With this deal, the Muslim Brotherhood (Freedom and Justice Party) is trying desperately to restore order and get some kind of control over the people. The police have gone on strike because they are refusing to do business with Morsi government and protesters are going nuts over the soccer riot verdict. Here is a quote about the current situation.
Clashes between police and rioters protesting against the Muslim Brotherhood regime had been ongoing over the past two weeks, ending over the weekend. Currently not even traffic police are visible in several cities.
Abdallah Mash-hoor of the Muslim Brotherhood said that the police have not been cooperating for the past two weeks and refuse to carry out Muslim Brotherhood government orders. “They just don’t want to work with the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said.
Some policemen demanded the interior minister resign, another sign they are refusing to collaborate with the regime. “We don’t want to be the stick for the ones in charge, we don’t want to be a tool for the government to achieve its political objectives,” said one police officer who asked to remain anonymous.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Sunni Islamist movement Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya’s branch in Assuit issued a statement announcing its readiness to take over police activities and maintain security there instead of the striking policemen. “Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya in Assuit announces its willingness to take full responsibility to secure the city in response to the police strike,” the statement said.
The basic situation is that the new government wants to impose order onto the population and the enforcers are not cooperating. So they could order the army to do it, but then that would look heavy handed and put the new government in the same light as the regime they toppled. Or they could use militias directly, or militias in the form of ‘law abiding’ private security. lol
That is where I think these guys are coming from. Of course the opposition to this new government is going to frame it as ‘militia in private security clothing’. Because I highly doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood would let a company like G4S come in and play cop on the streets, and I doubt G4S would even want to be a part of something like that. If so, riot training would be in order. Although you never know with this stuff and we will see where this goes? –Matt
FJP leader’s proposal to deploy private security firms provokes controversy
Amid Egypt’s ongoing police strike, member of Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom & Justice Party proposes draft law allowing use of private security firms to maintain public order
Ayat Al-Tawy,
Sunday 10 Mar 2013
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) is currently mulling draft legislation aimed at allowing the state to use private security firms for domestic policing duties, prominent FJP leader Saber Abul-Fotouh said on Saturday.
The proposal comes within the context of an ongoing nationwide strike by large numbers of Egyptian police officers.
According to Abul-Fotouh, who served as head of the labour committee in the People’s Assembly (the now-dissolved lower house of Egypt’s parliament), the legislation would give privately-owned security companies the right to carry arms and make arrests.
The proposed law – which Abul-Fotouh wants referred to the Shura Council (the upper house of Egypt’s parliament, currently endowed with legislative powers) for ratification – is ostensibly meant to fill the security vacuum resulting from the ongoing police officers’ strike.
“I’m calling for a draft law to be submitted to the Shura Council, and put before a popular referendum, to allow private security firms to safeguard the state,” Abul-Fotouh told Ahram Online.
“I also recommend the formation of popular committees tasked with safeguarding the citizenry and state institutions in the event that police continue their strike action,” he added.
The twin calls come against the backdrop of what Abul-Fotouh describes as “the blackmail of the interior ministry by former regime loyalists who are spearheading a counter-revolution, which is to blame for Egypt’s current state of turmoil.”
(more…)
