[KS] Egypt and Gwangju 1980

[Tommy]

I'm more worried about the ease with which Police States (pre-2011 
Egypt) and Military Dictatorships (pre-1980 Korea) are being conflated.

The military has not acted violently against the Egyptian people in 
generations.  Egyptians link their freedom to the military coup of 
Naguib/Nasser, and hold the military in very high regard.  The state's 
Police forces, on the other hand, were feared and reviled by all 
Egyptians, and were much more comparable to the old DDR's /Stasi/.

In the current revolution, there have been widespread reports of the 
military assisting the populace in defending themselves against police 
aggression: letting the people use tanks as barriers against police 
gunfire, taking over police bunkers for the people to use, etc.  When 
the police regime was toppled last week, it was the military that 
coordinated the people's checkpoints, which prevented anyone with police 
ID from getting through and looting.  A jaded commentator may say this 
was in the military's own long-term best interest, but it is in keeping 
with a long record of good relations between the military and the 
people.  The people of Egypt are chanting "The people and the military 
are one!" in the streets, so they cannot be counted among the cynics.

Mubarak's Egypt was not a military dictatorship, it was a police state: 
in that important sense, it was most unlike Korea under ??? / ???.

>
> while I understand the political side of it (unexpected collaps of 
> seemingly solid repression politics) I am a little worried 
> when reading Egypt and Gwangju in the same sentence, because somehow 
> (whithout mentioning the brutal behavior of the military and the 
> political cover-up) it may have the effect of belittling 8.15...
> Best to you,
> Werner

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