Since it came into power, the government of Hisham Qandil—Egyptian prime minister— has been threatening citizens who block roads and railways. Every day we read condemnations against such activists and warnings of making punishments against them more severe.

The media sometimes describes them as “thugs” and often accuses them of disrupting the interests of citizens.

Since it came into power, the government of Hisham Qandil—Egyptian prime minister— has been threatening citizens who block roads and railways. Every day we read condemnations against such activists and warnings of making punishments against them more severe.

The media sometimes describes them as “thugs” and often accuses them of disrupting the interests of citizens.

At many other times it accuses the remnants of the previous regime – members of the dissolved National Democratic Party and those affiliated with the State Security Investigation Service – of being behind such acts. Even if this were true, however, the media couldn’t deny that some facts prompted citizens, other than remnants of the former regime, to block roads.

The most recent example of this disturbing trend was a three-year imprisonment term for nine demonstrators from Manflut in Asyut Governorate, who blocked the city railway while denouncing the lack of gas cylinders.  This was a very clear message that the state would no longer tolerate acts that insult its prestige.

What is worrisome about the state message is that it confirms that such issues are at the bottom of the government’s list of priorities; which, sometimes likes to call itself ‘the revolution government’.

Ideological Impasse

If we scrutinize reasons, we will find that citizens block roads because they seek lost rights. Like when a citizen dies, for example, and people doubt that the police or judiciary will catch the culprit and fairly prosecute him. Or they take to the streets when the government deprives them of basic services, like potable water, irrigation, sanitary drainage, electricity, etc. or when the government objects to non-payment of the private sector workers’ salaries; most of whom are employees at companies that have been privatized.  We all know how privatization processes have been made and at whose expense.

All this takes place because there are no intermediate channels between the central authority and citizens, so they look for a way for their voices to be heard. They have no other way but to protest through blocking roads, because it attracts media attention and it had previously succeeded in meeting their social or group needs and to the restoration of their rights, even if only partially.

Citizens’ continuity to resort to blocking roads means two things: the first is that the government appointed by ‘the first elected civil president’ has been unable to satisfy their aspirations and convince them that a radical change would take place in their daily life. If such a conviction had been realized, people would have tolerated it because they would have realized that justice would prevail, injustices would be phased out and their right to a decent life would be restored.

The second is that the new authority, president and government in Egypt hasn’t yet succeeded in establishing intermediate bodies between all Egyptians and the central authority. If this might be due to lack of local and popular councils, will the appointment of new governors at least be a way to establish such channels so as to prevent roadblocks? Unfortunately, the answer is likely to be ‘no’ because the way the president ‘picks’ his staff suggests that selection is politically and unsoundly based; rather, it is based on affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood or how well it is satisfied with the candidate.

What is required is thus a specific social program with a timetable that provides basic services and meets other social demands like minimum and maximum wages, and first of all citizens’ feeling of justice through developed and fair police and judiciary. It seems that this won’t be realized in light of the new authority oblivious to restructuring the police and its endeavour to draft a new emergency law.

What the new authority is doing is more like an attempt to revive the former regime with its tyranny, corruption and nepotism.