Egypt and Ireland - Parallels show reform is urgent

THERE are more than enough parallels between the situation in Egypt and Ireland to offer a few lessons to those who might wish to learn them.

Though the scale and intensity are completely different, the Cairo demonstrations that have cost at least 300 lives so far and the great anger that threatens the future of this country’s most influential political organisation have the very same roots.

Both countries have just lost leaders because they were forced from office. Both populations are utterly disaffected because their country has been run into the ground. Both are determined to recreate conditions vital to public wellbeing — economic and psychological — and the sense of optimism that underpins functioning societies. Both are outraged by a sense of injustice that permeates their society.

Huge numbers of Egyptians have decided that Mr Mubarak and his supporters in the military — for Ireland read the construction sector — have dominated and corrupted their country for long enough. During his 30 years in power, which ended in flight yesterday, Mr Mubarak has, and estimates vary on this, amassed over €25 billion through opportunities afforded by high office. Even Fianna Fáil’s most incoherent critics could not accuse them of corruption on that scale but, as Oscar Wilde once said to a socially ambitious dance partner, “we know what you are my dear, the only thing we have to establish is your fee.”

Of course Egypt’s terrible poverty, and the torture and brutality used by Mubarak’s security forces, are not replicated here but, by our own and European standards, the poverty facing the near 500,000 people out of work and the hundreds of thousands more struggling on pillaged incomes represent huge, life-sapping challenges. These changed circumstances are traumatic and are exacerbated as so many of those responsible for our debacle seem unaffected.

It is fair too to compare Mubarak’s dictatorship to how our political system has evolved. In Ireland power has become ever-more centralised and concentrated in the hands of a tiny few. Our parliament is all but irrelevant. We are not living in a junta-run dictatorship but we can hardly say we are living in a country that celebrates proactive and participatory democracy either. The absence of transparency and accountability on so many levels of public life are two of the most obvious symptoms of that denial of real democracy.

Mr Mubarak clung to power for so very long because he had the support of the military and America. The economic conditions that bolstered Fianna Fáil are based on American support too — though it comes through the very welcome American companies who bring thousands of irreplaceable jobs rather than military and direct financial support.

It is almost unthinkable that Stephen’s Green might become an Irish Tahrir Square but who would have believed that it might take €50bn to clean up the mess left by Anglo Irish? In our circumstances almost anything is possible.

As the political parties try to outdo each other with promises of political reform they should be cautious. We have never had an election like this before. We never had an electorate so angry but determined to rebuild this country before. Breaking or even deferring promises of real, meaningful reform would be the first steps towards the kind of chaos that would do even more damage to our faltering democracy.