NATO efforts to help rebels oust Qaddafi in Libya have pushed events in Egypt off the front page of American papers for the moment, but Egyptians are only now beginning to do the heavy lifting of their revolution. It took enormous courage and organizational skill for the protesters of Tahrir Square to succeed in their efforts to remove Hosni Mubarak. All that and more will be necessary for them to stabilize that accomplishment so it reaps long-term rewards.
As the Egyptian news weekly al-Ahram reports, one central problem is how to resolve the fraught relationship between the current ruling organization -- calling it a government seems a little premature -- and the protest movement which swept it into power. The military officers in power have promised to end the thirty-year-old "emergency" regime which allowed so many abuses under Mubarak, but only in some vague future "before the September elections." To take the problem further, the officers recently outlawed all protests, making the organization of such a thing punishable by a year in prison.
Of course, the protests of last month were illegal, too. For those in Tahrir Square, then, the question arises: does such a law have any legitimacy? Does a loyal Egyptian citizen have any obligation to the current regime when it imposes such restrictions?
Al-Ahram says only that the laws "raised some eyebrows." I wonder whether other body parts might be raised soon.
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