SAMIR AMIN talks to BEIFANG, CHINA
The Muslim Brotherhood rule lasted just over a year, why did the collapse come so soon?
AMIN: The fall of Morsi and of the rule of Muslim Brothers came as expected. Firstly, the government of the Muslim Brothers has been pursuing the same neoliberal policies as that of Mubarak, and even worse. It could not solve any problem faced by the Egyptian people.
Secondly, Morsi was elected through a gigantic fraud. The Muslim Brothers were mobilized to occupy the voting places and made impossible for others to vote, to the extent that the Egyptian judges who usually followed the election were disgusted and moved out and gave the election to the Brotherhood. Despite that, the US Embassy and Europe declared the election was perfect. This is how Morsi was elected.
Shortly after the fall of Morsi, you released a short statement and claimed it an important victory of the Egyptian people, however, Morsi was ousted by the army, not directly by the demonstrations of the people. To what degree can we say it was the victory of the people?
AMIN: After a few months, it has been proven that Morsi was continuing the same policies rejected by the people. The movement of Tamarod started a campaign of signature, asking for the removal of Morsi and a new, real election. 26 million signatures were collected, which is the true figure. Morsi did not take an account of this campaign. So it was decided on 30 June, which is exactly one year after his inauguration, there would be a demonstration. And the demonstration has been gigantic, the widest in the whole history of Egypt. 33 million people moved onto the streets of Cairo and all Egyptian towns, including small towns. When you say 33 million people out of the total population of 85 million people, it means everybody. Just compare, imagine for China there are 500 million people demonstrating on the same day in all towns.
But Morsi replied to the demonstration by saying, oh, we are not accepting the civil war. There is no danger of civil war, because you have 90 percent of the people who are anti-Morsi and Morsi was not able to mobilize, even distributing a lot of money, more than a few hundred thousand people, which means an imbalance against him. The western media are continuously repeating the words of Morsi ‘we are moving to a civil war’, but this is ridiculous.
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