removal of Morsi: the case against and the case for

The case against: “Morsi was the first democratically elected President in the history of Egypt. Removing him with military force deals a terrible setback to Egyptian democracy, sends a message to Islamists around the world that they have nothing to hope for from joining the political process, and also suggests the empowerment of shadowy Mubarak-era officials who might be using the Army to restore the old regime.“

The case for: “Morsi barely received a majority in the election, and only because he was running against Mubarak’s Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, the very emblem of what the Revolution was trying to topple. And regardless of the election results, Morsi invalidated his own rule last November by declaring himself beyond the reach of the courts. There are currently no legal impeachment methods –Parliament does not currently exist– and thus a mass outpouring of millions of citizens onto the streets is the closest one can come to a legal impeachment under the current system; hence the Army had no choice but to remove the President.”

I was saying for months that I oppose military coups in all cases. Nonetheless, I now find myself gravitating towards the second option here, primarily because I was in Egypt on June 30 and saw something unprecedented in terms of public outcry against a truly terrible President. It’s one thing to say “respect the result of elections” if you’re in a stable Western democracy, quite another if you’re in Egypt (where of the top 5 Presidential candidates, the three “sane” options split the sane vote, leaving the rest to vote for Morsi or Shafik and putting them into the runoff; actually, there were some sane votes for both Morsi and Shafik as well, so I don’t want to exaggerate, but both also received too many insane votes for comfort).

But my inclination to see why Morsi had to be removed still does not incline me to trust the Army. Some Egyptian friends are annoyed at me for having expressed these sentiments, but I can’t shake them. If you’ve been following the news at all recently, you’ll know what I mean.