Security service reforms will test Egypt's uprising

Will Mohammed Morsi rein in Egypt's security services? That would be a real change from the old Egypt.

Last week, the passing of 100 days since Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi took office gave activists and politicians an obvious milestone by which to judge the nascent democratic rule of the Arab world's largest country. By some measures, Mr Morsi appears to be doing surprisingly well, having tamed the top generals in August and reasserted Egypt's presence in world politics.

In other ways, however, Egypt is depressingly similar to the country of Mubarak days. The sheer scale of the necessary transformation was emphasised over the weekend when a small Egyptian human rights group, the Nadim Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, issued a report on police violence since Mr Morsi took office. The findings: 246 cases of police brutality, including serious allegations of torture.

The take-away wasn't that Egyptian police were acting worse than under Mr Mubarak - but that nothing had changed. The situation remains as bad as ever.

One report does not condemn the entire police force, but it does speak to a wider problem. Mr Morsi - and his successors, for such is the scope of the problem - must address the "mukhabarat mentality" that has pervaded Egypt's security apparatus for decades. The uprisings will, in part, be judged by the reform of security forces from the lowest ranks to the top.

The succession of generals in Egypt entrenched a police force and intelligence services that were unaccountable to the citizenry. The abuses that were committed in that cloak-and-dagger world contributed to the fall of the regime - the rallying call of "we are all Khalid Said", referring to a young man beaten to death by police before the uprising, is still a mobilising political force.

The old regime has surely fallen, although the new Muslim Brotherhood-led government has yet to prove that it is committed to open political competition. And the personnel of the old regime are still present at every level, for the most part ordinary Egyptians who were just doing their jobs in Mubarak-era Egypt. But surely, there are men and women with blood on their hands who still have their jobs.

The mentality of impunity will take time to change. It will require institutional reforms, a strong and impartial judiciary, and most of all the political will to challenge the entrenched security apparatus.

In the coming years, one of the greatest tests of the new state will be the accountability of the police and the other security agencies, and a clear message that those who uphold the law are not above it.