Sisi under fire from pro-govt media and ex-military commander

Egyptian President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, who is currently on a three day state visit to Russia, has surprisingly come under fire from an ex-military commander and a vocal pro-government TV anchor.

“Sisi has gained a lot of popular support making him difficult to compete against but I think he’s a plain man. If he sat down in front of me and we talked it would become clear that I am one hundred times the man he is,” Hamdi al-Wiheba, the former Chief of the General Staff of the Egyptian armed forces, said on Tuesday in interview with al-Masry al-Youm newspaper.

If [Sisi] sat down in front of me and we talked it would become clear that I am one hundred times the man he is - Hamdi al-Wiheba

The former military chief said Sisi has made many mistakes similar or even worse than his two predecessors, Mohammad Morsi and Husni Mubarak.

“Sisi does not ask the foreign ministry for help and depends on the intelligence services for advice instead, which is worrying. President Sisi’s experience is still limited, even militarily, he did not last long in his last three positions. When we compare him to his peers we see there’s a huge gap,” he added.

A pro-Sisi Egyptian TV personality also slammed Sisi but this time for his handling of this week’s sit-in by scores of lower-ranking police officers in the Nile Delta, demanding outstanding bonuses are paid and that they are provided with medical treatment in police hospitals.

Police spokesman Abu Bakr Abd al-Karim announced that Egypt’s controversial anti-protest law would not be applied on the policemen because they were holding a “demonstration” not a protest.

Rights activists estimate that authorities have arrested hundreds of activists and Islamists for breaking the anti-protest law, which grants the police the absolute right to ban protests or public meetings on the basis of “serious information or evidence that there will be a threat to peace and security,” without requiring any proof.

“The protest law has now come to your doorstep in the form of your own police force and you’ve completely ignored it. Why would anyone get authorisation for a protest in future? The policemen didn’t get authorisation and no one batted an eyelash,” said Ibrahim Ibrahim Eissa on the private satellite channel ONTV.

Eissa blamed Sisi for violating the equal protection of the law with the help of the state and the government and said the law could not be respected and considered fair if he himself is violating it.

“All of the kids [in prison] should be released, this is wrong and unfair. There is no serious rule of law, you should just get rid of it. We haven’t made the law only for activists and to throw our girls behind bars so as to respect anti-protest laws, which the government has then come along and trod on with its shoes,” he added.