Sisi assumed office by force: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohamed Fareed al-Shayyal, an Islamic Studies expert from London, about the Egyptian former army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi being sworn in as the new president.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all, looking at the conditions under which Abdul Fattah al-Sisi came to power, the boycott by the Muslim Brotherhood, the anti-coup movement even secular and youth groups. Do you think these are signs that during his presidency he’s going to face some major challenges and political challenges from inside his own government and can he withstand those challenges?

Al-Shayyal: Of course, it is very sad moment in the history of Egypt that a fake operation, stealing the will of the people and trying to portray it falsely as if this is the choice of the Egyptian masses. We have seen last week how they fiddled with the so-called election, ran under the coup authorities which had a very modest turn-up of less than six percent on the first day. With all the forces of persuasion and scaring people they managed to falsify it to be at forty percent at the end of three days. One of them was extended outside the designed dates for the official election.

And of course threatening the people to pay five hundred Egyptian pounds if they don’t go for vote and many other things. Now he wants to add glamour to that by having an unprecedented celebration which is usually done for kings.

We never had any presidents inaugurated in the Middle East nor in Egypt in such way where you spend lavishly. The public was given one official holiday, a holiday which costs the Egyptian Treasury two billion Egyptian pounds in time we are begging other countries to come and help restoring our decaying economy.

The security measures to keep this celebration over the day from morning until tomorrow when we have a big gala or party which will be attended by the king of Jordan, king of Bahrain and some similar dignitaries from Middle East. this will cost other several billion pounds.

And all of that to have a phony celebration of a military leader who took by force the post after deposing the democratically elected legitimate President Morsi who hadn’t resigned, who hadn’t left the post and who is considered by a big section of Egyptian population to be the only legitimate president so far.

Press TV: Do you think that the way that he has been dealing with political challenges up until now is going to help him remain in power or do you think he might face the same faith for instance as Mohammed Morsi did?

Al-Shayyal: It’s not the faith because of two different approaches altogether. Morsi tried to establish the institutions of the democratic state against all the resistance of the deep State of the ancient regime.

This guy coming with all the support of this Mubarak regime remnants and certain retarding powers in the area who back him financially with billions and billions of dollars but nevertheless the signs of his failure can be traced very easily that he promised nothing to the people but suffering. And he called them to show austerity in the time he plunders and squanders the money of the taxpayers on such celebrations and security.

And also the so-called reconciliation has been indicated yesterday that it is a phony talk because we have seen yesterday two controversial court decisions, dictated by the authority.

One of them is to give death sentence to ten elderly people because they had a demonstration in one of the villages of Lower Egypt while in the same time one of the courts reversed the lenient verdict against a police officer who killed in cold blood thirty-seven of his detainees by hurling tear gas bombs on them in a sealed van of the police, accommodating twenty people usually in which he jammed forty-five people over ten hours of burning sun of August in Cairo and without going to toilets or having drink of water and when they protested, he killed them in cold blood and now after giving him a ten-year sentence he walked free yesterday which was both of them a very simple signal to the Egyptian people of the kind of justice and system Sisi is bringing with.