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the more i am finding out about the egyptian military the more it appears as the elephant in the room---the central patronage system that comprises the oligarchy that dominated the egyptian economy under mubarak---motor of the egyptian economy as the 1.5 billion from the us along percolates out into suppliers and related contractors---an important (though highly stratified) machine for social mobility---a classic post-1945 national security state apparatus.
one of the main things that the egyptian revolution seems to have done is made the power structure explicit. it seems to me that the military has every interest in reducing its own visibility, so it seems likely that they'll carry out the transition---form a functional interim government, address constitutional questions etc.
today the existing constitution was suspended and parliament dissolved---but the cabinet mubarak appointed is still place and is full of allies of mubarak....
and it's hard to see how the state of emergency could be lifted if the constitution is suspended---which is a definition of state of emergency----
but if there's been a state of emergency for 30 years, what meaning is there in suspending the constitution?
i am curious to see whether the legal status of the military is altered under a new constitution. at the moment it does not answer to anyone---it is not subordinated to civilian power---it is a parallel world. the elephant in the room.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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