Egypt in Uprising: What does this mean to us?

Egypt in Uprising: What does this mean to us?

If a revolution has an anatomy, its life blood would be the sheer energy of frustration and anger unleashed by a people. Its heart would be that glimmer of hope that all will change for the better. In Egypt’s case, 29 years of Hosni Mubarak’s authoritarian rule have slowly assembled the parts of this revolution and it took only one lighting bolt from neighbouring Tunisia to put its heart into beating order.

We are all seeing it unfold in the daily news. So then I ask, what does this mean for us Filipinos?

What is astonishing about this revolution is how it started and who started it. With the inspiration drawn from the successful Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, an Egyptian facebook group called “The April 6 Youth Movement” emailed all its members across Egypt to come out and protest. They set January 25 as the protest day called “The Day of Anger”, a fitting expression of the utter dissatisfaction people felt about the state of their economic and political life. This is where it all began. This political event organized by the dissatisfied and idealistic youth of Egypt affirms the truth that we – the young citizens have the power – the political power to influence the course of a country. This power I believe comes from our youthful energy, our ideals unburdened by time, and our hope to inherit a better state of life than our parents have. The youth of Egypt is no less different than any other youth around the world much less than our own. And this reminds us the immense potential that we all young people have if we put our energies into one common goal and fight one common enemy; in their case – a regime that outlived its purpose, in our case – a culture of corruption that breeds poverty. In a much specific sense, we can then stem a challenge for all of us graduating students; how can we integrate this kind of revolution against the culture of corruption in our career options?

The Egyptian uprising also affirmed a fundamental belief that it is only a matter of time when people demand change if a government suppresses their basic rights to life, liberty, and property. Peace and order is born only from a society that embraces dignity, freedom and equity. Time and time again we have seen this unfold in human history, and as a matter of fact, we were the once who perfected it. We Filipinos, while Mubarak was gripping power for just 5 years under emergency law, showed to the whole world how democracy looks like at its finest hour; a peaceful, spontaneous and grassroots revolution that toppled a two-decade long dictatorship. The revolution in Egypt in most respect is a far cry from our own People Power Revolution as far as the means being used. Shots were fired, bombs were detonated, hundreds died. It is sad to know that our kind of people power did not penetrate their cultural fabric. Nonetheless, we can declare that what they are doing now, we had done it before – but way better and of course, way more peaceful. Not much of a brag now if we see where our state is. We had our chance before; we had our moment before but it seems like we have forgotten it. This revolution in Egypt also serves as a clear reminder of who we are as a people and what we had done together. The spirit of people power that is already part of our blood should be transformed into something else – something more than political. How can we continue to live out this spirit of people power as we are reminded of in this revolution?

The platform in which this revolution began is a proof of how this new age of connectivity empowers social action. “The April 6 Youth Movement” exist not as political party with a head quarters in Cairo; it is housed not in a building but in cyberspace specifically in facebook. The implication is massive. We have seen how social media played a critical role in a presidential campaign. Now, we are seeing how it is playing a critical role in facilitating a revolution. That is why the Mubarak regime immediately pulled out the internet connection of the whole nation. The regime fears that an intangible cyber continent will become the new base for grassroots political organizing. In the hands of the citizens, this is their powerbase. Social media has allowed the diffusion of the power to inform to the hands of millions of individual users. Social media allows people to magnify their message and expand their reach in the comfort of their own rooms. If used for political action in an environment that is ripe for revolt, then it becomes a potent force not to be underestimated. We Filipinos are also known for Friendster and Facebook so let us leverage on this as what the Egyptian youth did. In the experience of our own struggle to reform a cultural regime of corruption that breeds poverty, how can we effectively utilize our social media savvy towards this end?

The revolution in Egypt is a reflection of the human desire to build a better world through a just and humane society. This is nothing different to the other revolutions that occurred before in the stretch of human history. What is significant is its parallelism to our own Filipino situation. We might not be under a dictatorship but we are surely under a cultural regime that utterly needs reform. If there is an anatomy of revolution, let its blood not be born of frustration and anger, but of hope and love. And, let its heart be a genuine desire to rebuild our institutions and the dignity of our people.