Editorial Comment: Egyptian president-elect Mursi deserves a chance

Mursi becomes Egypt’s first Islamic leader.
Despite the past week’s tense atmosphere of uncertainty before the announcement of the presidential run-off election results, events on the ground show that the Egyptian people have accepted Mursi as their new leader.
Mursi also gave guarantees that he was going to be a president for all Egyptians.
However, change is one of the most difficult fundamentals of life. Either people accept and/or resist it.
After 30 years, it is inevitable that some Egyptians and Egypt’s major allies should be sceptical.
Some are adopting a cautious pragmatism approach.
That is understandable considering that the international community will now have to deal with a government with a different ideological perspective.
In the same vein, the Brotherhood’s ascendancy should not be causing a lot of consternation, for it is a group whose track record and ideological position was well known within Egypt and beyond, unlike other Islamic groups.
This new reality about Islamic governments should be embraced.
If Western governments can work with Turkey, one of the few Islamic governments in the region, they can work with the new Egyptian leader.
It should also be borne in mind that the Arab Spring was not a revolution to advance Western interests, but they were protests meant to address the challenges that the people faced — be it governance, economic, social issues and others.
We are encouraged that even as president-elect Mursi is putting in place his government drawn from a broad spectrum of Egyptian interest groups, his supporters should be wary about the power he will wield considering the powerful role of Egypt’s military in the past six decades, not just during Mubarak’s era. It is only natural.
The truth of the matter is that after the Tahrir Square protests in February last year, which resulted in Mubarak’s ouster, Egypt as a whole has to learn to find its identity. And, managing this transition smoothly, as they are already demonstrating, is one of the many steps in their democratic walk.
The revolutionary fire should also be kept burning, but in a manner that should never make Egypt, one of Africa’s most powerful nations with a long-standing and proud track record of civilisation, either a managed project or a proxy state for powerful nations.
It is also commendable that despite the glitches to a smooth power transition to civilian rule, the military rulers and the incoming leaders are maintaining an open-door policy, and that they are consulting as much as possible.
To date, some of the last-minute changes the military had implemented look like they are being reversed, and this is being done through dialogue.
For the sake of the Egyptian people, both sides should be prepared to compromise, even on some of the most difficult issues.
The give-and-take approach is in the national interest.
With the other presidential candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, now in the United Arab Emirates, what it means is that his supporters and sympathisers no longer have a rallying point, a move which we hope will give the new administration room to implement the much-needed reforms.
The international community is also throwing its weight behind the Islamist leader.
From the United States of America, to Europe, China, South Africa and Nigeria, to name but a few, they are all in full support of Mursi.
These confidence-boosting measures from the international community before Mursi is officially sworn in on Saturday are a pointer to Egypt’s importance and central role in international affairs.
However, more critical is the olive branch that has been extended by the International Monetary Fund.
But we also note with caution the many rulebooks coming from various quarters, telling the president-elect what to do or not to do.
Why not give him room to breathe?
When all is said and done, it is the bigger picture in the equation that determines what the future holds for Egypt both as an African state and Arab nation.
Africa knows the important role that Abdel Gamal Nasser played in continental politics, especially the founding of the Organisation of African Unity, now African Union.
Thus we hope that with the election of Mohamed Mursi, the pan-African role will continue and that the wishes of the Egyptian people will be respected and that Egyptians will get back to work for their country.
We have acknowledged Egypt’s central and strategic role in the geo-political sphere.
We hope that the Mursi administration will rise to the occasion — balance all roles, but with the interest of all Egyptians in mind.
We do not expect a repeat of the past whereby Egypt became a proxy state for the United States of America and Israel’s interests.
It’s time to move on, and be productive.