There is currently celebration among the hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi, who have thronged the streets of Cairo and Alexandria demanding that he stand down. The army has intervened with a warning that Morsi has 48 hours in which to meet the protestors demands. Though the generals deny they are threatening a coup, this is clearly what everyone else on both sides of the argument believes. The opposition supporters are jubilant. They have absolutely no reason to be. Indeed, they should be appalled at the chaos and damage that they have caused since they took to the streets. Mohamed Morsi is a legitimately-elected president. He has served just one year of a four-year term. His record has not been outstanding and his judgement has been poor, not least in trying to arrogate to himself presidential powers that could not even be challenged by the courts. This, however, is no reason to seek his overthrow. Unless he chooses to stand down of his own volition, he is entitled to serve out his term. The problem of course is that Morsi has had to govern without a parliament. The constitutional court overturned the result of the general election on what was widely seen as a technicality, and so a new ballot must be held. The upshot has been that the president has not been challenged in debate nor have his ministers had the opportunity to explain their policies in a public forum. This lack of accountability has certainly undermined public confidence in the Muslim Brotherhood government, and maybe also has allowed Morsi to stray too far toward authoritarian pronouncements. Nevertheless, none of this can justify the ugly protests on the street, the torching of the Brotherhood's headquarters and the outrageous ultimatum from the military that Morsi surrender to opposition demands, or face the consequences. What the opposition supporters most evidently do not see is that if ever the day comes that they win an election and have their man in the presidency and their MPs dominating parliament, they will be just as vulnerable to street protests by the Muslim Brotherhood, deeply critical of their policies. If they will not respect the votes of others, why should others respect theirs? Nor can Morsi's lackluster performance justify the demands of the military that he abandon the mandate given him by a majority of the electorate. The generals should have become servants of the constitution and by extension subject to the orders of their commander-in-chief, the president. This ugly and dangerous threat is an act of gross insubordination, not to say treason. But then the armed forces insisted on being left enough trap doors in the new constitution to allow them not only to continue the privileged existence of their officer class but also key investments in the economy. The military's attempt to overthrow Morsi on the grounds of a catastrophic security situation has long been awaited. The question now is whether the demonstrators currently baying for Morsi's blood will also manage to stop the armed forces seizing the reins of government once more. Surely having overthrown an elected government, they will have no more legitimacy in this attempt than do the generals. The revolution that overthrew Mubarak has been betrayed. Some may think the old man might just as well still be in power, running a tightly-controlled police state.
