Al Jazeera America quotes Rafik Hariri Center Associate Director Tarek Radwan on what the dropped charges against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak mean for the Arab Spring:
What are your thoughts on the dismissal of charges against Mubarak?
Tarek Radwan: When we’re talking about judicial procedure and penance of judiciary, these are all hallmarks of what a functioning institution is, how it’s supposed to behave, where rule of law is respected, procedure respected. It’s the political context in which this is taking place that really signals the problem. The charges brought against him were brought in a hateful way against Mubarak. Because the judiciary at the time was part of that landscape, they felt public pressure to press on ahead with the trial, adhering to these procedures. Now that you’ve had this return of the military to the forefront, where the counterrevolutionary forces have dominated the political sphere, this is where it becomes quite convenient to, again, be looking at a return of procedures. You can smell which ways the winds are changing, but that doesn’t meant that the decision can’t be appealed.
People in Tahrir are reportedly calling for a new revolution. Could this be the start of another one? Do Egyptians have it in them to keep going?
I would be surprised to see that happen. I think the vast majority of Egyptians are suffering from revolution fatigue. They have been for quite a while. In voting [Abdel Fattah El] Sisi into the presidency, turning the other way during the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and even plotting and encouraging reporting on other citizens — all of this — it’s just that Egyptians are tired. I don’t think that it’s in the population right now to undertake another revolution, particularly because the vast majority of people now support this current regime. They see that they voted for it, forget the fact that the elections were grossly unfair, when you suppress dissenting voices, but the fact is that most Egyptians see this as the path they’ve chosen. And those revolutionary forces, if we’re talking Islamists, they’re very much entrenched amongst themselves.