Like Joseph Goebbels once said regarding the media propaganda:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Before I went to Sarajevo to attend the MJC conference, on June 27th I saw 13-year-old kids helping out with the preparations and drawing graffiti on the walls for the June 30th protests against then president Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood Zeroes, which made me realize that all my people were going out to fill the streets.
So I knew that I could go to Sarajevo rest assured that my people would take down Morsi without my help. Then July 3rd came for me as a day of victory with Morsi''s ousting and the installement of a civilian president who was a judge. This gave me false assurance that justice would be the new theme in my Egypt along with a new government that had good names such as Mohamed ElBaradei who was appointed as vice president, but I was completely wrong, and what I am seeing now makes me realize that we have been played and fooled from an early start.
There is no shame to admit your mistakes and admit you were wrong. So, yes, I was very wrong and I admit it.
(June 27, 2013 was when I knew for sure that Morsi was going down no matter how hard the Brotherhood resisted.)
Now I am witnessing a one-way extensive media propaganda campaign in my Egypt that is sky high to a point that I think it may exceed that of China and North Korea''s propaganda style combined. Ours depicts Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as our savior and the new Nasser who will solve all of my Egypt''s problems with a blink of an eye.
When television satirist Bassem Yousef criticized how the media was showing ElSisi on his first episode of season three on October 25th his show was suspended for months, but Thank God he is back now. For me he is the only honest media man in my Egypt.
Sisi''s trip to Russia last week was handled by the media as a powerful move that would bring America and Europe to their knees, especially because Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a startling intervention in Egypt’s political turmoil by backing Sisi for the presidency, before even an election date has been declared.
(A red star Jacket as a courtesy from Putin for the future president of my Egypt)
Ironically, the media here promoted the trip as facilitating the signing of a $2 billion arms deal with the Russians attempting to show that we don’t need anything from America ever again. While the fact is the Egyptian army has received military equipment from the US for more than three decades now, which means we still need US assistance for the spare parts and ammunition for this arsenal. The real funny thing is when the Russian ambassador in Cairo showed up on RT channel saying in plain Arabic that no arms deal had been signed between the sides and questioning from what sources the Egyptian media was getting its information.
The Russian Ambassador`s speech about the arms deal
Then the top army generals announced their blessing for Sisi''s candidacy, in their statement, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces deemed that his presidential campaign was demanded by the Egyptian people as “a duty and an obligation,” and said that Field Marshal Sisi must consider this as “a call that demands compliance.”
Sisi''s trip to Russia also served to demonstrate his strength at home and abroad by delivering a message to Washington about Egypt’s independence alongside this extensive media propaganda. Sisi now has an extraordinary combination of power and popularity among the people of my Egypt.
He is running for president and he will be the president of my Egypt no matter what the real facts are.
The country is now ranked among the top 10 jailers of journalists in the world, at least 13 foreign and local journalists have allegedly been imprisoned in Egypt so far.
The current attacks on press freedom are the most severe the country has ever faced and there is no space for any opposing view. The silencing of dissent goes far beyond journalists.
Even the political scientist Amr Hamzawy, a university lecturer and a former member of the Egyptian parliament, is facing charges over a single Twitter post questioning a court ruling; he has since been barred from leaving the country.
Now, after imprisoning scores of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, along with the young political activists and anyone who dares to oppose this madness we are living and facing, there will be no one eligible to run for presidency against Sisi.
In my opinion, the real time bomb is the young members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the rest of the Islamist parties. All of their leaders have been prosecuted and imprisoned now, so with no one left to control them while facing this oppression, these young members will with no doubt go to the extreme and they will be the new breed of real terrorism in the very near future.
What the regime can’t understand or realize is that the young Egyptians will no longer tolerate leaders who deprive them of the tools and space to realize their full potentials and their right to be free.
As what Oscar Wilde once said:
“You don’t Love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”