Politicians: January 25 Demonstration Is not a Prelude to National Uprising

Thousands of Egyptians are scheduled to take to the streets on January 25 Day of Rage demonstration at the invitation of the "6 April Youth" group. A large number of political parties and forces will participate in the protests, including the Democratic Front, the Labor Party, Al Ghad, the Revolutionary Socialists, the Socialist Renewal Movement, Prospects for Socialism, the Popular Democratic Movement for Democratic Change (Hashd), Al-Kefaya, Youth for Justice and Freedom, the Free Front for Peaceful Change, ElBaradei’s campaign, and the National Association for Change.
 
The Day of Rage demonstration, which will be taking place in Cairo and other governorates on Tuesday, January 25, is calling to achieve certain demands:
to raise the minimum wage limit to LE 1200 and to make unemployment payments available, to cancel the Emergency Law, to dismiss Habib El-Adly, release all people being detained without court orders, to dismantle the current parliament, to have a new free election and to amend the constitution so that any president can only serve twice.
 
The movement demands that the number of protesters throughout Egypt is not less than 50 and that demonstrations must be conducted in a peaceful manner without damaging private or public property or insulting the ruling regime.
 
Mohamed Adel, Executive Director of 6 April Youth, said the group has prepared plastic shields to protect its protesters from police attacks by batons and sticks and has trained them to use the shields to protect them selves from ill-treatment by security forces.
 
In its statement, the movement highlighted that the January 25 demonstrations intended to expose the ruling regime’s repression and horrifying crimes against the Egyptian people especially with regard to Islamic law, disregard for human rights and plundering public funds.
 
Although the “Salafists Movement for Reform” aka “HAFS” announced that it is going to participate, most of the other Salafy movements are generally against demonstrations.
 
Some sources revealed that some Salafis, who have been summoned by the security forces in Alexandria, received "direct threats of immediate arrest if they planned to protest against the government, despite the fact that Salafi preachers and scholars in Alexandria expressed strong reservations regarding it.

Dr. Abdel-Halim Kandil, former general coordinator of the Kefaya movement, sees that January 25 is the national day of Egyptian Police where we remember how our police force in “Ismailia” stood beside the people and the resistance against the British occupation in a very rare patriotic incident in 1952 but today its leading role has changed as it quells the people.
 
He told Al-Mesryoon, that January 25 is not necessarily a prelude to a popular uprising, but a day of anger and an experience that might make our children and grandchildren proud of us some day, despite the fact that no revolutions are made according to a pre-set schedule.
 
The 2011 demonstration is a huge event organized by the “We are all Khaled Said” group and is supported by other opposition political parties and groups. There are great hopes that this event will change Egypt forever especially after what happened in Tunisia.
 
Dr. Yahya Al Gazzaz, leader in the Kefaya Movement, explained that the Tunisia uprising revealed the fragility of the situation in all Arab regimes that might be changed by civil disobedience which always begins with demonstrations and gradually rises.
 
He also believes that the Tunisian revolt has shown it is possible to make a shift in Egypt with less than 100,000, indicating that the cost of freedom is blood.
 
We might be living in bad days now, but it could be worse!
 
But remember that this nation is too precious to be the subject of our experiments and games!