After taking over from President Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian military spent its first month in power trying to juggle competing political demands, quell labor unrest and defuse religious clashes—all while using minimal force.
Unprepared for the monumental task of governing the Arab world’s largest country, Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces so far hasn’t shown any sign it intends to cling to power permanently.
Instead, the Egyptian generals are pressing for an accelerated transfer to civilian rule, dismissing concerns that such a speedy transition would empower the previously outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and remnants of the old regime.
The military has already called a referendum on a slew of constitutional amendments for Sunday, and parliamentary elections in June. A presidential election two months later is set to usher in the country’s first civilian president, with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and former International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei seen as the two top contenders.
“The military has discovered that now they have to satisfy everybody, listen to everybody, deal with everybody. That’s something that the military is not accustomed to,” explains retired Maj. Gen. Mohamed Kadry Said, military adviser at the government-funded Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. In this transition, the military “focuses on time rather than quality,” he says. “They feel that if the plan takes one or two years, it would become hell for them.”
The rush to quick parliamentary elections is a boon for the Muslim Brotherhood, which said it won’t field a presidential candidate but is well positioned for parliament races because of its well-organized nationwide network of branches and a long experience contesting elections, something that rival political movements lack.
Recognizing the Brotherhood’s strength, the military in recent weeks has reached out to placate the Islamist organization, treating it as a legitimate political force. The Brotherhood, while pledging nonviolence, seeks to eventually establish an Islamic state, and opposes the peace treaty with Israel.
Most of the ruling generals “think that the Brotherhood was the driving force behind [the revolution], even though this is not true, and continue to disregard what other political forces are saying,” complains Shadi Al Ghazali Harb, a prominent youth protest leader who supports Mr. ElBaradei. “They’re giving the Brotherhood much more credit than they deserve.”
The Supreme Council named a Brotherhood leader to a commission that drafted the constitutional amendments that will be voted on Sunday, and appointed a judge seen as close to the Islamists to head that body. The proposed amendments angered secular activists by implying that only a man can serve as president.
“The Muslim Brotherhood are Egyptian people. They have the same rights and duties as other Egyptians. Why draw a distinction between people?” Maj. Gen. Mohamed al-Assar, one of the senior members of the Supreme Council, told a popular Egyptian TV talk show host when asked whether the military still views the Brotherhood as an enemy of the state.
The Supreme Council didn’t respond to requests for interviews or comment.
While most pillars of the Egyptian state collapsed during last month’s revolution, The military as an institution enjoys widespread admiration among ordinary Egyptians—in part because it refused to fire on protesters during last month’s uprising, nudging Mr. Mubarak from power. One of the iconic images of that revolution was Maj. Gen. Mohsen al Fangari smartly saluting the uprising’s “martyrs” as he appeared on behalf of the Supreme Council on state TV.
“They want their country to get up on its feet and Egypt to become a country that it could be,” says Paul Sullivan, a professor who has taught scores of Egyptian colonels and generals at the National Defense University in Washington.
Since Mr. Mubarak’s downfall Feb. 11, however,the military has repeatedly yielded to protester demands, installing a new prime minister chosen by the pro-democracy demonstrators and standing by as protest activists overran the offices of the State Security domestic spy agency, removing secret files and posting them on Facebook.
“There has been a breakdown in state authority—and the military has had a hard time re-establishing it because it has essentially taken the use of force off the table,” says Steven A. Cook, an expert on the Egyptian military at the Council on Foreign Relations.”It’s been a slippery slope — and the question is where do the red lines stop for them.”
The military’s 75-year-old leader, Defense Minister Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi, has long faithfully served Mr. Mubarak, and is widely seen as a holdover of his regime. Though many younger, American-trained generals on the Supreme Council are considered by diplomats as more dynamic and forward-looking, in Egypt’s rigidly hierarchical system it is Marshal Tantawi who ultimately calls the shots.”This is a plodding, unimaginative, too cautious officer — like Mubarak, but without 30 years of political experience,” says Mr. Cook.
Naguib Sawiris, the telecommunications magnate who backed the revolution and repeatedly met with the country’s military leaders, says he is concerned that the army may be overwhelmedby the fast unfolding events, and become the next target of revolutionary fury if it doesn’t play its cards right.
“Now the biggest danger is that the army may also be dismantled,” he says.
Once a bloated giant, the Egyptian military has become a leaner, more professional force in recent years, in part because of the close ties it has built with the U.S. , receiving $1.3 billion a year in American aid. The Egyptian Army numbers only some 320,000 men — much smaller than the civilian police forces it’s been replacing since late January.
In recent days, the military has tried to reassert its authority by removing the camp of die-hard protesters on Cairo’s Tahrir’s square, and by briefly detaining scores of activists, prompting complaints about beatings and torture from human-rights groups. Though the curfew that’s in place during the night is enforced haphazardly, the military police has arrested scores of suspected criminals on the streets, imprisoning them after speedy military trials.