Morsi retires Egypt's top army leaders; amends
2011 Constitutional Declaration; appoints vice president
President Morsi sends Tantawi, Anan into retirement; cancels
SCAF's 17 June 2012 constitutional addendum; amends last year's Constitutional
Declaration; appoints Mahmoud Mekki as Egypt's new VP
Ahram Online, Sunday 12 Aug 2012
President Morsi made a bundle of sweeping decisions on
Sunday afternoon, announced by the presidential spokesperson in a televised
statement.
Firstly, Morsi cancelled the 17
June constitutional addendum, which was issued by the Supreme Council of the
Armed Forces (SCAF), and amended the SCAF-issued 30 March 2011 Constitutional
Declaration.
The new Constitutional Declaration
grants the elected president all the powers detailed in Article 56 of the 30
March 2011 Constitutional Declaration.
The powers Morsi enjoys as per this
declaration include full executive and legislative authority, as well as the
power to set all public policies in Egypt and sign international treaties.
The declaration also gives Morsi
the right to form a new Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting a new
Egyptian constitution should any future developments prevent the current
assembly from carrying out its responsibilities.
Secondly, Morsi issued a decision
to retire Hussein Tantawi, the minister of defence and the general commander of
the Armed Forces.
Morsi also retired Sami Anan, the
Army’s Chief of Staff.
Morsi also decided to award both
men state medals and appoint them as advisors to the president.
Thirdly, the president appointed
the head of the military intelligence, Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, as Minister of
Defence to replace Tantawi.
Sedky Sobhy, the commander of the
Third Army, was appointed as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces.
Morsi also retired the Commander of
the Navy, Mohab Memish, and appointed him as head of the Suez Canal Authority.
Reda Hafez, the commander of the
Air Force, was also retired and appointed as minister of Military Production.
Mohamed El-Assar, the SCAF member
in charge of armaments, was appointed as assistant to the Minister of Defence.
Fourth, Morsi appointed Mahmoud
Mekki, the deputy head of the Cassation
Court, as his Vice President.
Sunday decisions 'not meant to embarrass' any state
institution: Morsi
During speech commemorating Laylet Al-Qadr, Egypt's
President Mohamed Morsi says Sunday's surprise decisions had not been intended
to humiliate military
Ahram Online , Monday 13 Aug 2012
President Mohamed Morsi saluted the Arab and Islamic nation
on Sunday night during an address delivered on the occasion of the anniversary
of Laylat Al-Qadr, the first night on which verses of the Quran are believed to
have been revealed to Prophet Mohammed.
Morsi also used the occasion to
stress that none of his decisions taken earlier the same day had "aimed at
embarrassing any [state] institution."
Earlier on Sunday, the president
issued a surprise decision to retire Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt's military council, and Chief-of-Staff
Sami Anan; terminate the military's 18 June constitutional addendum; and
appoint reformist judge Mahmoud Mekki as Egypt's new vice-president.
During the speech, the president
stressed that the decisions aimed at nothing but the country's best interest.
"My decision was never meant
to embarrass any state institutions; we must remain loyal to those who were
loyal, and I meant no negative message towards anyone," said Morsi.
Morsi further expressed his gratitude
to Egypt's
armed forces, promising to aid them in "their sacred role of protecting
the nation."
Morsi urged the masses
listening to his speech to support him in his mission "towards a better
future for our children," calling on them to "remain alert" in
the face of any threats to the nation.
"We're aiming for stability,
security and national revival. We're moving towards a better future,"
Morsi declared.
On the precarious situation in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula,
the president emphasised that the military campaign he initiated there was
"targeting no one but those who carried out the attack."
Following the killing of sixteen
border guards by unknown assailants on 5 August, Egypt's security forces have been
cracking down on suspects in the area over the course of the last week.
The president also urged the public
to remain positive and look past Egypt's recent difficulties.
"Now we must push for production and investment; we have no doubt our
dreams will be realised," he said.
"We are aware of all the
problems occurring in the country, and everything that the people are going
through," the president added, urging the people not to use these as an
excuse not to work. He added that certain actions that adversely impacted
national productivity, such as the blocking of roads by protesters, would not
be tolerated by security forces.
"Whoever has a complaint, I'm
obliged to listen – but we won't accept violence," he said.
Morsi's speech was attended by
hundreds of Al-Azhar clerics at the Azhar Conference Centre in Cairo's
Nasr City district.
File photo: Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi opens his suit jacket to
show to his supporters that he is not wearing body armor at Tahrir
Square (Photo: AP)
Political figures and groups from across spectrum voice broad support for president's Sunday move against Egypt's military, albeit with reservations in some cases.
Randa Ali and Sara Mourad, Monday 13 Aug 2012
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's Sunday decision to retire
the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)'s Hussein Tantawi and Sami Anan,
terminate the 18 June constitutional addendum, and appoint a new vice-president
– reformist judge Mahmoud Mekki – has been broadly welcomed by most political
forces and figures, albeit with reservations in some cases.
Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, the
former Muslim Brotherhood member who vied against Morsi in Egypt's recent presidential race,
expressed satisfaction with the move, describing it as "a bona fide
transfer of power to the president."
