The short answer is: NO, not yet.
It's been over 10 weeks since the 30-years-long, brutal Dictatorship ended in Egypt, with deposing of the President Mubarak. We were watching with awe, the unprecedented and unexpected events of the Revolution, which overturned in a swift and a decisive way the decades long regime, along with the decades long fear of Radicalism, which could have creeped in, burying the hopes for the democracy.
On February 11, 2001 Egypt concluded their Revolutionary fight against the regime. The regime has toppled. At that moment Egypt entered much more difficult phase, a clearly gargantuan task - to forge the democracy from scratch - creating the New State according to the Democratic principles, responding to a long time suppressed thirst for the political and civil freedoms of the Egyptians...
The Army, who forced the Dictator out, took charge of the country and it's affairs, both military and civilian. Although it was the only solution which could have brought the stability to the country, it raised more questions than it answered. It was a move in the right direction, provided that the Army would honor their promises to lead the country toward the civilian, democratic government. Since the institution of Army as such is not a very convincing guarantor of the democratic process - it's no surprise that the Tahrir Square became a weekly, Friday-after-prayer place of demonstrations, reminding the Army of it's role in the long process ahead, week after week.
Although the Mubarak's Egypt has been dismantled almost completely, one of it's, hated by all, elements is still in place - state of emergency, which was imposed after the assassination of the President Sadat. It's promised to be removed after the parliamentary elections in September, but for now it allows the army to control the society the way it chooses - some say, it's the same, excessive way, well known from the Mubarak era.
The curfew, imposed on January 28, which has been slowly eased, would be reduced just to 3 hours (from 2 to 5 in the morning).
The protesting crowd is still just partially satisfied by the progress of the reforms in their New Egypt. It's understandable that to the people involved, who's patience has been tested numerous times, sense of time is different, than to everybody else - they would like to have the fully functioning Democratic State in place by now. So, let's have a look at the timeline of all the Post-Mubarak road to Democracy:
Right after achieving the main goal of the protest - deposing the Dictator, the citizens themselves started to clean Tahrir Square from the reminders of sometimes violent events of the past 18 days. Self appointed clean up crews, shouting slogans referring to the New Beginning worked tirelessly removing the destroyed tents, debris and cleaning the stains from the pavement. Some participants voiced to the press their new (for them and the spectators), feeling of ownership of the country.
On Feb 13, 2011 - two days after taking power in their hands, Egypt's military authorities dissolved the 518-seat country's parliament and suspended the outdated and twisted by the former regime, Constitution.
On Feb 14, 2011 hundreds of the Police officers and plainclothes demonstrated in Tahrir Sq. demanding the better pay and work conditions. In the Mubarak Era the officers were underpaid severely, creating the conditions in which the bribery and extortion became the only means for survival. It was so embedded in the fabric of everyday life, that it became customary to approach a Policeman on the streets and offer a payoff, every time one saw a policemen on the beat.
On Feb 16, 2011 the Egyptian Stock Exchange restarted (not without the hiccup, since it had to be stopped for a few ours immediately afterwards to avoid the unintended losses).
During the unrests the Egyptian Museum was attacked by the thieves who stole a few objects and destroyed almost a hundred of others. Apparently, the thieves weren't well informed and were partially satisfied by stealing some replicas of the artifacts displayed in the Museum store. In the period when Mubarak government withdrew the Tourist Police and Police forces in general from the streets, many archaeological sites in Egypt were either completely unprotected or protected by self-appointed forces organized by the devoted functionaries of the Antiquities Department. However, their heroic efforts were not sufficient to prevent the unrepairable damages in the places like Saqqarah. The head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, who became a face of Egyptian Archaeology for the whole World, Zahi Hawass, who was also raised to the position of the Minister of Antiquities by the Pres. Mubarak shortly before the end of his regime - resigned his post in the protest to the damages done to the cultural heritage.
Every Friday brought countless crowds to Tahrir Sq. either protesting against an actual mishandling of the country's affairs by the Interim Government (= ARMY), or just reminding the Army of their promises given to the demonstrators.
