(R)evolution - Message not only to Egyptian society (2/2)

This message is dedicated to Egyptian society but it is applicable for any other country under oppressive rule, it might just need an adjustement to your current situation. Power to the people!

In my previous message, I talked about current Egyptian state being nothing less than one of the most rotten systems I have ever seen. Before we get to the main point of my message today, I would like to talk about Egyptian people, as during my month and a half long stay in your country, I found out, that you are one of the warmest and kindest people I have ever met, always full of laughs and jokes. Since 1919, Egyptians also proved themselves to be courageous people that can stand up against oppressive governments, on many occasions, to demand their rights and needs to be met.

It is unfortunate that this courage was rewarded with similar or even worse regimes that followed and that’s why it’s understandable that on some occasions I sensed deep feelings of resignation coming from you, when talking about taking down Sisi’s regime. And your points were valid. Some of you would argue, that the "democracies" of the west are similarly corrupt to your own government and with Egyptian current state in mind, western type of “democracy“ would only end up similarly to now or even worse, or you would argue that the dictatorship has many advantages. To which others would argue that even if you would go for a dictator, there is no one in Egypt that you feel like you could trust with such responsibility, or that the military would never give up the power it holds completely and eventually it would topple down the government again like in 2013. I took all of your points into consideration and made a plan that works out all of these issues.

First of all, my long-term dream and plan for Egypt is to create a new triumvirate democracy system (for big blocs like US or European Nations, I am playing with an idea of having a quinquevirate) that is a different version of my new democracy system that I hope we set up in Palestine and Czechia soon. Both are combining the best of both dictatorship and democracy worlds. The Egyptian is a “presidential“ variation of this system, that will allow for faster changes with executive orders similarly to US presidential system, allowing Egypt to go through changes faster, as that is what it needs right now. Palestinian version is more of a “semi-presidential“ variation. I am still working on both, and I will soon share them here with you in their entirety. Once the implementation stage happens, there still might be some tweaking to do and I believe that the whole society should take part in shaping these systems and I will keep a close eye on these developments and share my ideas throughout the implementations.

The short term dream for Egypt is to create transitional government (with public and international oversight) that will oversee initial trials and transition (first 2 years) into a new governing system of triumvirate, that will take into consideration current Egyptian power balance, but will already be rooted in the system I mentioned, and gradually overtime completely morph into it (additional 7-14 years). In this short term, the triumvirate should be composed of three elected consuls that together share power equally. One elected by the people in an honest and fair election, another elected by the judiciary bodies and the last one by the security forces. Candidates from judicial and security forces are to be transparently rigorously vetted and afterwads approved by the majority vote of the new parliament. For some of the decisions like the executive orders, it is enough if 2 of the three agree, while for others, like amendments of the constitution something like all 3 of the consuls are to agree or the decision of 2 has to be supported by both senate and parliament, still working out these details, as on the presidential variation I have just started working very recently. Eventually, consuls by the judiciary and security forces will rotate out and all the consuls are to be elected by the people.

For such triumvirate to work, of course there needs to be mandated freedom of speech for all, with only the most fundamental limitations like calls for violence. Every consul has a right to “veto“ decisions that are made by the 2 in case he/she feels like they are against the constitution. In that case, the decision/law will be postponed until the supreme court decides its legality and there will be many other stops for the system not to get into hands of any branch of the state or to slide into dictatorship again.

Also, you still want to have a parliament, voted by the broad public, that works as a place from which consuls pick their government ministers, as well as body that approves legislation, created by the senate, consuls, or preparing own drafts of laws for senate to work on. Senate will be full of technocrats elected by the professionals in the field of their expertise (including pretty much all parts of the society), that works as a main legislative body, that consuls and ministers can task with the preparation of laws and of course they can prepare laws by themself too. I will explain more deeply in future articles.

For this shift to happen, Egyptian people again have to show the courage like many times in the past and stand up to their oppressive government once again. I am not going to go over the methods with you, as when reading up on the 2011 Revolution, I found out that you are already professionals at peaceful protests and sabotages of the state. Use the 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp, like in the past and you can’t go wrong.

