When the regime puts the security apparatus in the driver’s seat

President Hosni Mubarak represents the axis of the Egyptian political system since he holds all the reins of power in his hands. He is the head of the executive authority and the president of the National Democratic Party which controls the legislative authority. He has other powers that render him more powerful than all Egyptian institutions, including even the judiciary, which should ideally enjoy a relative degree of independence.

Yet the president, who has all these powers concentrated in his hands, lacks political or legal accountability.

What’s more, the expansion of the role of the security apparatus is the inevitable corollary of a regime that is monopolized by one figure, especially when that person doesn’t derive his legitimacy from the will of the people.

Still, however, that role remains subservient to politics, and is never complementary or an alternative to it. It’s the political decision-maker who decides the nature, limits, form and timing of the security apparatus’ intervention, which is usually needed to compensate for the lack of legitimacy on the part of the regime.

Therefore, when politics take the back seat and security forces take the driver’s seat this is often an indicator that the regime is alienated from the people–a stage that political regimes often go through when they are in decline.

I’m afraid this is the state of the Egyptian regime these days, and the extension of the state of emergency provides adequate proof of my statement.

I mentioned before how a number of independent and Muslim Brotherhood MPs had notified the Interior Ministry that they planned to organize a march on 3 May–in which figures from across the political spectrum were to participate–from Omar Makram mosque to the Parliament to present their reform demands to the People’s Assembly speaker. The Ministry of Interior, for its part, sent an official warning, served by a bailiff, to the People’s Assembly speaker in which it said it refuses to grant permission for the march and holds the organizers responsible for what may happen if the march is staged.

I learned that there were attempts to reach a compromise by shortening the path that the march will take, but that even that suggestion was refused by the ministry. Eventually, this will only serve to heighten tensions.

It seems that Mubarak’s health condition has created a political vacuum that is being filled by the security apparatus. This is dangerous.

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