One of the things stirring the public opinion very deeply was the ban on the demonstrations imposed by the Army on all protests which MIGHT disturb the recovering economy of the country. Another - which has proven to be much more serious, was the persecution of the dissenters, and all who didn't agree with the Army's actions. It resembled the treatment the dissent received during 30 years of the Mubarak Regime.
On March 03, 2011, an activist, Amr Abdallah Elbihiry, 33, was convicted and sentenced to five years in military prison by Egypt's Supreme Military Court, after being charged with assaulting a public official on duty and for breaking curfew. He was arrested while peacefully demonstrating for the Prime Minister Shafiq to step down. He wasn't the isolated case of the abuse.
On March 07, 2011, the new Prime Minister was sworn in, along with the completely new Cabinet. The key ministries received the new heads. Some old, and sometimes despised by the 'street', faces still lingered in less important sectors.
Two days later on March 09, 2011, military forces removed the camping crowd from Tahrir Square and arrested more than 100 protesters, following up on the imposed ban of demonstrations. In the process, they also seized the photos, and video recordings from the journalists on the square. This action sparked the International protest and condemnation. It shed the very questionable light on the conduct of the Supreme Army Command, as well as the army's participation in the forging of the democracy in Egypt, especially in anticipation of coming on the March 19 Constitutional Referendum.
The State Security Investigations Service has had a reputation to be a very efficient, repressive tool in the Mubarak's apparatus. It was accused repeatedly of torture, kidnapping, and other human rights abuses serving the suppression of the dissent against the Regime. It was probably the most hated institution in the whole country. On March 15, 2011 the New Interior Minister, Maj. Gen. Mansour el-Essawy, a former Cairo security chief, dissolved that agency and announced the creation of the new National Security Force to replace it, with the reduced and redirected scope of responsibilities: just combating the terrorism. Dismantling the State Security Investigations Service was one of the major demands of the Revolution. The headquarters of the agency as well as regional offices in Alexandria and other cities ware a target of the demonstrations and attacks during the whole uprising. Several times the protesters stormed it's offices in order to seize the documents which might have provided the proofs of the abuse. Unfortunately, the officers of that agency succeeded in many cases destroying these documents before finally, the Army took the matter in their own hands and seized the documents themselves.
"We want to see public trials for those accused of torturing or abusing Egyptians..." - said Islam Lotfi, a leading youth activist. "As much as we are happy that State Security is now dissolved, National Security, the new entity, must be under real judicial supervision," tweeted Wael Ghonim, the Google executive, and a leader of the movement.
Although most of the protesters would prefer replacing the Constitution, modified several times by the Regime in the Past, with the completely new one, creation of the Committee to instigate the changes in the existing document to allow the Democratic development of the new country, was a fact welcome by all. The proposed, constitutional changes removed the monopoly of the National Democratic Party (ruling Mubarak's Party), removed restrictions against creating a religion based political parties, introduced a term limit for the publicly elected officials, etc.
On March 20, 2011, in all the civic centers in Egypt the unprecedented event had place - the Constitutional Referendum. It was the first in the modern history of Egypt, democratic VOTING EXERCISE. Although the voter turn-out wasn't as big as in previous, fixed elections, a mare 41% of the eligible voters, the exercise proved to be an overwhelming success. According to the Referendum Chairman, Mohammed Attiya Egyptians voted 3-to-1 for the implementation of the amendments.
We all remember about the specter of radicalization hanging over the future Democratic Egypt. One of the strongest, and best organized, political forces in Egypt - Muslim Brotherhood benefited greatly from the changes passed by the Referendum. However, their desire to introduce Islamic law, and their ambivalence about the role of women in the society are responsible for their relatively little popularity within the society. Muslim Brotherhood in our times is comprised of educated people, professionals, like engineers, lawyers and doctors. Their creed has changed since the time of the Sadat assassination and their factional split, followed by renouncing of violence. But there is an element in the Egyptian society which is far more unpredictable and dangerous - “Salafi” Islamists, growing in popularity among the poorest and the most confused part of the nation.
