I don’t know when, but it was likely sometime during the 1990s Dirty War that the Egyptian Interior Ministry decided to change its motto, usually printed on dusty signs that top police stations’ entrances, from “The Police is in Service of the People,” to “The People and the Police are in Service of the Nation.”
Whenever I came across those signs while driving or walking by a police station, or during a demo where I’m getting my share of beatings on the hands of the CSF, I always wondered what “nation” exactly was the Interior Ministry’s motto referring to, that we, the people, together with our brave police officers should protect? Mubarak’s posters were usually present somewhere near the signs, and that always gave me a quick answer to my naïve question.
Well, it seems an Egyptian lawyer by the name Nabih el-Wahsh has been a bit upset with the Interior’s motto too, so he filed a lawsuit against it, demanding the return to the old motto. I had no clue about the case, till I came across this Wafd report. The lawyer has won the case (don’t know when?), and scored another triumph yesterday with the Higher Administrative Court rejecting the Interior’s appeal, and ordering the ministry to lift off the new motto from police stations and security directorates in all provinces, as it was deemed “unconstitutional.”
Thus, now our Interior Ministry is to return to be “in service of the people.” So fellow Egyptians, cheer up… you will be served… yes, served awi awi..