The SCAF's 18 June constitutional
addendum had been widely seen as an attempt by the military to strip the
president of several executive prerogatives.
"The revolution will always
prevail," said Abul-Fotouh. "Our next battle will be for a
constitution that preserves the rights of the people."
Former judge Mahmoud El-Khodeiry,
for his part, head of the legislative committee in the People's Assembly (the
lower house of Egypt's
currently dissolved parliament), praised Morsi's decision to appoint Mekki as
vice-president.
"We've been waiting for such
decisions; we've been expecting them. I believe Mekki is a very good
choice," El-Khodeiry said of the reformist judge. He added that Egypt's
High Constitutional Court
had "bet on a losing horse" when it had "favoured the SCAF"
with its verdict in mid-June ruling parliament unconstitutional.
According to Mohamed Nour,
spokesman for the Nour Party, the Salafist party "welcomes Morsi's
decisions and expresses its gratitude" to both Tantawi and Anan for
"the role they played in protecting the revolution."
Political science professor Hassan
Nafaa, for his part, described the decisions as "surprising."
He added that, although the
decisions appealed to revolutionaries and most political forces, "Morsi
should nevertheless have consulted with other political forces when taking such
crucial decisions, the same way he should have consulted them when forming the
new government."
Nafaa also expressed fears that the
Brotherhood would dominate all the country's state authorities.
"Morsi now has the power that
SCAF previously had to form the Constituent Assembly [tasked with drafting a
new constitution]," he said. "If the current assembly fails to draft
the constitution for any reason, there's a possibility that the Constituent
Assembly will actually face difficulties carrying out its mandate."
According to Morsi's Sunday
Constitutional Declaration, if the assembly tasked with drafting the national
charter fails to do so for whatever reason, the president will have the
authority to draw up a new assembly – representing the full spectrum of
Egyptian society – to draft a new constitution within three months of the new
assembly's formation.
While many voiced objections to the
SCAF's 18 June constitutional addendum, others – mostly anti-Islamists –
welcomed it, seeing it as an obstacle to political domination by the Muslim
Brotherhood.
Safwat Hegazi, secretary general of
the Revolution's Board of Trustees (a pro-Brotherhood, pro-revolution group
that emerged in the wake of last year's uprising), said that Morsi's decisions
on Sunday did not imply that the Brotherhood planned to monopolise power,
"only that the revolution's demands are on their way to being met."
"It's a way of finally purging
the country of the remnants of the former regime and attaining democracy in Egypt,"
said the Salafist preacher, who had thrown his weight behind Morsi in the
latter's presidential campaign.
Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, spokesman for Egypt's
Socialist Popular Alliance, saw the president's decision as the end of the
ongoing "power paradox" between the presidency and the military.
"The decision shows that the
president is exercising his authorities to their full extent, and that he is
not tied down when it comes to decisions concerned with the military,"
Shukr said in a phone interview with Al-Jazeera.
Several revolutionary figures
likewise hailed Morsi's Sunday decisions, yet remained sceptical as to their
potential impact.
Mohamed Abul-Ghar, head of the
Egyptian Social Democratic Party, said that the SCAF had lost its popularity
among Egyptians due to its repeated failures during Egypt's post-Mubarak transitional
period. "One of its main failures was that it did not produce a
constitution first to save the country," he said.
"The problem now is that we
don't have a constitution defining the president's powers, and we don't want a
president that has all the powers that Mubarak did," Abul-Ghar added.
Ahmed Maher, co-founder of the
April 6 Youth Movement, declared on Twitter that he supported the annulment of
the constitutional addendum and the retirement of the SCAF's two top men, but
added that he still hoped to see them put on trial.
"These decisions demand our
support," said Maher. "I believe this was what we asked for."
Prominent activist Asmaa Mahfouz
echoed these sentiments, but criticised the "safe exit" the move
would likely provide SCAF members.
"Our revolutionaries are more
deserving of a safe exit," said Mahfouz, adding that the public should
take to the streets to back Morsi's decision, but also to demand the trial of
SCAF members.
Prominent television presenter
Hamdi Qandil described Morsi's decision as a "civilian coup," which,
he said, may have been staged to pre-empt a possible "military coup
against Morsi planned for 24 August."
Anti-Brotherhood and
anti-revolution figures have recently issued calls on social networking
platforms urging the public to stage mass protests on 24 August against Morsi
and the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to Qandil, now that Morsi
holds full executive power, he can finally begin fulfilling his promises,
"at the top of which is the reformation of the Constituent Assembly."
He added: "If the SCAF had
really protected the revolution, Egyptians would have taken to the streets to
demand that they be kept in their jobs."
While the two SCAF leaders will now
go into retirement, they will also both be awarded state medals and made
advisors to the president.
Meanwhile, hundreds have begun
gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square and the Presidential Palace
in the capital's Heliopolis
district to voice support for the president's decision following calls by the
Muslim Brotherhood to do so.
Morsi began reshuffling officials
in sensitive security positions following last week's attack near Egypt's
border with the Gaza Strip that left 16 border guards dead at the hands of
unknown assailants. The reshuffles included chief of general intelligence, head
of the Cairo Security Directorate, head of Egypt's
Republican Guards and the North Sinai governor.
Long live Egypt
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