young men and women who spearheaded the
revolution were visibly absent. Parents and grandparents, with children in tow,
danced and waved flags, holding up their hands with the now ubiquitous dyed
finger. They wore t-shirts emblazoned with portraits of Sisi, and sang along to
the blaring sound systems and the honking horns. They posed for photos with
policeman and soldiers—some of them undoubtedly responsible for the murders of
their countrymen at Mohamed Mahmoud St, Abassaya Square, Tahrir and Rabaa and they
voted for the man who orchestrated their deaths. The chants of “Down with SCAF”
and “No to Military Rule” echoed deep in my heart, but the voices that raised
this cry in the streets of Cairo and throughout Egypt have been murdered,
imprisoned, or silenced with threats.
Early returns show Sisi winning the election against his
only opponent, Hamdeen Sabbahi with 90% of the vote. Not one poster of Sabbahi
adorns any walls in Cairo. He is invisible too. You see he lives in the new City
of the Dead.
The turn out on Monday was so low Tuesday was declared a
national holiday in order to get the vote out, when that failed, voting was
extended for an additional day. The news anchors of the state sponsored news
channels, some with tears in their eyes, implored people to vote. 50% of the
electorate turned out to vote in the real elections- the elected government
Sisi overthrew. Preliminary counts of voter turnout on Monday show an anemic
turnout of 6.5%. It will be difficult to claim a mandate of the people or even
a legitimate election if this number doesn’t improve. As I sit writing this,
pictures of empty polling stations around the country are crossing my newsfeed.
Trucks circle the neighborhood with sound systems cranked up, exhorting people
to vote. The City Stars Mall, the largest mall in Cairo has been closed and
people are being told to leave and go vote.
This will not deter the Western election observers from
declaring a “clean” election. This will not deter Obama from declaring Sisi the
legitimate leader of Egypt and renewing the military cooperation that never really
ended in the first place- just last month the U.S. delivered 10 Apache attack
helicopters to the coup government- they will be used against the Egyptian
people living in the Sinai. No US Congressperson will raise their indignant
voice to remind the American people that Sisi, like Saddam and Gaddafi and
Assad, has killed his own people and should be removed from power. Sen. John
McCain will not stand with the protesters demanding the ouster of Sisi. Asst.
Secretary of State Nuland will not be delivering cookies.
Protests have been banned and the crackdown has been harsh- estimates
vary widely as to those detained. Wiki Thawra announced that 41,000 people have
been detained, many without trials, or sham trails- some courts sentencing
hundreds to death in a matter of minutes. Included in the arrests are (mostly
local) journalists attempting to alert the world to the situation in Egypt. Most
of the major Western media outlets have disappeared--- the aftermath of the
coup is a lot less photogenic than the spectacle of the “Arab Spring”. Independent
journalists are under threat, and largely absent. On Friday three
anti-government protestors were killed and dozens injured and arrested in
protests around the country (which went unreported in western media) by a police/military
force that has killed thousands of citizens with immunity since the coup in
July 2013.
So it will be back to business as usual in Egypt. The
election will be hailed as a democratic success. The average Egyptian will
continue to suffer with a lack of food, poor sanitation, poor infrastructure, terrible
schools, and decrepit hospitals. Government employees, doctors, nurses, and
teachers will continue to receive a pittance for their labor. Others will
scramble to survive. The crackdown will persist. Thousands will remain in detention
and more will die. Sisi will move into the palace. Exchanging his uniform for a
business suit, he will take Mubarak’s place at the trough.
The revolution, once the hope of tens of millions of ordinary
Egyptians and people throughout the world, is buried. But those who live in the
new City of the Dead exist and they will not remain invisible forever.
