Mohamed Soffar in a Seminar on the Consequences of the Fall of the State Police
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The BA Futuristic Studies Unit held on Tuesday, 15 March 2011 a closed seminar on the consequences of the fall of the State Police on the power and security relations in Egypt. Attended by a group of political researchers and activists, the Seminar hosted Dr. Mohamed Soffar, Professor of Political Science, Cairo University, and was moderated by Researcher Aly El-Raggal.
Soffar believes that the 25th of January Revolution highlighted the political awareness of Egyptians, which was not recognized by the academia. He explained that the state police was supposed to undertake three main roles: organizing information, allocating resources and monitoring wealth, and managing the use of violence. He added that the release of prisoners and thugs was one of the main reasons behind the fall of the ex-regime, for it deliberately relinquished its legitimate right of using violence. Everybody could be violent, whether by way of terrorizing others or self-defense.
Soffar stressed that the Revolution has not ended yet, for the regime still exists and is capable of reproducing itself through three main pillars: tools of oppression, media, and the control of resources and wealth. He also pointed out that the Revolution liberated many fields of civil and public work, and reshaped the relation between the ruling system and the ruled. He explained that such relation was previously based on the tyranny of the regime and the oppression of the people.
The Seminar witnessed discussions and interventions from the audience, mainly asserting the need for a revolution on the social, intellectual and academic levels.