For four years the Egyptian American diasporas have lived in a night mare called Trump. President Trump embraced dictator Sisi and emboldened him and his system to a point of maximum abuse of power, 100000 political prisoners, elimination of all civil society, total disregard to Egypt constitution and horrific disrespect to all human values and human rights.
Aside from the political discourse , Sisi and his system destroyed the economic ability of Egypt to be sustainable in any way. The give away of Terain and Sanafer, the selling and buying of gas to Israel, the signing away of Egypt water rights, the purchasing of nuclear power station , the indulging in loans with misused funds . All that and more causes the sum of a very weak unsustainable economy.
No wonder we all helped President Biden and his team to win the presidency and with it came our hopes and asperation specially with President Biden 's slogan " America is back" with it we held our breath that the new administration will stand for democracy, for human rights , for equal rights, for the rule of law.
We waited patiently for a month for signals from the White House and President Biden to deliver our freedom like children waiting for Santa Christmas Eve.
The first concreate blow was US agreement to sell the military equipment to Egypt. That to us will be a signal and wink to Sisi.
We wrote , we tweeted , we asked , we demanded an explanation. Well, the answer was diplomatic to get out of trouble but we were noticed.
Then came the phone call between Secretary Blinken and Minister Sameh Shokry during which Secretary Blinken emphasized that human rights would be central to US -Egypt relationship and the necessity of civil society.
But as reported Ambassador Johnathan Cohan , the US ambassador to Egypt spoke to a group of business people during a Chamber of Commerce gathering and missed a great opportunity to mention equal rights, human rights, the rule of law or even the effect of bad military practice and control on Egypt economy.
After a month of President Biden being in the White House we find that Sisi and his system are expanding the use of ready canned charges and allegation of dissemination of false news and joining outlaws groups
The criminal brutal system has cracked down on families targeting activists and rights defender living even in the US to try to silence us.
We ask President Biden and our VP Harris to stand with our American values , to remain the beacon for democracy and stand in a very clear loud voice to tell Sisi and every tyrant like him that their time is up not only by political speech but by concreate actions.
A just system with sustainable economy will not be good only for Egypt but also for the Middle East and Africa and will stop hate against America
Samia Harris
American Egyptian Activist
Feb, 24th, 2021
