Democracy via coup? People's will is supreme, not protocol

The ouster of a democratically elected president in Egypt via a military coup, following widespread popular unrest, raises fundamental questions about democracy itself.

Mohamed Morsi was elected in Egypt’s first free and fair elections. Barely a year later, he has been summarily thrown out by the army.

Does this advance democracy or does it violate democracy? If the army stays neutral and holds fresh elections, the cause of democracy would have advanced, even if its form has been torn to shreds. Egypt is a wake-up call for all those who confuse democratic form for its content.

Democracy, ultimately, is about the power to coordinate the conduct of society vesting in the people themselves, instead of being concentrated in the hands of a few. Normally, this power is exercised by the state, to which society cedes various functions of control.

The people cannot directly engage with the state all the time, so they delegate that job to elected representatives, who, in turn, function according to collectively accepted principles, and laws and rules that embody those principles. In the normal course, playing around with those laws and rules or representatives would amount to violating democracy.

But occasions arise when the people have to assert themselves directly, when those elected to represent the people subvert the purpose of being elected. Those are occasions of mass protest against subversion of democracy.

They can be unruly. After all, democracy as we know it was born through revolutions in the 19th century across Europe. Such mass mobilisation of the people nourishes the roots of democracy, even as they break all kinds of rules of orderly conduct of representative democracy. Morsi subverted the spirit of Tahrir Square, when he usurped powers and privileged Islamists.

The people had to intervene. The army’s role has been to facilitate that intervention so far. Instead of being on the retreat, democracy is poised to advance in Egypt. Nor is breaching form to assert content a tonic that works only in Arabia. Our own politicians would do well to pay heed.