Presently, the democratic revolution is practically dead - its back to the dark ages of dictatorship under the guise of "restoring democracy". Unfortunately America is in the game too.

Dear Zoheir,

Three things, in my opinion, are fundamental to resolving the Egyptian situation: Objective, Reconciliation and Compromise.

Objective: what do people of Egypt want? Irrespective of the agenda of the elite and high political class, is there any thing that the so called common people of Egypt want? Are they seeing this as an opportunity to make for themselves a new future with clear objectives? Bringing down a dictatorial rule was a good objective but that is not an end by itself. A path needs to be chalked out from chaos to clarity through participation and leadership.

Reconciliation: MB and various other groups came together, split again and are coming together again in spurts and spits. Nation building, particularly from that of a forcibly created vacuum needs reconciliation of the differences for the time being till an established government born of people's will is firmly established. The lesser the strength of reconciliation, the more differences will arise making reconciliation impossible at a certain stage. How much are the 'powerful' groups in Egypt willing to set aside their differences and build a nation on consensus?

Compromise: No society, like Egypt, that has multifarious cultural and contextual issues can build consensus unless there is a will on the part of the powerful groups to accept and abide by certain compromises in power sharing. The future of Egypt will depend on how its political parties, MB and the Armed Forces workout compromise formulas keeping Egypt and its people in their mind. If they keep identity, ideology or hunger for power non-negotiable, it would take a long long time before we can hope for peace and stability in Egypt.

Borrowing and expanding from what noted Indian Sociologist Dan A Chekki said in one of his books, I would like to say: Nations are not like plants. They do not grow by themselves. You need to nurture them, strengthen their roots and protect them from predation; then only they grow to be nations.

I hope my answer at least propels some thoughts!