The Egyptian people have once again driven the military to assume power for the second time in less than two and a half years. Will the military be able to facilitate Egypt's transition to democracy and prosperity as those who have revolted against president Mohammed Morsi earnestly desire?
Well, they may find themselves once again disappointed. The military has rarely proved to be an agent of democratic change in history.
Last time the Egyptians took the risk with the military was when they revolted against the former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, who was forced to pass on power to the military in February 2011.
... the military sought to manage Egypt's transition according to its interests, the people once again found it imperative to go on the streets, prompting the military to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, which the Muslim Brotherhood party and Morsi, who hailed from the party, won respectively.
However, the military dissolved the parliament on the basis of a Constitutional Court ruling that it was elected illegally, but allowed Morsi to assume presidency.
The Egyptian military is accustomed to ruling Egypt since the coup of 1952 under the leadership of Pan-Arabist national Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Just prior to Morsi's democratic election a year ago, the military leadership granted itself extra-judicial powers to make sure that the new president would be answerable to it... the military remained the most influential behind-the-scene player in Egypt's political and economic life.
The military has once again stepped in as the people's saviour and conflict resolver. It has ousted Morsi and promised fresh elections.
Yet, this may turn out to be as problematic as the previous time. Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood have a popular base of support of their own. They have condemned the military takeover, and may well decide to fight it. The Egyptian public is highly polarised, with a lot of potential for more conflict and bloodshed.
The danger is that some of the radical elements of the Muslim Brotherhood and their hard line Islamist Salafist cohorts could easily go underground and take up arms, as the Islamist opposition did in Algeria in the wake of being denied by the military a win in the general elections in 1992. The Algerian experience resulted in a most brutal and gruesome period for a decade - no less worse than what is going on in Syria.
For the military to avoid such a situation arising in Egypt, it would need to hold a fair and free election soon. Then the question is: what if the Muslim Brotherhood wins the election once more?
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