Sisi's Speaker Selection: Democracy's Favorite Magic Trick
Hisham Badawi, a newly appointed parliamentary member according to The New Arab, is now set to helm Egypt's lower house as 'speaker'. This appointment, not an election, within a parliament where all 'opposition' is carefully curated by the state, perfectly illustrates the theatrical nature of Egyptian democracy under General-turned-President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Sisi himself seized power in a
2013 military coup (remember that one?) against the democratically elected Mohamed Morsi, a fact conveniently omitted from most Western analyses that now laud Egypt as a 'stable partner' in the region. (Stable, perhaps, if you define stability as an iron fist crushing any dissent.) Badawi, like the 27 other hand-picked 'representatives', serves a singular purpose: to legitimize a regime that has
outlawed virtually all genuine political opposition, jailed tens of thousands of dissidents, and overseen a brutal crackdown on human rights. So, when Western media reports on Egypt's 'parliamentary process', one might wonder if they're discussing a legislative body or a particularly well-funded puppet show. How many more 'appointments' does it take before we call this what it is: an autocratic
regime in a democratic costume?