Franz Kafka: Losing the Presidential poll, sour grapes, recriminations, etc…

Day 1,416, 06:41 Published in Egypt Egypt by Franz Kafka


So I lost an election, but I didn’t lose the argument. Why? Because there was none to be had, our new President, for all his worthy ideas and ideals has not been voted in for anything he said, only for his tribal allegiance.

I think tribal allegiance is the best way to say it. I would like everyone to stop saying nasty things about Croats – I know too many decent Croats to hear this anymore. But the LnL tribe is a different matter, their bloc voting has thrown political discourse into irrelevance – why argue about an issue, when it doesn’t matter? Why shout when you will not be heard? Why bother talking to a president when he’ll be out of the office, and probably the country, by next month as he passes the hat over to the next person in LnL who’s turn it is to be President?



All this was obvious. We knew the fate this once inspiring ecountry now held. But the one thing we could do was hold some semblance of unity against this common threat to the very survival of Egypt as a pluralist society. This is my greatest regret. That we could not hold a proud and united face against the stranglehold this tribe has over our enation.



This is not a pure malfunction of the mechanics of the game, but actually a true reflection of reality. How do you think the old regime of RL Egypt held on to power, even when there were supposed elections? The tactics are different but the outcome the same – the suppression of political discourse and of the intellectual evolution of a nation. Across the Arab world, including in the RL Egypt, the people found an answer to this malaise. People gathered, still gather, in the central squares of cities across the Arab world and in peace and non-violence declared ‘enough!’.

Today I declare ‘enough’. I will stand in the centre of Tunis, Tahrir Square in Cairo, Taghyeer square in Sana’a, and in all the burned out Squares of Homs, Dera, Manama, Tripoli, Benghazi, and Taiz – and declare ‘enough’.

Will you join me?