EGYPT - Protesters Seek New Beginning

"Egypt Protests Go On, Seeking New Beginning" by NEIL MacFARQUHAR, New York Times 4/7/2011

Excerpt

Banners fluttering from the rooftop of Cairo University’s faculty of mass communications denounce the dean as a Mubarak-era lackey. Fistfights between the dean’s student opponents and supporters erupt like summer squalls, with the din often emptying classrooms as students pour into the main lobby either to join the fray or watch.

“What is happening in this faculty is a reflection of what is happening in the society after the revolution,” said Sherif Nafie, 30, a teacher’s assistant in the journalism department. “There is anger, a feeling of dissatisfaction in work, with the salaries, in life.”

The protests against the dean are just one reflection of the demand throughout Egypt for a new order, nearly two months after Hosni Mubarak was toppled. In government ministries, factories and especially universities, daily protests have focused on those viewed as Mr. Mubarak’s surrogates. Demonstrators complain that the dreaded secret police vetted every candidate for an important job under Mr. Mubarak, and that now the country deserves a clean slate.

“The people need change, real change,” Mr. Nafie said.

The protest phenomenon has spread across the country—Mubarak supporters might call it the latest plague in the land of Egypt — with people voicing previously stifled demands. Many fear that if they do not capitalize on this moment, the revolution may prove fruitless. Indeed, many worry that it already is.

“People are anxious that this post-revolutionary moment will end without them gaining their rights,” said Ehab al-Kharat, a psychiatrist organizing a new party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party.

“It is the first time in Egyptian history that people are taking part in running their own institutions and organizations,” he said. “Democracy is not just about electoral ballots and politics at the national level — it is about how you run your organization, how you run your small neighborhood, it is about having a say in every aspect of your life.”

The problem, as both he and Mr. Nafie noted, is that Egyptians lack experience in the give and take of democracy, so the push for change is marked by accentuated hostility and mistrust.