The demands to the state, that I would recommend protesters to go for:

• Immediate Withdrawal of confidence (article 161), arrest and prosecution (article 159) of president Sisi who’s government violates by my estimation at least 35 articles of his own constitution, as well as his oath, he swore to Allah! – Lifetime in prison with giving back to society is in my opinion the only thing that will do.

• In case governmental bodies don’t cooperate with articles 159,161- switch your demands to army and police to do the arrests of Sisi and the non-cooperating politicians based on articles 200 and 206 + prosecution of all non-cooperating government officials for treason. As Article 4 of your Constitution says: “Sovereignty belongs to the people alone, which exercises it and protects it. They are the source of power. They safeguard their national unity, which is based on the principle of equality, justice and equal opportunity between citizens, as provided in the Constitution.”

• In case the army and police leadership doesn’t comply with your demands, demand your mid-low ranking police and army officers to do so and to also arrest their leadership that did not comply with the (r)evolution and prosecute them for treason. I am hopeful and almost 100% sure that the lower ranking army men and policemen will listen to your demands if no one else will, but I still hope that this will not be needed, and your current leaders will see your cause to be just and join you in the reforming of the state and much needed societal healing of their own volition. Inshallah.

• Invitation of UN, “Global South”, “Western” and other local and international specialists to watch over, advise and report on the transition, audits and everything else mentioned below. That way, there is the highest possibility of doing everything as impartially as possible and public can be informed on the processes from multiple differently opiniated sources.

• Resignation of all the current government and creation of small interim oversight council for first 3 months, composed of trusted, non-political figures such as civil society representatives, eminent figures from academia, respected religious leaders and independent international observers. Ideally, best if (r)evolutionaries have a few trusted people already in mind (can be dissidents too). This council should focus on transparently vetting transitional leaders (not Triumvirate yet), Identify and root out immediate threats of corruption (ensuring that wealth from ill-gotten gains is not concealed or moved abroad), starting the judicial reform process, ensuring the continuity of basic services and at the end of these 3 months announce and establish transitional government structure with well defined roles and mandates that is to lead Egypt for next 15-24 months and will prepare changes for new system and elections to come about.

• Trial in court of Sisi for high treason and multiple treasons as well as trials for treason of anyone from security forces that opposed or tried to stop the (r)evolution.

• All the judges in not only military courts that were used for repression of civilians to be trialed for treason and any other criminal offences they committed.

• Complete judiciary overhaul. Firstly, focusing on vetting senior Egyptian judges to find ones with integrity to lead the Hybrid Tribunals, together with international legal experts from countries with strong rule of law. Later, auditing, fixing and prosecuting the judiciary where needed

• All the top security services leadership to be detained (humanely and with respect to them not being convicted) and put under investigation, until their name is cleared, or they are put in front of the trial. For the ones without clear evidence, they are allowed to take up advisory role (with oversight) for officers that are to replace their leadership (I would suggest for the transition to create council of lower level officers that are to make decisions together with counseling of international/local professionals) and if their name is completely cleared, even get back their position.

• Similarly detain any other powerful individuals that are very likely corrupt and are a flight risk. While I am not completely happy with these detention moves, it is necessary for justice to be served, as well as to curb ability of these powerful individuals to mess with the transition of the system. I hope that the innocent individuals will understand this move and wear this detention with honor to help the society to heal.

• Set up a Truth and Reconciliation commission similarly to South Africa all over Egypt, so they are accessible to all, and citizens can come forward with their testimonies about abuses and corruption of the system, as well as for perpetrators to confess, with possibility of partial pardon in case of lesser crimes.

• Setup strong whistleblower protection and incentives (In case they are involved themselves in corrupt behavior-but do not make it complete “get out of jail free card”!) for individuals exposing highly corrupt behavior of others.

• Set up Hybrid Tribunals combining judges and international legal experts to judge all criminals of the old system that are to be trialed.

