Egyptian Opposition Is Divided on Protests

More than a week after street demonstrators helped oust Tunisia’s autocratic leaders, some opposition groups in nearby Egypt are hoping to exploit Tunisia’s momentum to agitate for political and economic reforms.

Activists from Egypt’s Kifaya (“Enough”) movement—a coalition of regime opponents—and the 6th of April Youth Movement, have organized protests over Facebook and Twitter to push for economic improvements and to demand wider political freedoms.

But the runup to Tuesday’s planned protests in Cairo and other cities also reminds Egyptians that while popular anger against the government runs deep, the regime’s opponents remain divided by ideology and methodology. Several of the more established opposition leaders have announced they either won’t participate in the nationwide demonstrations or will refrain from mobilizing their members.

“Huge participation, with all of our power, will lead to chaos and we don’t want that; we’re trying to avoid it,” said Sobhi Saleh, a former member of the parliamentary bloc of the Muslim Brotherhood, an officially outlawed Islamist group that is Egypt’s most powerful opposition force. “When the situation is ready for that—and it is not now—we will participate.”

The Brotherhood’s leadership has said that while individual members will turn out for the march, the organization stopped short of calling out its full numbers onto the street.

Mohammed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a popular pro-democracy campaigner, has said that while he supports the protests, he won’t be taking part. Even the tiny but vocal left-wing El Tagammu Party has declined to rally its membership.

Yet for many opposition champions, the moment is ripe for change. Since the Tunisian revolution on Jan. 14, at least five Egyptians have attempted suicide by self-immolation in imitation of the young Tunisian whose burning-death in December first galvanized protesters.

Many Egyptians are still furious after police officers allegedly beat a young man to death last summer in Alexandria, sparking months of small but regular protests. It’s no accident that the protest is scheduled for Jan. 25, or Police Day, which celebrates a police-led insurrection against British colonialists in 1952. The national holiday has drawn anti-police protesters for the past several years.

More recently, reports of the extent of the fraud in November’s parliamentary elections shocked even some jaded Egyptians. Meanwhile, a bombing at an Alexandria church on New Year’s Day that killed at least 21 people shook Egyptians’ confidence that their leaders can maintain internal stability.

Given that presidential elections are several months away, the lack of enthusiasm for protests among Egypt’s most senior opposition leaders has left protest organizers crestfallen and confused.

“After the parliamentary elections and the Tunisian movements, any opposition that refrains from participating in movements in the street will be putting a black mark on their own histories,” said Mohammed Abdel Aziz, a member of the coordinating body within the Kifaya movement and a former member of the 6th of April Youth Movement. Mr. Abdel Aziz said he understands the Brotherhood’s aim to preserve stability and work for gradual political change.

Perhaps some in Egypt’s opposition feel left behind by the movement’s younger faces, some of whom expect to do instantly what the veteran opponents failed to achieve over decades spent resisting Egypt’s ruling regime.

Mr. Saleh said in an interview Monday in Al Dustour newspaper that allowing the likes of Kifaya, which was established six years ago, and the 6th of April Youth Movement, to call the Brotherhood to protest would be like “an ant leading an elephant.”

Other opposition leaders explained their hesitancy to follow the new leaders.

“First of all, we are not working as workers before any person. If any person wants to have a political action, he should consult with us,” said Rifaat El Said, the chairman of the leftist El Tagammu Party. “We are not just waiting for any boy or any group of boys… to just arrange anything and we should just jump to follow them.”

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