Why the Egyptian army will not shoot protestors (because they do not get paid jack shit)
GLOBALIST
Why the Army Won't Shoot Protesters
Wednesday 02 February 2011
by: Mohammed Omer | Inter Press Service | Report
Egyptian soldiers increased their presence around Tahrir Square on
Wednesday. (Photo: Scott Nelson / The New York Times)
Cairo - Khalid Ibrahim Al-Laisi has been a soldier in the Egyptian
army for 20 years. Today, far from shooting protesters, he says the
time has come "to revolt against oppression."
And as protesters vow to continue to press for President Hosni
Mubarak to leave now, rather than at election time later in the year
as he offered to do Tuesday, Al-Laisi, 38, is the face of an army that
is one with protesters, not against them.
Khalid tells IPS just why. "My monthly wage is 1,100 Egyptian pounds
(188 dollars). It’s not enough, and I have to do another job in the
evenings." He and his wife struggle to bring up their three children,
aged 13, nine and four in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood of Cairo.
"No one can afford to live on these wages," he says. "There is no joy
in life. You bring a child into this world to enjoy life, not to feel
trapped. One kilo of meat costs 60 Egyptian pounds (EGP) in today’s
market. To eat meat once a week costs me 300 (Egyptian) pounds a
month. That leaves no money to go out and do anything else."
Al-Laisi was promoted recently, and that added 100 EGP to his salary.
That went partly to pay for extra tutoring for his son Mohammed. The
tutoring costs 300 EGP a month.
The demonstrations have been effective, he says. "The bullet that
does not hit, at least makes some noise," he says, repeating a popular
saying in the army. "Nothing comes overnight. But I am going to ask
for my needs, because my life, like the life of so many others, has
simply become intolerable."
The army man’s suffering is one with that of the people determined to
continue the struggle to get Mubarak out. Mubarak’s declaration that
he would leave was a triumph for the demonstrators, but not what many
seemed prepared to be satisfied with, although crowds seemed divided
on this.
"We still insist he should leave now," political activist Buthaina
Kamel said at Cairo's Al Tahrir square after Mubarak’s television
address Tuesday. Many demonstrators see their success as a revolution,
and don’t want to give up.
Mustapha Al-Iraqi, a young oil engineer said he will not leave the
square, and expects more protestors through the week. "President
Mubarak is fooling around with our demands," he said.
A high-ranking Egyptian official confirmed that the Egyptian Army
will not shoot at protesting people. The officers are expressing the
sentiment of the soldiers, says Al-Laisi. "Who are we going to shoot?
Our brothers and sisters?"
Groups of demonstrators were planning meanwhile to take their
protests closer to Mubarak’s presidential palace. Units of the
Egyptian Army are surrounding the palace, which has been fortified
with barbed wires and checkpoints.
It is still unclear how far the army will let protests go, and at
what point at least some units of the army may step in against the
demonstrations if the protesters go that far.
Army units deployed so far have been popular among the people, and
particularly the demonstrators. "The army and the people are one –
hand in hand", a group chanted. There has been an outpouring of
expressions of support for the army.
The regime clearly wants to defuse the situation for now. Yasmine Al-
Jayyoshi, among the organizers of the demonstration, said she feared
the regime would punish demonstrators. That was only another reason to
stay on and protest, she said.
Al-Laisi said the violence was regrettable, and "private and public
properties must be protected." But, he said, "if the demonstrations
are too peaceful, officials do not understand the urgency among the
people."
The protests are undoubtedly people driven, and not organized by
parties. Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic party whose members won a
fifth of seats in the last parliament despite reports of widespread
rigging by the ruling party, seems to hold little sway over the thrust
of the demonstrations.
The protests seem driven by wages and prices, and less by politics
and ideology.
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