A few days after activist Shaimaa Sabbagh was fatally shot during demonstrations on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Egypt’s 25 January uprising, one could say that the situation is now calm.  When it was all over, the Ministry of Health announced that 17 people had been killed and 69 injured.

A few days after activist Shaimaa Sabbagh was fatally shot during demonstrations on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Egypt’s 25 January uprising, one could say that the situation is now calm.  When it was all over, the Ministry of Health announced that 17 people had been killed and 69 injured. The Interior Ministry, which denied killing Sabbagh although, said 439 violators of the protest law had been arrested.

Nevertheless, the banal yet prominent event in the incident’s aftermath came when the Head of Suez Traffic Department Mohammed Dafrawy stood in Elarbaen Square distributing candy, one piece to each person, to passing cars, and a red rose to the driver.

The site is reminiscent of four years earlier, when the red blood of the first martyr of the Egyptian revolution Mostafa Ragab ran along this same ground, inciting mass protests that swept the entire country, which rested only when Hosni Mubarak, after over 30 years of rule, was finally gone—the majority believed that only death could have removed him from power.

Fire under the ashes

“One of the main reasons behind the calm is the swift containment of the crisis,” said psychiatrist and head of the Health Directorate Ahmad Abdulatif, not excluding the shooting incident of brothers Mohammed and Ahmad Saud  on a motorcycle, a few days prior to the anniversary. The police claimed the brothers had not stopped at a checkpoint and were driving without a license. The policeman who killed the brothers was charged by the public prosecutor.

“This state of calm will not last long in the absence of fulfilled promises made to the people of Suez including the establishment of a university in the province for example,” said Abdulatif who believes that the people of Suez hold a permanent feeling of hatred against the regime where, despite the influx of electoral money, they remain restless about the accumulated frustration over the last four years— they have received no retribution for the martyrs of the Suez who were killed in Suez Gulf and during Port Said’s Stadium massacre, which took place on 1 February 2012 .  “It is only a matter of time before this frustration aggravates into anger,” Abdulatif said.

Labor protests and political awareness

“Nothing has changed,” said Thabit Sobhi, politician, labor activist and former member of the local People’s Council of Suez province, describing the past four years. He added that the people of the Suez region have always been characterized by their “intolerance against injustice and oppression.”  

Thabit said the people of Suez have a high and varied political awareness revealed by the rapid growth of factories and companies that include a wide labor base, which lead all modern struggle movements.

Despite the fact that Suez triggered the first spark of the Egyptian uprising and was its prominent icon, in addition to the variety of revolutionary events throughout four years, the residents have not sabotaged the oil companies and other companies in the province in an attempt to preserve the political culture and the revolutionary gains.

In regards to the current calm, Sobhi said the implementation of the road map, and most recently the upcoming parliamentary elections, have given people a glimmer of hope that enabled them, despite the large presence of political Islam in the governorate, to ignore calls for demonstrations.

Victory cannot be achieved by mere protesting

Regarding the reason behind preventing the funeral of the deceased brothers ‘Mohammed and Ahmad Saud’ from sparking yet another rebellious mobility, Thabit said the young people of Suez believe that it is not a proper time for protesting and that demonstrations as well as gatherings will only serve the interests of the Brotherhood, but they also believe that wrongdoers must be held accountable.

The youth, he added, do not seek sabotage but are rather trying to steer the wheel of the revolution in the right direction to enable it achieve its goals through their persistent quest to find a job or a house and wait anxiously for fulfilling the promises of a new regime, which “saved them form the nightmare of the Brotherhood.”

A history of struggle

Suez is considered the main eastern gate of the Egyptian state, which established constant contact with newcomers. The people of Suez used to be and still are characterized by being strugglers yet kindhearted. Since the times of the pharaohs up till now, this brave city sacrificed its sons in defense of the homeland.

During the ‘Fatimid’ wars against the ‘Qaramitas’, hundreds were killed as was the case during the resistance of the ‘Ayyubids’ against the Crusades. Additionally, many were killed during the Resistance of the ‘Ottomans’ against the Portuguese in the Red Sea. The people of Suez also participated in the ‘Wahhabi wars’ as sailors within ‘Mohammed Ali Pasha’ fleet, who transformed the city into a military base for his operations in the Arabian Peninsula in the nineteenth century.

The people of Suez also suffered the ravages of World War II and the consequences of 1967 setback before achieving victory in 1973, not to mention ‘the war of attrition’ battles. The devastation and destruction suffered by Suez exceeded that which hit the Polish capital ‘Warsaw’ during the global war. They also suffered the first and largest displacement after the setback where Suez families dispersed all over the Egyptian provinces, but the youth insisted on returning after the displacement of their families to participate in the civil defense and popular resistance. Hence, Suez has offered hundreds of victims for the sake of victory or martyrdom.