Haste makes waste

David Makovsky in USA Today wisely councils the Egyptians to take their time in building democratic institutions and not focus excessively on elections.  The quick response: the constitutional amendments will be done in 10 days, referendum on them within two months, elections within six.

I imagine someone in the Army is saying this is the way to be responsive to the protestors, but it is also a formula for mistakes, including mistakes made with some malice aforethought.  The process is as important as the outcome.  Despite the American precedent of writing a constitution behind closed doors in Philadelphia, long experience suggests that fragile, conflicted and formerly autocratic societies–and Egypt should be considered one–need time to decide on how power is to be distributed, which is what a constitution does.  They also need the participation of a broad segment of the population, because otherwise it will look like a power grab (and may well be one).

There is in any event a need for time to develop the institutions of a free society:  most of the media, courts, political parties, trade associations, NGOs and labor unions existing today in Egypt are heavily conditioned by the former regime.  It will be some time before they are reformed, or new ones created.  Context counts.  As Makovsky says,

This means going beyond the obvious of lifting the existing emergency law and amending the Egyptian Constitution. It also requires an independent judiciary, a free press, minority rights, and a security apparatus that maintains the monopoly on the use of force. These institutions provide the opportunity for the creation of a civic culture where parties can negotiate their demands in a peaceful framework. Otherwise, the hope for democracy can be easily thwarted.

It is of course problematic to move slowly when the mainstays of the revolution are apparently pressing for fast action. But more than anything else, the quick action needed now is a new government, an early demand of the protesters that has not been fulfilled. The one currently in place, appointed in his desperate last days by then President Mubarak, will do everything it can to block accountability for the regime’s past behavior and tilt the scales of the future towards their continuation in power. It is no surprise that the military would not be replacing its friends in the government quickly, but that makes it all the more urgent.

Of course all these issues should be left up to the Egyptians to decide–I am not suggesting that the Americans or anyone else can do this for them.  But there is a lot of experience out there to suggest that haste makes waste, especially in matters of constitutional reform.