To be clear, this is not an article about the past, it’s an article about the future. It’s an article about tomorrow.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (henceforth SCAF) is trying to impose a supposition; that the revolution happened and is done with, and that we are now suffering its consequences. The revolutionaries, on the other hand, are convinced that the Egyptian Revolution continues and has not yet ended – because they are painfully aware, as are we all (whether or not we like it) that the regime that Egyptians went out to destroy still stands. My supposition is that the revolution has not yet begun.
What’s been happening in Egypt since January 25, 2011 and up to the present day is an awakening, no more and no less. It is because our slumber had been so long and so deep that our awakening was so jolting and abrupt and, so far, has cost many, many lives. The bravest and noblest among us have been martyred so that this awakening can spread wide throughout Egypt, so that Egypt herself is never again silenced.
So now, what is the reality of the situation? The reality is that the regime has not changed, and the authority does not yet rest with the people, and the revolution is still a popular project and not a political reality.
The revolution has not yet begun.
The awakening, however, is spreading. The population at large took part in the first wave of awareness when they all came out and rejected Mubarak and all that his decades represented, all the oppression and injustices that were hallmarks of his rule; the theft of the land and the systematic abuse of our rights as citizens and as human beings. Now another message is spreading and the people are awakening to it that Mubarak did not manage to ruin Egypt all on his own, that the project of destroying Egypt and dis-empowering her was a large undertaking in which many people had participated and which represented a mental framework that saw Egyptians as weak slaves, and that rather than see Egypt as a home, a people, and as a culture, chose to see it as a bounty to plunder and loot, to exploit and steal.
Since January we have not yet seen the signs of revolution, but we see an enormous awakening that destroys anything and anybody that tries to stand in its way. Now the newspapers write, even if some still choose to lick the military boot. Television shows now speak up, even if some are still gripped with fear. More importantly, we, the people, are talking. We are talking on the streets, and at local cafes, in taxi-cabs, and in offices. We are talking to one another as we’ve never done before. We speak to each other even when we are only strangers on the street who do not know each other by name. More to the point, we all know that so long as we all continue to speak out among ourselves that the truth will spread far and wide, and that this is a strength we have paid dearly to earn.
So we are in an awakening and now we speak with each other through videos and data show projectors being set up throughout Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other governorates are quickly catching up. Information spreads, and the people talk, argue, and discuss.
The revolution has not yet begun, but it has become both inevitable and unstoppable. Because an awakening is followed by awareness and this awareness will once again bring the people together and this time, nothing will stop us.
With all the attacks that the old regime is now suffering, with all the concessions that they try to offer in an attempt to pacify the people and calm them down, with all the scapegoats they have sacrificed in order to preserve what they can of their interests, their wealth, and their positions of power: I say to them, quite simply the Egyptian Revolution has not yet begun, and it is coming.
We do not hold on to the word ‘revolution’ because we are naive. We are fully aware that what we have today is a ‘revolutionary project’ that has yet to be fulfilled. We hold on to the word because it is a popular project that we held up for referendum on January 25th, 2011 and the result of that referendum came in on the 28th of January when the people of Egypt supported it with their voices, their bodies, and their blood. In doing so, the people of Egypt approved the revolutionary proposal and now when we talk about the Egyptian Revolution we are talking about a promise; Egypt will change, and anybody who tries to stop it is doing nothing except raising the blood toll, because: The Revolution has not yet begun.
