Can The Original Protesters Salvage The Egyptian Revolution?

Just like we came here in January and stayed for 18 days to remove Mubarak, we will remain here this time around to save our revolution and pressure for the achievement of all the revolution's main targets.

Months after an apparent success in removing Hosni Mubarak and everything he stood for, Egyptian protesters find themselves back at the beginning:

For the first time since the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, a large-scale sit-in with tents and banners is hunkered in Tahrir Square as protesters and activists demand that the revolution's ideals are not swept aside by the ruling military council.


Angered by the adjournment of trials for police officers charged with killing protesters between Jan. 25 and Feb. 11, as well as corruption trials involving Mubarak, his two sons and ex-ministers who served during his reign, tens of thousands marched in Tahrir on Friday. Many of them were still there Sunday.

I suppose the first clue should have been what happened to Wael Ghonim. At one time Ghonim was considered a major reason for the success of the Egyptian revolution--until reality struck:

Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt's uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square on Friday by security guards, an AFP photographer said. Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, the epicentre of anti-regime protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but men who appeared to be guarding influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi barred him from doing so.

And now the protesters themselves see the same thing happening to the revolution itself.

In an effort to save what they thought they had achieved, the protesters are going back to Tahrir Square, where it all started. They are demanding speedier trials, better health care and social care, higher wages--and that remaining officials from the Mubarak regime be removed.

So what are the odds that the protesters can reignite the same emotions that forced Mubarak out?
Or will the first revolution that really seemed to justify calling the wave of revolutions an "Arab Spring", now become the first to prove that these protests are nothing of the kind?

How does one salvage a revolution?

Technorati Tag: Egypt.