If we (the Western Countries) advocate the democratic processes in Egypt and all the participants of the Arab Spring 2011, we must accept the situation in which the part of the society might not like us... Well, in the previous era, when all the regimes of the Middle East were our allies - no one in the allied countries had any good feelings toward the West. What the Arab Spring brought, is the dramatic change in the attitude of the Egyptians (and not only) toward America. It has been dramatically shifted by our backing up the pro-democracy movements.
Egypt's Interim Government plans to use the amended Constitution as a road map toward the power transfer to a new, elected, civilian government. The Army agreed not to place it's candidate in the upcoming presidential elections. However, this fact alone doesn't convince the "street" about the Army's good intentions.
As mentioned previously, the Army, having as progressive intentions as it claims, can not escape from the relics of the past. It's extremely sensitive to the critical statements coming from the various social activists, and bloggers. On March 28, 2011, an Egyptian blogger, Maikel Nabil, was arrested and on April 10, sentenced to 3 years in prison for the charge of "insulting the army". Although it is a clear attempt to muzzle the voice of dissent violating multiple human rights, the case of Maikel Nabil is not that straight-forward. He is a self-declared "pro-Israel activist", whose naive believes in the triumph of democracy transferred to Egypt from Israel, resulted in other bloggers asking if the army put him in a wrong "institution"...
Newscaster Shahira Amin, quit her job in the government run Nile TV, before the fall of Mubarak, in the protest against her being forced by the officials to twist the reality and report only "state approved" news. Ten weeks along the road to democracy - she is still very critical of the army's control over the media. The State TV building in Cairo which is home to about 10 TV and radio stations is now a fortress guarded by tanks and cordons of soldiers. Who controls the media, controls the reality...
On April 13, 2011, one of the most important demands of the protesters has been addressed - President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons, Gamal and Alaa have been imprisoned and subjected to the thorough investigation in order to determine their participation in the corruption of the regime, as well as to determine their responsibility for the lives lost during the uprising. Imprisonment of the President and his family was a crown of the long chain of investigations conducted agains most of the officials of the fallen Regime. Allegations in all the cases include corruption and responsibility for human rights abuse during the 30 years of the Mubarak's Dictatorship.
As reported by Egypt's state news agency MENA, the number of deaths during the Revolution amounted to 864 people, and the amount of injuries rose to 6467 (including 26 Policemen killed).
It must have been difficult for the Military to stand against it's former Boss and prosecute him to the full extend of the law. But given the public persistence in insisting on the delivery of justice as well as growing public weariness about the army's real intentions, the Army was in no position to spare him even if they wanted to. At this point there is no more a possibility to satisfy the crowds with any sort of fake trials, and a "slap on the wrist" treatment of the Dictator. Excluding also the blood thirsty vendetta - the justice has to be served. Egyptian people demand the real, thorough investigation, and the real, just trial, delivering the real, just sentence and the punishment.
Egypt is the biggest Arab country in the world. It has been for decades in the center of attention of the whole region. Egypt is the leader of the Middle East and what happens to it's structure and political fabric is looked upon by all, as a guidance in going through the revolutionary, social and economical changes of the Arab Spring 2011.
On April 16, 2011, The High Administrative Court of Egypt dissolved the National Democratic Party (NDP), former ruling party, and ordered the seizure of its assets, thus meeting another of the key demands of the revolt that led to the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak. The NDP was formed by the Mubarak's predecessor, President Sadat, and was led by Mubarak after the Sadat's assassination. For 40 years the NDP was the only allowed political party in Egypt. Dissolving it, along with the prosecution of it's Leader, and seizing it's assets mark the end of the era, which for most of the Egyptian society has been the only geopolitical system they knew in their lives.
The Mubarak's Era has ended.
On April 21, 2011, an Egyptian Court decreed that the names of the deposed President Hosni Mubarak and his wife Suzanne to be removed from all public places, along with the removal of all apparitions of the Dictator...
It's not a first time in the long, Egyptian history, that the name of the former ruler was meticulously removed from the reliefs, previously dedicated to him/her... (it seems that Mubarak thought of himself as a Pharaoh).
Revising the answer to the title question: SOON.
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