Hard work still ahead for Egypt

Now comes the hard part.
Difficult as it was for the Egyptian people to force Hosni Mubarak from power after 30 years of autocratic rule, building a new democracy is going to be much tougher.
Remarkable as the events of Tahrir Square have been, it’s one thing to set in motion a mass movement centered upon a single organizing principle — Mubarak must go — and another to resolve the complexities of forming a new government.
So far, there’s been consensus.
With Mubarak’s departure, there will instead be dozens of competing views. Compromise is going to be important, and patience will be required.
The oft-quoted line from Winston Churchill continues to be true: Democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others.
Democracy is contentious. It’s messy. And it makes mistakes.
But it learns from those mistakes. And the contentious airing of divergent viewpoints helps build confidence in a true marketplace of ideas.
Will the new Egypt always see eye to eye with the United States and our perceived interests in the Middle East? Of course not.
But Egypt is a sovereign country, not a colony. Not a puppet.
For too many generations, American foreign policy leaders have found it too convenient to rely upon pliable dictators rather than building people-to-people relationships. As a nation, we’ve provided lip service to democracy while lacking the confidence in the very principles we espouse to share them with others.
There are those today who fret that the unpredictable nature of democracy-building in Egypt will somehow result in the kind of theocratic authoritarianism that rules Iran. But it’s worth remembering that the revolution that brought Iranian theocrats to power came after the United States first sponsored a coup overthrowing an Iranian leader we didn’t like then propped up one detested by the Iranian people for decades.
In other words, our own inability to trust the self-governance we profess to believe in helped create the mess that is Iran today.
In Egypt, there is a rare opportunity to help build something quite different.
It will require patience on our part, knowing when to offer assistance and knowing — just as importantly — when to shut up and back away and allow the Egyptian people to find their own path.
So far, they’ve shown the ability to do just that. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]