{"id":14396,"date":"2012-11-28T16:10:11","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T23:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14396"},"modified":"2012-11-28T16:11:54","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T23:11:54","slug":"morsis-apologists-rationalize-efforts-to-secure-his-new-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14396","title":{"rendered":"Morsi&#8217;s apologists rationalize efforts to secure his new regime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ICG: A Way Out of Egypt\u2019s Transitional Quicksand <\/strong><br \/>\nPOMED &#8211; 28 November, 2012<\/p>\n<p>A recent article by the International Crisis Group (ICG) addresses Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi\u2018s declaration of full power. The decree \u201dremoves the unpopular Prosecutor General, a Mubarak-era holdover; paves the way for retrial of recently acquitted officials implicated in violence against demonstrators; protects both the Shura Council and Constituent Assembly from possible court-ordered dissolution; prolongs the Constituent Assembly\u2019s term by two months; and, crucially, immunizes all presidential decisions from judicial review until adoption of a new constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Morsi\u2019s decree came in reaction to the imminent collapse of the Constituent Assembly and the reinstatement of wide-ranging powers to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), according to the report. This combination of events, the ICG says, would have caused untold damage to the already unstable transition. The report also argues that Morsi\u2019s decree enjoys widespread support among Egyptians, while the unpopular liberal opposition relies on \u201cobstructionist politics\u201d to assert its influence on the process. However, Morsi\u2019s declaration has served to deepen the divisions among political groups, as well as the executive and judicial branches of government. To move forward, the ICG recommends that the \u201cpresident and Supreme Judicial Council should agree to restore judicial oversight over his decisions with the exception of those pertaining to the maintenance and functioning of representative political institutions, while the courts should  refrain from their own overreach. Additionally, members of the Constituent Assembly who have withdrawn in protest ought to rejoin the body, while some Islamist members could resign and be replaced by constitutional law experts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Issandr El Amrani criticized the piece, saying the ICG\u2019s assertion that Morsi\u2019s power grab  has enjoyed widespread support is not based on substantiated evidence. \u201cThere is no reliable information on what the general public thinks of Morsi\u2019s decree, but anecdotal evidence suggests there is quite a bit of opposition to it,\u201d El Amrani said. However, he did agree that the opposition has not articulated a solution to the problems that Morsi\u2019s decrees sought to address.  <a href=\"http:\/\/pomed.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/icg-a-way-out-of-egypts-transitional-quicksand.html\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;source<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D14396&amp;text=Morsi%27s+apologists+rationalize+efforts+to+secure+his+new+regime&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ICG: A Way Out of Egypt\u2019s Transitional Quicksand POMED &#8211; 28 November, 2012 A recent article by the International Crisis Group (ICG) addresses Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi\u2018s declaration of full power. The decree \u201dremoves the unpopular Prosecutor General, a Mubarak-era holdover; paves the way for retrial of recently acquitted officials implicated in violence against demonstrators; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14396#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[357],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14396"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14400,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14396\/revisions\/14400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}