Points of View
Algeria / Egypt Match: An expression of a rivalry or repression?
The 18th of November, the day of the football matches between Algeria and Egypt in Sudan. A very famous day, since the topic was the media object in both countries. Certainly, football matches have their special importance and taste in all the countries of the world, as the game is very popular. However, the transformation of a football competition in a national war is an event that deserves more attention.
Through the media, the victory in this match and the one which had preceded him in Cairo, has been transformed - as Amr Elshobaki brilliantly demonstrated in his article in the Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al – Youm about the medias failure – not only in respective provocations, but also in a matter of and national victory and national prestige not to say dignity. In Egypt, for example, an extraordinary quantity of national songs invaded the radio as well as the television, transforming in the collective mentality, a single sports event in a day of national dignity. Thus, in societies extremely frustrated and living under the burden of authoritarian regimes that have failed to achieve real progress, the victory in a game as popular as soccer easily turns into a national accomplishment, though fictitious. Thus, both governors and governed agree to give the same illusionary though relieving meaning to the same event: For those in power, it is the quest of a degrading legitimacy, for the people, it is the arduous desire to get back a lost feeling of pride. Worth noting that, the President of the Egyptian Republic made, just before the first game, an exceptional visit to the Egyptian players to encourage them, marking a transposition of their victory to a national victory and then an implicit transfer from sports to politics.
In this context of a perverse media impact - especially those of Egypt- of mobilization and strong war spirit nothing then senseless, that an event occurred to trigger the drama: Some stones were thrown at the Algerian players’ bus in Cairo, in the first match. An event which, though condemned in any case could last without dramatic consequences, if the Algerian media and under the approving eyes of the Algerian regime, have not exploited it. The revenge was violent: Some Egyptian companies in Algeria, the head of which "Orascom" were burned and the Egyptians working there (whose number attaint around 4000) were asked to leave the country. Thus, a highly mobilized people for an illusionary cause and losing the notion of what constitutes a «rule of law» have decided to take revenge. If the popular reaction was too brutal, the Algerian regime's reaction was strange. The latter not only refrained from any intervention to settle the problem, but it asked the owner of "Orascom" for the taxes by back effect, thus showing a certain complicity albeit partially. Thus, for the regimes of the two countries, the transposition from sports to politics was only to please.
The day of the match arrived in Sudan, and to crown all, the Algerian public, which was transported in the Algerian state military as well as charter planes, armed with knives bought from Sudan, did not hesitate to pursue the Egyptian public. The later has certainly had one of the worst hours of his life before reaching the airport of and return. Several were wounded. The huge and violent demonstrations have taken place and continue to take place in several Egyptian governorates, especially in front of the Algerian Embassy in Cairo. No essays were established by both regimes to defuse this crisis. Seems and for another time that the crisis paired with the powers of the two countries as beneficial rather than harming. But how to understand the vast and violent reaction of the Egyptians, especially the youngest among them? These reactions are rather the product of the humiliation they live each day and in a continuous manner under the rule of an authoritarian regime. The cry of a woman at Cairo airport, returning from Sudan, states that reality: “We were humiliated in Sudan, we were really humiliated, and how not to be, if we already are in our country?” Certainly, the establishment of a demonstration as a way of expressing peaceful protest was quite legitimate; however what was unacceptable was the violent form that it had taken, especially with the launch of "Molotov" and the burning of the Algerian flag. These Egyptian demonstrators like their Algerian counterparts that are feeling humiliated in their daily living, have lost the sense of what is the “rule of law” as its absence is really visible. Hence, they have consequently chosen to take revenge in this brutal and violent manner. This loss of confidence in a political regime that could protect the dignity and rights violations is what led to this violence. This is what an Egyptian demonstrator has just launched: "If we do not tear our rights, nobody will respect us now." The reaction of an auditor of the Egyptian president's speech a few days after this tragedy states the same idea: "Please repeat the phrase you just said: The dignity of the Egyptian citizen is the dignity of Egypt".
Hence, if the sports event is completed, however, the misfortune and hatred it caused will take time before a cure can be established. Remains to ask ourselves: What future for societies whose people live an extreme repression? What future for people, who increasingly lose the notion of "rule of law", as it is doomed to disappear?
Nadine ABDALLA
Phd researcher at 'Institut d'Etude Politique (IEP) de Grenoble, France, Research Internship at 'Institut d'Etude Politique de Lausanne, Lausanne University (Unil) and Reseacher assistant associates to CERMAM
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- Origin CERMAM
- http://www.cermam.org/en/logs/vue/algeria_egypt_match_an_express/
- Publié le 3 December 2009