18 August 2013
Press release: Humanist Association of Hong Kong
The tragedy which is Egypt August 2013 has us humanists standing back and watching from afar, wanting to place our message of non-violence and non-discrimination there, into a society increasingly polarised and with no visible way locally of overcoming that daily enlarging divide.
The clear need for negotiations and dialogue is there, between the military controlled government, the ousted parliamentarians that are with President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, the recently formed coalition of activist groups that are – together with the Brotherhood – protesting the military government’s violent actions in this crackdown, and the people in general who in large part are unaffiliated, who just want their peaceful daily life back.
The United Nations, flawed as it is, remains the only institution that can adequately address all sides in this civil conflict. Not the USA, not the EU, not the dis-united Arab block, nor the African Union.
The UN can ask for a compromise on the part of the Muslim Brotherhood to begin speaking with the anti-revolutionary military-led government that has so recently been imposed on the people of Egypt. The world’s nations can stop its financial and arms-related material support to that same anti-revolutionary military-led government.
Everyone has to calm down.
There is a need stop using non-uniformed security personnel on the street because people get confused and begin setting up vigilante bands themselves, not thinking about the need for neutrality on the part of all law enforcers.
The media – largely government controlled – can transmit a message of “No to Violence, yes to Life”. On that basis government can decree the start of an era of non-harming (obviously non-killing or shooting etc) and in a fresh and full transparency have its police force take over its lawful duties to keep order, within the standard laws and without martial impositions of curfew etc.
Immediately send the military back to the barracks ready for active duty should another nation deem to attack Egypt. Soldiers do not have training to minimise injury in conditions of civil strife and disturbances nor in handling street protests. That is the duty of trained police.
The Muslim Brotherhood must be part of the political process, as should be any group proposing a political way forward, however much in a minority. Violence must be absolutely barred by any group’s leadership and avoided by individuals as an inhuman non-solution.
The way forward is to allow the best in all of the different factions to emerge and begin working as one for a future where freedom of expression and choice are paramount.
