Egypt\u2019s post-revolutionary honeymoon appears to be over. The country\u2019s euphoria and pride at the historic public uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak has given way to a summer of rising pessimism.<\/p>\n
Relations have deteriorated between activist groups and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) — the collection of senior generals that has ruled the country since Mubarak\u2019s forced February 11 resignation. Despite promises of a smooth transition to civilian rule, the military has proven itself to be slow to implement meaningful reform and remarkably thin-skinned regarding public criticism. Journalists and activists who publicly criticise the SCAF\u2019s performance have been summoned for questioning <\/a>and at least one blogger has been jailed for the crime of defaming the military.<\/p>\n After protesters attacked the Israeli embassy on September 9, the SCAF responded with a warning to the country\u2019s feisty post-revolutionary media. Minister of Information Ossama Heikal invoked Mubarak era rhetoric in promising that any newspaper or channel that \u201cendangers the stability and security of the country\u201d would be firmly dealt with.<\/p>\n Alarmingly, the SCAF seems to have inherited the Mubarak regime\u2019s fixation with Al-Jazeera. On September 11, security forces raided the offices of Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr<\/a> (Al-Jazeera direct Egypt) a specialised 24\/7 Egypt news channel that Al-Jazeera founded after the revolution. Two days earlier the channel had broadcast wall-to-wall coverage of the Israeli embassy assault and the violent street clashes that ensued.<\/p>\n As of late September the SCAF had finally begun to set dates; fresh parliamentary elections that will herald the first step towards that long-promised transition will begin in late November and continue for a month. But skepticism and, at times, hostility towards the SCAF\u2019s intentions is still running high<\/p>\n Among the activists, things aren\u2019t much better. The fragile unity between Islamists and secularists that helped personify the revolution didn\u2019t last long. By mid summer, both sides were exchanging recriminations, with the secular activist forces charging that the Muslim Brotherhood was railroading the country into early elections where they would hold a natural organisational advantage.<\/p>\n