Five years after the revolution that toppled the government, Egypt has yet to achieve the movement’s democratic ideals. But there are no more protests because protests are illegal. Freedom of speech curtailed, McCarthy-esque fear pervades under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, with opposition parties persecuted and former revolutionaries jailed. Special correspondent Nick Schifrin reports.
Contrast US satellites Egypt & Israel, the treatment of their people by their governments, with Syria. Syria, backed by Russia and tied to the old USSR, is held up as resisting progress while US satellite countries in the region continue the old ways of suppression quietly on the sidelines. Never has the future painted by George Orwell in ‘1984’ been more starkly illustrated than on this anniversary of Mubarak’s fall from power.
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| Guardian article |
