Internet makes the pharaohs fall
Al-Sisi knows that Internet is a hotbed and fears that as in previous years, the network of networks will become the most powerful soldier to achieve his dismissal. The Egyptian president expressed his annoyance about the latest publications on Internet that request his resignation. The people of that nation are not very happy with the existing economic problems. The dignitary described such comments as inappropriate, because according to him, he has been working very hard to get Egypt out of the crisis. The words of Wael Ghonim should be echoing in Al-Sisi’s ears when he wrote that Internet would change the political scene in Egypt and some friends laughed at him.
The recent statements of Abdulfatah Said Husein Jalil Al-Sisi came after #Sisi_leave went viral. In declarations issued to the press, he did not hide his anger when he saw the publication on Internet after the increases in the fuel, drinking water and electricity prices.
At the presidential inauguration, the president declared that during his term he would devote special attention to health and education, two promises that have not been fulfilled yet.
According to the president, in his first term the problems with terrorism and its consequences affected his management. Although his administration has carried out reforms in several areas and has allied with important partners such as Russia, Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi still has not managed to reverse the economic situation of the majority of the inhabitants of his country.
The discontent is also due to a package of austerity measures to revive a still struggling economy after the years of confusion and misery that followed the popular uprising against Hosni Mubarak.
Precisely Al-Sisi saw Mubarak fall by pushing force of social networks. Several political scientists and experts in social networks at that time changed the term from 'Arab Spring' to 'Twitter uprising' or 'revolution in Facebook', a revolution that couldn’t be stopped or reversed by the traditional media despite the media coverage they made.
In 2011, when the uprising took place, a report by the United Nations Program for Human Development reported that more than 60% of the Arab population was less than 40 years of age of which almost 70% were under 30, in addition to the high rates of unemployment and poverty. The situation has not changed much from then to here. Demographically, it has similar indicators, and despite al-Sisi's maneuvers, Egypt continues to have high rates of poverty and increasingly exorbitant prices.
It is logical that the current president bristling again because the socio-economic context is repeated. Perhaps the same stone on the road will make another Egyptian leader fall and, although social networks themselves did not cause the overthrow of Mubarak, they were of great support for people to manage to concentrate and organize in a common movement against the dictator.
At that time Fawaz Rashed, one of the protesters, said: "We use Facebook to arrange protests, Twitter to coordinate them and YouTube to show them to the world."
"It was a time of great human beauty demonstrated through solidarity and a collective interest in the idea of a better tomorrow", said Adolfo Plasencia, a professor of multimedia concepts at a postgraduate course at the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
Al-Sisi was elected president in 2014, after overthrowing Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. The former general has tried to rebuild the country through massive projects of infrastructure, development and housing, something that undoubtedly kept him in power after the elections in March.
However, the strong repressions to the dissidence could take its tolls on him and already the young people are mobilizing, like workers and the rest of the population.
Al-Siisi also knows that the movement organized through social networks will not succumb again to political consensus, or negotiations that ultimately disrupt it.
Wael Ghonmin, one of the alleged promoters of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, believes that at that time the movement faded due to a sharp polarization of the conflict. According to Ghonmin, the traditional media and pro-Al-Sissi people contributed to misinformation, rumors and disunity within the movement gestated in social networks.
But now the story could change if the current Egyptian president does not keep his campaign promises.