Morsi is failing as Egypt's renaissance man

When Mohammed Morsi won the Egyptian presidency a year ago his first stop was Tahrir Square. Today, he would not dare enter it. Bradley Hope reports from Cairo

Mohammed Morsi (right) shakes hands with Faruq Sultan, head of the presidential election commission, after taking the oath of office at his swearing-in ceremony at the Constitutional Court in Cairo in June, 2012.Show less

CAIRO // When Mohammed Morsi won the Egyptian presidency a year ago his first stop was Tahrir Square.
The day before he was officially sworn in by the supreme constitutional court, he entered the epicentre of the 2011 uprising to pay his respects to the power of the Egyptian people who forced Hosni Mubarak to resign after nearly 30 years of autocratic rule and made his election possible.
"I swear by God that I will sincerely protect the republican system and that I respect the constitution and the rule of law," the long-time figure in the Muslim Brotherhood told a crowd of tens of thousands, opening his jacket to show he was not wearing a bulletproof vest.
"There is no power above people power. Today you are the source of this power. You give this power to whoever you want and you withhold it from whoever you want."
On the one-year anniversary of his term, Mr Morsi would not dare enter Tahrir Square. On Friday and Saturday, protesters were seething with disgust at his government. Many held up his picture crossed out with an X. Others chanted for him to resign for the sake of the country. Another massive demonstration is planned for today.
The aim of this discontented population is unclear: some want Mr Morsi removed from power in the manner of his predecessor while others simply want him to compromise with his political opponents.
Violence seemed all too certain after clashes over the past week between Mr Morsi's supporters and opponents that left six dead - including an American student filming protests in Alexandria - and hundreds injured.
The polarisation and violence say much about the state of the country in its transition from the Mubarak era, with the consequences of deliberately stunted political development and economic backwardness unfurling by the day. But for many Egyptians, the real problem is Mr Morsi himself.
Mr Morsi was never supposed to be a major presidential contender. He entered the race as a backup candidate to Khairat Al Shater, the better-known Muslim Brotherhood financier.
Even when Mr Al Shater was disqualified from the race because of his criminal record - the result of politically motivated cases from the extremely anti-Brotherhood Mubarak regime - few thought Mr Morsi had a chance of winning.
Many saw the race as between Amr Moussa, Egypt's former foreign minister, and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a more moderate Islamist who had been kicked out of the Brotherhood for insubordination.
But voters sided with the two extremes of the candidate list: Mr Morsi, the Brotherhood's choice, and Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister.
Neither candidate achieved the majority needed to win outright, leaving Egyptians with a difficult choice: a conservative Islamist who was a clear antithesis to the old regime or a former air force colonel and Mubarak confidante who resembled the National Democratic Party candidates of before. Some refused to vote altogether.
Many liberals and participants in the 2011 uprising ultimately sided with Mr Morsi, helping him to a narrow win with just 51.7 per cent of the vote.
It did not take long for the liberals who opted to give him a chance to regret their decision. On July 9, Mr Morsi ordered that the parliament - which the supreme constitutional court had dissolved because part of the voting was deemed unconstitutional - should be reinstated. It was a clear indication that the president was willing to overrule the judiciary to achieve his goals.
In August he sacked the top military officers who had run the country for a year and a half after Mubarak's resignation.
But the key moment was November 22, when Mr Morsi shocked even his own advisers with a decree placing his decisions beyond the reach of the judiciary and rushing through a vote on a constitution that many liberals, Christians and moderate Islamists saw as inappropriate for the country.
He reduced his powers in a later decree, but the damage was done. A scattered opposition movement coalesced under the National Salvation Front, an umbrella group, which held huge protests and refused to negotiate unless the president agreed to amend the constitution, appoint a new government and made decision-making more inclusive. The two sides have battled ever since - both in rhetoric and on the streets.
By late last year, it was becoming clear that Mr Morsi was struggling with the heart of his campaign pledge to bring about an Egyptian "renaissance". In the past year, the currency has depreciated more than 15 per cent against the US dollar. Unemployment has risen to 13.2 per cent from 8.9 per cent before the uprising. Queues for petrol snake for more than a kilometre on some nights because of shortages and blackouts have become more common.
Mr Morsi's government also failed to obtain a US$4.8 billion loan (Dh17.63bn) from the International Monetary Fund, despite negotiations that have been going on since the first months after Mubarak's resignation.
The political polarisation of last year has swirled together with economic deterioration, leaving the country at one of its most vulnerable moments since 2011. Many fear that mass demonstrations today will mark the beginning of a new cycle of violence, with deaths spurring more protests.
Caught between the warring sides are the vast majority of Egyptians, whose hope after the uprising that began in Tahrir Square was simply for a better quality of life.
 
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