1. 4/25/2015 Rabaa Anniversary: A Requisition of a new design ­ Daily Sabah
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Daily Sabah > Opinion
AHMAD EL NASHAR
Published
August 15, 2014
A ugust 2014, a year after the massacre in Rabaa Square, a massacre
that will continue to remind us of the evil that exists within some of
us. Rabaa is a bloody example of military tyranny. Rabaa exemplifies the
heartlessness of social apathy. In my mind, this event will always remind
me of how inhuman we are capable of becoming. However, I believe that
it is not right to shed light on the wrongdoings of evil without also
shedding light on the shortcomings of those struggling for righteousness,
and I count myself among them. We made our mistakes that undoubtedly
contributed to this painful ending. We must look back at those events not
only with grieving hearts but also wise minds so that we may know what
it is we can do better in our struggle against injustice and tyranny. As I
watch the initiation of the so­called "revolutionary council" and I read the
statement issued by the National Alliance Supporting Legitimacy it seems
that one year from the event we seem to have learned almost nothing.
One key point from Rabaa is that this is a revolution, not a political
struggle. What that means is that in facing the current tyrannical system
we do not use typical tactics of creating councils or issuing statements
announcing our plans for the day. Revolutions operate outside the
boundaries and limitations of the current system. They work in both a
planned and unplanned manner. On Jan. 25, people rallied to
demonstrate against the police that evolved into a mass sit­in deposing
Hosni Mubarak's regime. That was a move that took the regime by
surprise at the time. However, the military learned its lesson and made
the decision to prevent any sit­ins and violently attacked demonstrations.
Therefore, resorting to this same tactic is just futile. Revolutions operate
through creative tactics and mechanisms that take its opponents by
surprise. Revolutions don't play the politics of today; they create their
own rules and dictate their own terms. Creating revolutionary councils
Rabaa Anniversary: A Requisition of a new design
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2. 4/25/2015 Rabaa Anniversary: A Requisition of a new design ­ Daily Sabah
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and issuing statements of intent are means of playing today's politics.
This leads me to the second key point, and that is we are facing, in part,
an organized military system. We are facing intelligence officers, military
generals and security officers. As much as we despise their corruption
and their behavior, as much as we must recognize, they learn and
develop. Therefore, starting demonstrations from the same places,
following the same routes in every march and repeating the same tactics
in every rally is just plain absurdity. We only need to look across the
border at Gaza and learn from the Palestinian movement how resorting
to unconventional and creative measures yields fascinating results
against huge organized security systems. In Rabaa we faced security
forces in the same way almost every time and the casualties were
devastating and the achievement was minimal. What is amazing is that
for almost a year since then we have been following the same measures
that result in the same consequences.
Our creativity should not only be concerned with the military only. If
there is one crucial point from Rabaa, it is that we are in a social struggle
against a social system of which the military organization is one
constituent. In Rabaa we learned that there are other groups in the
community that we need to address in different manners. There are
impoverished people whose lives have deteriorated over the past few
years – from their perspective, as a result of this so­called "revolution."
At the first moment they felt there might be a resolution to this situation,
they immediately supported it regardless of the price paid. Those people
are among the segments we need to address to win over or, at least,
neutralize. There is the media community that played a significant role in
influencing the perceptions of many segments of society in their stand
toward the events. There is the business community that spent millions
of pounds to support the tyrannical military in their efforts. Even
religious institutions played a significant role in the outcome of the
events. These few examples demonstrate the significant amount of work
and thought that need to be considered if we wish to widen the groups of
people supporting the revolution. The work that needs to be done is not
only in the streets or facing security forces; there is awareness and
motivation that need to be developed among different factions in various
areas of our society. In Rabaa we failed to harness our creativity to
develop diverse mechanisms that could reach out to a wider spectrum of
groups in our society. We need to admit that in Rabaa, our slogans and
communication was actually alienating to many people. The speeches
that were made, the media coverage offered and the behavior of many
keynote speakers were perceived negatively by many factions of society.
This has not changed in the year since the massacre.
What Rabaa also revealed was the influence of external players, both
regional and international, in Egyptian affairs. Actually, the regional
players played a more significant role in supporting the tyrannical
generals. Throughout the past year this fact was demonstrated on
numerous occasions. Yet throughout Rabaa protests and the year that
followed we failed to address those external players in an appropriate

3. 4/25/2015 Rabaa Anniversary: A Requisition of a new design ­ Daily Sabah
http://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/2014/08/15/rabaa­anniversary­a­requisition­of­a­new­design 3/4
manner. There are a number of reasons for this including the failure to
understand the emerging geopolitical map and the associated power
structure, a lack of vision and creativity and most importantly, the failure
of demonstrating street power. Another ingredient that the Egyptian
revolution is missing is its ability to address the local populations abroad.
One just needs to look at the composition of people in the various events
organized abroad to realize that most of those events are a mini replica of
Rabaa in Egyptian.
It has been one year since the Rabaa massacre. I fear that it will soon
turn into another Karbala incident where we will wail every year on one
of the bloodsheds that took place in human history. I have heard
numerous tragic stories of what took place. I have yet to see how we have
learned from this unforgettable event. I hope to return to Rabaa one day
to salute the martyrs who fell there and tell them that their blood was not
shed in vain.
* Egyptian Revolutionary
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4. 4/25/2015 Rabaa Anniversary: A Requisition of a new design ­ Daily Sabah
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