• Set up anti-corruption unit with judiciary, public and international participation and oversight. They are to investigate not only state employees as well as create rules for mid to lower-level corruption crimes.

• Setup citizen advisory and oversight councils that will provide feedback throughout the whole transition and during the establishment of the new system.

• Demand for every state employee (state companies included), to publicly declare all their family wealth. For high to highest ranking employees, this is to include wealth of their parents, siblings, children (and children of children if they have any), spouse, spouse’s siblings and parents. For mid to low level ranking employees, this is to include wealth of their parents, spouse and children. In case anyone tries to hide a single Egyptian pound, trial them for treason (ask for cooperation of international banks and institutions).

• Demand that all the wealth of these family units, that can’t be proven to be obtained legitimately, is to be confiscated by the state, and for them to be criminally trialed for corruption. Be more lenient to the ones that come forward and confess in Truth and Reconciliation commissions, but high to highest level employees still should be forbidden to be in positions of power over citizens or their funds for the rest of their life. I would also argue that for these employees, imprisonment should be mandatory, even if they come forward but their sentence should be reduced. In case of medium to low level employees, I think the focus should be on reconciliation with their communities rather than imprisonment, but they still should be monetarily fined/confiscation/restitution payments (in a way that that doesn’t ruin them financially), fired, demoted, retrained, community service, not allowed to be in positions of power/state funds for some time and sometimes even imprisoned - depending on the crimes. I would recommend creating reasonable levels to stolen funds/behavior for lower corruption cases, that would be solved systematically rather than in courts (unless they were accompanied with other criminal behavior), so the courts are not overwhelmed. This widespread step with families involved is important to address and have a resolution of the systematic corruption in Egypt once and for all, for the society to get back its stolen wealth, to heal, as well as to set precedent for any future Egyptian systems, which will help curb corruption in the future. Burden of proof that money is legitimately obtained is on the family units. Repeat offenders of corruption should have stricter penalties even for smaller corruption cases.

• Low level corruption crimes can be solved by community-based panels that can impose penalties such as fines, public apologies, or community service, while also ensuring accountability based on anti-corruption unit rules.

• Confiscated money to be used for betterment of the whole society with special focus on the poor. Schools, health care, housing for citizens, infrastructure that will benefit all and so on. Public discussion is needed on this matter, as well as public overview and detailed reporting on how the money is spent.

• Panel to be created, that deeply audits all the state projects currently under construction in Egypt and decides, which make sense to finish, and which should be abandoned instead, based on the additional required cost-benefit of each project to the Egyptian society.

• All the journalists producing state propaganda to be investigated and trialed for crimes they committed in supporting the system, similarly to any other part of the corrupt society.

• Freedom of speech/assembly/press/publication and respect for basic human rights as defined even by your constitution – together with releasing of all the prisoners jailed by the repressive regime for practicing these rights, or ones unjustly sentenced in a different way. I think it would be also correct to set up a fund to compensate these victims and to offer them psychological support.

• Immediate secession of widespread public surveillance by the Homeland security forces of its own population, together with immediate stop of their coercive methods like torture. Independent audits (by multiple persons from different walks of life – judiciary, security forces, civilians –cross checking their findings by an oversight body with similarly widespread personnel being spectated by international oversight from the “West”, as well as “Global South”, UN and other international professionals, so its resolution can be trusted) of their activities since their creation in 2013 and judgement in court for the most criminal behavior not only for the security officers (doesn’t matter which branch) but also for the politicians that would back such behavior.

• Jailed criminals of this corrupt system should create value for society, while in prison, with their work being well paid (minus cost of their living conditions and pay for their guards/protectors), so they can support their families outside of the facilities in which they will be kept (humanely with respect to life - I would recommend to base it on how I specified imprisonment of Israeli Nazis on my Instagram account, as I see it as the most ethical way of imprisonment that leaves great pathway towards rehabilitation).

• All sentences should be up to lifetime depending on the rank, amount/severity of crimes and depending on whether criminals cooperated with the (r)evolution and came forward with their crimes.

