Why is Egypt Clamping Down on Pro-Democracy Groups Now?

At the start of this month, Egypt’s courts indicted 43 staff members from pro-democracy groups for allegedly using foreign funds to foment civil unrest. 19 of those charged are American, and the move risks jeopardising the $1.3 billion in US aid Egypt receives each year. After over three decades of bilateral cooperation with the US during Hosni Mubarak’s reign, why the sudden opposition?

On the face of it, the present confrontation could be seen as an attempt by Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to suppress dissent and cement power. But analysing events within the context of a long history of US involvement overseas suggest the government’s motivations may be more complex.

From the CIA to pro-democracy groups

Egypt is not the first country, and will not be the last, to sanction the efforts of pro-democracy groups. In the past, Russia, China, Italy, and Zimbabwe have all sought to expel, outlaw, and/or limit the influence of international non-governmental organisations.

This may be because, if one traces the development of pro-democracy groups, the suggestion that “democracy promotion” is a euphemism for “regime change” becomes all too tenable.

In 1947, US President Harry Truman signed into law the National Security Act of 1947 which involved the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Covert operations became the US government’s tactic of choice in the post-WWII era. The rising tensions of the Cold War and the desire to protect American interests in proxy states resulted in several secret interventions including but not limited to – Italy in 1947, Albania in 1952, Ukraine in 1952, Belarus in 1952, Estonia in 1952, Latvia in 1952, Lithuania in 1952, Poland in 1952, Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Laos in 1958, Tibet in 1959, Cuba in 1960, Congo in 1960, and Iran in 1979.

Operations varied in form but the ultimate goal remained constant – advance the American economic and political agenda by any means. Whether in the form of psychological warfare or paramilitary activities, the CIA appeared unsettlingly ubiquitous.

However, with the end of the Cold War and the fall of the USSR, US foreign policy shifted dramatically. In the war of ideologies, liberal democracy had proven victorious. No longer did an American agenda have to be advanced via CIA covert operations. Instead, Western powers could proudly employ a new stratagem – pro-democracy NGOs.

As then US President Ronald Reagan explained, the moral onus was on America “to foster the infrastructure of democracy – the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities – which allows a people to choose their own way, their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.”

Developed and developing countries alike had grown weary of political gamesmanship and paramilitary efforts financed by the US government and executed by the CIA. The rise of pro-democracy NGOs could not have been more timely. And still, while this newfound transparency may have made US intervention a bit more palatable it was no less charged.

And then there was Egypt…

Today, the Egyptian government appears particularly vexed by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI). Hence the crackdown spearheaded by Egypt’s current minister of planning and international cooperation Fayza Abul Naga. The IRI and NDI were founded in 1981 and 1983 respectively to “strengthen democratic institutions worldwide” and found their way to Egypt in the mid-1990s.

The current clampdown began in December of last year as Egyptian authorities claimed that these organisations had funded political parties, conducted illegal polls, unlawfully accepted foreign financing, and sought to “divide Egypt.” Similar crackdowns did not occur during the reign of autocrat Hosni Mubarak and the question remains: why the sudden pushback?

According to Thomas Corathers of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, these ever-pragmatic organisations were able to aptly leverage the “semi-authoritarian” nature of Mubarak’s regime, with Mubarak and pro-democracy groups tacitly engaged in an “artful political balancing act” .

Pro-democracy NGOs would couple with civil society organisations providing logistical and monetary assistance while silently succumbing to the confines of authoritarian rule – agitating just enough but never too much. Thus, a perversely symbiotic relationship was formed in which the Egyptian government would allow these groups to operate, and in turn these organisations would rally just enough if the populace to feign democratic involvement. Considering Egypt’s friendly dealings with the US and Israel post-1979, both parties benefitted from the status quo and thus sought to maintain it.

Today, the context has altered dramatically. The tenuous balance has been lost in light of the Arab Spring and Mubarak’s demise. Egyptian powers understand that, if one contextualises American efforts to promote democracy around the globe, these efforts often translate into an unapologetic advancement of the American agenda.

For a government with an unsettlingly fragile hold on power, the prospect of unfettered American envoys “promoting democracy” is indeed cause for concern. A once symbiotic relationship has morphed into something foreign. And in the current sociopolitical milieu, Egyptian powers cannot afford to engage with the unknown.

A new relationship?

Recent calls by military leader Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi for a return to stable relations with the US have failed to stop the indictments. Still, the ruling bodies’ apparent reticence to see tensions further escalate suggests that the brinkmanship could soon cease. If harmony is to return, then all parties involved must accept that circumstances have changed. And thus, if the US-Egypt relationship is to be rekindled it must first take on an largely different form.

Think Africa Press welcomes inquiries regarding the republication of its articles. If you would like to republish this or any other article for re-print, syndication or educational purposes, please contact: editor@thinkafricapress.com