Egyptians need leader to restore unity: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mostafa Ragab, the founder of the Egyptian UK Association, from London, over the unabated strife in Egypt, between supporters and opponents of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Let me get your reading on this; you have the army, announcing mass rally for Friday, that was Wednesday when announced that; then on Thursday, they announced 48-hour deadline ultimatum, otherwise as they stated to deal decisively with what they call “violence and terrorism,” and then today, they have charged ousted President Mohamed Morsi in that jailbreak which resulted in death of about fourteen soldiers.

Are they setting the scene to go after pro-Morsi supporters and of course is that going to involve, we are seeing as of now, violence, scuffle, etc.?

Ragab: The government, now, have to take very serious measures in order to achieve security on the streets of Egypt that the previous government have failed to do.

When the previous government were in office, they were always saying that they would position another parties, refusing the call to come and sit down and negotiate and have a deal.

This is exactly what they are doing now. So we have contradiction there; where something that they complain about, [is] something they are refusing to do now.

Obviously, we support anybody or any people who come and achieve stability and security on the streets of Egypt. You will never be able to do anything whether it is economy or tourism; whatever you want to do you will have to achieve security on the streets of Egypt first.

Press TV: It does not seem like that is what the army wants, because they have a choice of at least being warmer, softer towards the way that they have dealt with the situation. But here we have a president that goes ousted, imprisoned and also just the way as I mentioned the timeline of how they are setting the scene; seems like they are going to go after pro-Morsi supporters. People actually thought they were in democratic process of voting.

Ragab: No, I think we have got the picture wrong, because what was happening is that the people in June 30 thought the job was done and they will not back to work.

The Muslim Brotherhood were calling and bringing people from all over Egypt, to show that Egypt is in support of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. So I think what has been done is at least a message to give the all a message that there is support for the other side as well.

So when we look at what is happening now and the message is clear; there is a lot of people on the streets to show their support for the action that is being taken. We are looking for …the security and we have some security on the streets of Egypt to allow people to walk.

Of course, the new government have called for the national unity and called for discussion, but this is what the Muslim Brotherhood answered to refuse to sit down and find a roadmap to get out of this trouble. What they are saying at the moment that we will sit down by our terms and conditions; exactly what the opposition was doing before.

You do not sit down by terms and conditions, you sit down and discuss and try to achieve and try to find a way out of this trouble or this position you are in now.

Press TV: I would like to complete the picture Mostafa Ragab if I can, about the stance that the army has taken in some of the statements that army General [Abdel Fattah] al-Sisi has made. One of them is the fact that has described these terrorists as radical Islamists, loyal to the ousted leader who have been attacking security forces he said.

I found that very ironic, he referred to them as being in strategic Sinai Peninsula. It is kind of ironic when army itself or police officers as a security apparatus was blamed for the massacre that took place, about fifty people were killed; I mean, how many of what, twenty million votes that Morsi had involves radical Islamists, al-Sisi has said.

Ragab: We have just to wait for the investigation. We cannot just blame people. Can I just go back and say that Morsi was elected, or appointed, he failed to deliver. The man did not show me any signs that he is going to go forwards with Egypt, to make any progress in Egypt for 25 perent of his time in office.

The second issue is the government is not making an allegation against Morsi and no just doing that to him. There is someone, will come and bring some evidence to the court and the court will investigate. This is what happening now.

So it is not that they are throwing a blame or making an allegation or trying to bring his name or something, no; there is someone that brings some evidence to the court and the court has to make their investigation.

So, it is not misleading people and say that allegation is made against Morsi or…. Morsi, as I said before, he could be a very good man, a very kind man, but this is not what makes a president.

A president must have the quality and experience and charisma to lead a country and get people together. But what happened during this time, the country is divided now and we do not want that; we want a person to come up and to unite Egyptian people again and get people on the road again and get the people to work.

The people in Tahrir Square, I can tell you, they will not stay there for three, four weeks; they have work to do, they have families to look after; no one can afford to stay in Square for three, four weeks. I do not know how can people do it; where they get the money from; how they can leave their jobs; how their jobs allow them to stay out of the work for three, four weeks. This is not on.

So, we will have to know that there is going to be something behind it, there is going to be someone funding these things and this is not on. Egypt has to move, Egypt has to get on the road again and work; we have to produce.

So, when people say allegations and accusations, we will have to look that this is not in court. In court you have some evidence and the court will have to investigate that evidence and this is the stage we are in now.

Whether this is true or false, this evidence that will be brought to court, that is something else and regarding the massacre that happened, also we have to wait for the investigation; we cannot just blame people and say who killed and who is a martyr and who is a victim and who is an offender. We have to wait for the investigation.

This is something that not just the Egyptians, the whole Arab world need to know; because as soon as something happen, everyone come up and make their statements without saying we have to investigate, we have to see what happened, we have to wait for the court. People just quickly make their statements and this does not help the situation at all.

Press TV: I understood from your actions that you disagreed with [the other guest] Abayomi Azikiwe there.

Ragab: Of course if I may go to talk about the United States; if anyone will deny that there is international talks all the time between governments and people in office, no one can deny that the Muslim Brotherhood were having this kind of discussion before to come to power with the United Kingdom or the United States; that thing is happening, no one can deny it.

But what I am looking at is the United States or anyone who will call it a coup or not, what is the definition of a coup? The army did not take over; the army … the constitution and appointed an interim president. The interim president appointed a prime minister who appointed a government.

Now look at the performance of this government; will this government lift Egypt and board them in the road again? Will this government deliver, not like the previous government that failed to deliver? This is what will decide what is happening in the streets of Egypt, because the people in Egypt want to see people back to work, the unemployed youth back to work or something to keep them busy.

We want to see the crime rates down, we want to collect all those people who ran away from prisons, back to prisons, we want …..

But we want people outside Egypt to leave Egypt alone. We have an internal problem; Egypt has been divided during the time the Muslim Brotherhood in office. We want the Egyptian people to unite again; we want them to sit down and talk. We want to teach them, we want to help them; how they can sit down and have a discussion and how they can have agreements together.

But supporting people against people is what makes the problem bigger and bigger and if we look now at what is happening, the people of the Facebook are not helping the situation at all. They use some extreme languages and pushing people against each other.

We want to change this language if we want something good happens in Egypt.