Sisi, Egypt 7th President in 61 years

Sisi who swore oath Sunday 8 June,  before the constitutional court as Egypt 7th President since it became republic 61 year ago ( 18 June 1953), has collected, in votes the highest number of any elected president. BBC and British media say turn out last month election was  was low. But at 47.5 percent tun-out  it was 3.2 percent higher than turn out in 2012 when Mohammed Morsi was elected (  Turn out last month was 47.5%, El-Sisi winning with 23.78 million votes, 96.91%, ten million more votes than former President Mohamed Morsi – in turn out of 44.3 % he  garnered 13,230,131 while his rival  Ahmed Shafik total votes 12,347,830 — those facts never mentioned by the BBC) . BBC editors and correspondents, especially those fancying themselves as “Lawrence of Arabia” are too arrogant to admit that majority the Egyptian people acted outside BBC expected script. Hence they seldom mention all facts. And, as expected, focus on some negative nonsense and misprint historic events. Here are some facts for UK readers to examine for themselves

Size was born on November 19, 1954, and grew up in Gamaliya, Cairo’s medieval district where Nobel Prize Winner Novelist Naguib Mahfouz set most of his novels. A very soul and heart of the Egyptian character and the people of the district personify the Egyptian spirit and the collective psyche.

Sisi  military career started with his graduation from Egypt’s Military Academy on April 1, 1977.His military training and strategic reflects an historic change  made by the late Egyptian statesman  President Anwar el-Sadat to change course from a Soviet-oriented training, military, and economic patterns as as an ally of the Soviet Union to switch into the  United States led Western camp. Sadat understood that the free world will eventually win the cold war, besides his reform towards parliamentarian democracy (he restored the name Egypt, and the multiparty system, both abolished by colonel Nasser in 1958 and 1960) and believed that full democracy can’t not be achieved with free market economy as a base for social growth  in society both micro and macro economics  as was the case before 1960s nationalisations …hence he moved from Soviet Model into western model.

Sisi underwent key training in the U.S. A. and the UK. He attended a basic infantry course in the U.S. and later attended the Joint Command and Staff College at Kimberly in the UK in 1992. He was sent to the U.S. Army War College in 2006. In Egypt, Sisi completed a Bachelor of Military Sciences and then a Master’s degree from the Egyptian Staff and Command College in 1987. He later went to the Nasser Higher Military Academy in 2003.

Sisi’ started serving as middle rank officer in the mechanized infantry, where he was, successively, commander of  the 509th mechanized infantry battalion, chief-of-staff of the 134th mechanized infantry brigade, commander of the 16th mechanized infantry brigade, and finally chief-of-staff of the 2nd mechanized infantry division, before he was  nominated to the prestigious positions of chief-of-staff of the northern military zone in 2008 and afterwards as deputy director of the military intelligence and reconnaissance department (2011).2

As such, Sisi was part of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) headed by Field Marshal Mohammad Hussein Tantawi, who became interim ruling council of Egypt after President Mubarak’s resignation in February b 2011 until the elections which were won by the Muslim Brotherhood. This led to the election of Muslim Brother Mohammad Morsi as president. Morsi took advantage of a surprise terrorist attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, and replaced the aging Tantawi with Sisi on August 12, 2012, in an unprecedented reshuffle of the military that was meant to signal the takeover of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as a whole. Sisi was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General (Fariq Awwal) and also took the post of Minister of Defence and Military Production.

Eleven months later, in response to mass demonstrations calling for Morsi’s overthrow that took place in Tahrir Square in Cairo, as well as in other big Egyptian cities such as Alexandria, Suez, and Port-Said, Sisi presented an ultimatum that president Morsi should coordinate with other political trends and come up with an inclusive plan to accommodate what appeared to be the majority of Egyptian people demands since tens of millions of  demonstrators were refusing to go home or evacuate streets until Morsi resigns and holds election. Sisi’s idea was to defuse a stand off by majority of peaceful Egyptians and armed gangs of the Muslim Brothers. Sisi suggested deadline by July 3, 2013. Morsi instead went on Television  challenging the millions in the streets and telling majority of the people they were acting against his ‘ legitimacy’ Morsi’s  refusal to deal with the issue, made Millions of Egyptians very angry and situation was getting out of hand.  Sisi showed wisdom to avoid a confrontation which would have dragged the army to do police job the streets. The Military invited all political parties and trends’ leaders ( including several Islamists groups and parties but Muslim Brothers refused to participate) as well as heads of Muslim and Christian churches and constitutional lawyers top of judiciary and top statesmen  to draw a road map for transition of power and elections.

The Egyptian constitution stipulates that in the absence of a head of state and no acting vice president, the speaker of parliament becomes an interim head of state until election is held when parliament nominates candidates. But Parliament was in suspension pending election; so in accordance with the constitution, the chief justice had to  be the second choice as constitution indicates. The highest judicial authority in the land to appoint a head of state when there is non was a tradition going back to the 9th century AD when the Judiciary Council  Maglis alQudat made of the top judges of all the courts would appoint the head of the state, whether Vice-Roy, Walli, Sultan etc – after long process of nominations by merchants, heads of guilds, clergymen, heads of communities, Coptic Church leaders, land owners and other influential groups- those traditions were kept after modernisation and founding the independent state in modern times in 1805 and first elected parliament in mid 19th century then in subsequent modern state constitutions 1923, 1965, and 1971. So on July 4, 2013 when the office of president was vacant,  the head of the Supreme Court becomes a care taking head of state. So Chief Justice Adly Mansour became the interim 6th president of Egypt.

A transitional government headed by Hazem el-Beblawi replaced Morsi’s handpicked all Muslim Brothers cabinet. Sisi became the strong man because his popularity soared on the street and mass media ( Muslim brothers targeted journalists and made their lives hell for over a year, hence it was natural for them to react in self-defence and obviously want to see more newspapers and increase viewers , they reflected a public mood of backing and supporting strong Sisi ,  ).

Keeping his positions as head of the armed forces and Minister of Defence and Military Production. On January 27, 2014, Sisi was promoted to the highest rank in the Egyptian army – Field Marshal (Mushir in Egyptian) .

As most ordinary Egyptians felt the bite of economic hardship resulting from instability, loss of tourism and many production days, they called for stability. Muslim brotherhood associated wave of terrorism also created a public mood for strong man from the military like Sisi to take charge. People wanted stability and security first. Such mood was also reflected in talk shows columns in privately owned and independent press as well as for call in phoning broadcast programmes all calling for Sisi to stand for president.   In January this year too Sisi had finally decided to run for the office of President of Egypt in the elections to be held in 2014.4

Sisi enjoys unprecedented popularity in Egypt. He is viewed as a superhero that saved Egypt from anarchy, civil war, and the despotism of the Muslim Brotherhood. Between TV commercials used to advertise food products, groups on social networking sites, and posters in the street, Egypt has been witnessing “Sisi fever.”5 Talk shows and newspaper columns have been advocating the idea of the general running for president in order to fight the terrorist threat that they say the country is facing. Local media are also buzzing about the widespread support for a Sisi presidency.

In fact, Sisi had no competitors with real chance of winning. A number of campaigns, run by volunteers, have been launched calling on the general to run for president. The campaigns were given symbolic titles like  “Complete Your Favour,” “A Nation’s Demand,” and “Al-Sisi for President.”

Campaigners’ collected millions of signed demands asking Sisi to run, just as millions of signatures convinced him to act against Morsi.