‘Because Silence Is No Longer an Option’ is the message Bedaya Movement posted on its Facebook page. Bedaya is the latest of a series of Egyptian political campaigns speared by youth groups, in response to security confrontations and mass arrests of dozens and even hundreds of opponents of Sisi’s regime, with harsh punishments of at least three years imprisonment.

‘Because Silence Is No Longer an Option’ is the message Bedaya Movement posted on its Facebook page. Bedaya is the latest of a series of Egyptian political campaigns speared by youth groups, in response to security confrontations and mass arrests of dozens and even hundreds of opponents of Sisi’s regime, with harsh punishments of at least three years imprisonment.

Among the distinguished signatories and supporters of Bedaya’s campaign were members of the Kefaya movement, which played a prominent role in opposing Mubarak’s regime during his last years in power. However, it was later disintegrated and its role in the political arena ended after the January 25 Revolution.

The emergence of Bedaya coincided with the emergence of the Tamarud campaign in April 2013, which gathered enough signatures to in initiate a movement that eventually lead to Morsi’s ouster – Beyda used similar tactics.

Beyda explained the reasons for its emergence at that time in a statement that  cited the political, economic and social corruption of the ruling regime in addition to the prosecution of the January Revolution rebels.

Although the name given to the last political campaign was Bedaya (beginning), it has failed to have a clear start. No action plans or short-term goals have been announced. It has used the same campaigning strategy previously used by Tamarud, with which it is now at odds, to express its intention to start a signature collection campaign to pass a no-confidence vote against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Same old same old?

Reproducing old concepts under different circumstances is not enough to topple down regimes or introduce radical changes. This belief is held by the vast majority of young revolutionary forces which seem to have lost confidence, given their experience with Tamarud, which they had wholeheartedly supported in the past and later turned against them when Tamarud became aligned with the regime.

Loss of confidence or reproduction of old ideas have not been the main reasons for the reluctance of young people to participate or join the campaign.

Confusing vision

A state of confusion was a predominant feature of Bedaya’s campaign especially since it was launched by Amr Badr who is the editor of the Naserist ‘January Gate’ website and the younger uncle of Mahmoud Badr (co-founder of Tamarud). The confusion was manifested in a television talk show which witnessed a violent confrontation between Mahmoud Badr, and Sherif Diab, a media representative of Bedaya. Diab failed to answer many questions raised by several young people who lost confidence in Tamarud especially since el-Sisi’s inaugural speech of July 2013.

The most important issues raised about the movement were its relationship to the Muslim Brotherhood and whether Bedaya was one of the movements launched by the Muslim Brotherhood or its sympathizers. Bedaya’s answer was: “We differ from the Brotherhood, but we agree with them in toppling el-Sisi.”

This evoked several other questions including what alternative Bedaya would offer, and how could the nascent campaign enjoy the same popularity enjoyed by Tamarud.  And, does this movement reflect, as accused by some, a ‘conflict of powers’ or is it just a re-production of Tamarud amid completely different objectives and subjective conditions?

The answer to all these questions was not convincingly provided by this fledgling movement, which is now facing a deluge of legal actions by the public prosecutor over and above many other accusations of being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The movement is also formally charged with receiving funds from Qatar and Saudi Arabia as well as the USA.

The campaigners have not been aware of the necessity to respond to the legal actions to avoid being prosecuted, but they confirmed in several statements that these actions were no more than a legal attempt to intimidate the members of the campaign. They believed there was no need to take any legal action.

Repetition or new vision

Recently the campaign held two meetings to launch the first activities it planned to organize to mark the anniversary of ‘power delegation’ on July 3. Surprisingly, the campaigners decided to head to Tahrir Square, an action that looked like a repeat of the Muslim Brotherhood youth’s attempt to take to Tahrir Square, as though the radical changes could come only from Cairo’s center.

 April 6 youth accused Bedaya  of being the creation of security services.

In a decisive answer, Amr Badr, the campaign’s media spokesman, emphasized that right from the beginning Bedaya movement declared that it was outside the political conflict between the old regime and the Muslim Brotherhood. He stressed that all attempts to suggest that Bedaya was linked to the Muslim Brotherhood would be considered an absurd attempt to distort the movement’s reputation and occurred in the context of a campaign aimed at intimidating current regime opponents.

Replying to the accusation that the campaign did not have a clear plan and that it was a re-production of Tamarud, Badr said, “Bedaya has a clear plan which will be announced soon through a political document for the campaign. The document will contain the objectives and action mechanisms and everything else related to the campaign’s general vision.”

“When it was first launched, Bedaya announced that it has a principled vision and we waited until we achieved unity among youth forces so that the movement could reflect the unified voice of all the forces subscribing to its efforts,” he added.

The movement’s official representative stressed that there are consultations with various political forces which will be regarded as an added value for the campaign. He also added that he cannot name these forces at this point.