Personality cult built around Egypt's top general

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CAIRO - In dark sunglasses and a uniform studded with medals, Egypt's top general is everywhere, looking down from posters and banners proclaiming him "lion of the nation." Adoring songs vow "We are behind you."

Barely a month after he removed the elected president, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is riding a wave of adulation, drawing comparisons between him and modern Egypt's first charismatic strongman, former President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. State media and pro-military TV channels and newspapers have done everything they can to fuel the fervor.

But some warn that the personality cult could pave the way to new authoritarianism after a coup that the army and its supporters insist was aimed at promoting democracy.

"I worry about el-Sissi and the possible arrogance of the victor. And I fear him if he decides that the army is stronger than any future president that he will control like a puppet," wrote Mohammed Fathy, a columnist in the newspaper Al-Watan. "The admiration for him has gone beyond normal levels and is now more like deifying him."

The hype has swelled to the point that some are convinced el-Sissi will take off his uniform and run for president in elections due to take place early next year. A military spokesman denied el-Sissi has any intention to do so. That has done nothing to end the speculation by those for and against the idea.

"Bottom line, el-Sissi will be president because he has no choice but to be. People have already started treating him as such and because he is de facto ruler," Fathy wrote in a column on Monday, adding that media are depicting the general as "Nasser 2013."

The raving over el-Sissi is rooted in the satisfaction opposition group Egyptians took from his July 3 coup removing President Mohammed Mursi, after protesters held four day rallies demanding Mursi to step down. The coup has even drowned out arguments by Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi's other supporters that the coup against Egypt's first freely elected president has wrecked democracy.