• Demand that in case the records of homeland security are destroyed during the (r)evolution, ask for widespread imprisonment of all homeland security forces officers depending on their rank. This is to deter secret forces or others from destroying their records and induce self-policing within the ranks during the (r)evolution.

• Lifetime imprisonment for anyone who will try to destroy or successfully destroy any state record.

• Audit and revision of all secret service forces (also the ones that focus on external information gathering and operations), with creation of independent oversight committees that will work as intermediary between them and politicians/public. I am already working on this as well. Not as far with it as with other things but I will focus on it more deeply eventually and keep you updated (this is a worldwide problem). I think it’s also good if there is a public discussion about role of secret services in society similarly to the powers of Triumvirate.

• All state companies that are not of vital strategic importance (f.e. Suez Canal or energy sector) to be changed into worker cooperatives, fully owned by their workers. Invite successful worker cooperatives (like Mondragon Corporation or Legacoop) to advise on this venture and copy their successful models. This applies to also recently seized companies by army, which were created during Mubárak cronyism era, that was similarly corrupt and therefore it’s owners have no legitimacy of regaining these companies back.

• Privately owned businesses that will show high level of corruption to the point where they were just an extension of the corrupt system, to be turned into worker cooperatives similarly to the state companies.

• These business owners and their high level employees are to be trialed similarly to the state employees.

• Any international companies that were big part of the corruption and reside in Egypt, to be confiscated and turned into worker cooperatives. Owners and high level employees of such business are to be trialed similarly to the state employees.

• It’s my personal hope and a dream that during this (r)evolution, you will also not forget about your brothers and sisters in Palestine and their fight for liberation. So, I would like to ask you to demand for Egyptian interim government to immediately stop trading with Israel and to forbid all ships heading to Israel, to go through Suez Canal, until their current government steps down, Israelis will stop all their opression against Palestinians and face the judgement of the international community. Trust me, that the international community will help you against any possible repercussions from the US or any other force - that will likely not even happen or will be very light. But have your army ready in defensive positions in Sinai, for Israel not to have any funny ideas.

• For every tribunal, auditor, commission and so on to regularly report their findings and work to the public.

• I would suggest to also give out the worst criminals against humanity to be trialed in international courts, once your own courts are done with them.

• Any other demands that sound reasonable to you, as you know your country best and I have likely missed something.

While it is true that Allah is the most merciful, and that is why I don’t call for imprisonment of all wheels in the Egyptian rotten system, and I am lenient when people cooperate with the (r)evolution and come clean, it is also true that Allah is just and without at least the bare minimum of justice, there can’t be a new beginning and healing in the society. You can see that in my country Czechia, where there was no justice done after the Velvet Revolution, the system just changed its coat and it is as rotten, if not even more, than it was before the Revolution. That is why the justice must be served and I am working on that in my country as well. There, it will hopefully go together with elections later this year or even sooner with the help of all the information that is surfacing now about broader western corruption. Fortunately, Czech judicial system and many in the security forces are still mostly honorable. Inshallah.

Egypt fascinated me ever since I was a young boy who read a book saga called “River God“ by Wilbur Smith. It’s rich ancient past, shrouded in mysteries, was often at the forefront of human history, not only during its time under the sun as one of the original great human civilizations (at least as far as our current history goes) with fascinating mythology, culture, full of technological and medical advancements. And while many things have changed since these times, what gave this land its special status during that period is still very truthful today and it breaks my heart to see the state of Egypt currently, but I believe it has great future ahead of itself and will again teach this world the meaning of the word civilization, but first it must go through one more (r)evolution. And while I hope for it to go peacefully, there are chances that things will get out of hand and some of you will get hurt or worse but if you decide to do it anyway, I will pray for you and your success every day.

Allah is utterly just and over all things competent.

PS: I have additional information for Egyptian society once the (r)evolution is finished, that I can’t share with you right now, as I was advised by a dream to keep it secret for now.