Which way will Egypt go? 

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Egyptians are still undecided about the path they will choose: a state dominated solely by the Muslim Brotherhood party or a more open state where democracy, pluralism, wide public participation and free speech will lead to a civil state and revolutionary reform.

The choice is not between the political group that supports revolutions and those who oppose it. The challenge is to bring about a democratic life with all its demands, culture and values, a real revolution that not only unites the people but opens the way for real political change and reform.

The Muslim Brotherhood movement fear that the revolution is in danger if it fails to come to power. Other opposing groups feel it is in danger if a new, totalitarian, religious regime rules Egypt. That is why many different political groups - partisan and non-partisan, leftist, liberal, conservative and independent - joined to support General Ahmed Shafiq: to stress the need for wide participation in the new regime and the danger of yielding power to a single party.

The way Muslim Brotherhood movement dealt with the political and legal process of change after the revolution frightened a wide sector of the Egyptian population, especially its tendency to adopt laws to exclude its opponents and those who served Egypt during Mubarak era.

The Mubarak regime is gone forever, and those who supported the ousted president or were in charge at that time still have the constitutional right to participate, unless they were convicted by the law, and they have the right to choose the political group that serves their interests.

Egypt needs new laws, and a new political atmosphere to achieve reconciliation. The new laws and the new constitution should unite the people and guarantee the right of all groups to participate in the political process. They should lead the way to a national consensus recognising that exclusion and revenge corrupt political life and divide society.

The revolution should, in the end, change all political groups and create a new atmosphere; it should serve and protect all those who adopt it and those who fear it.

Political elimination serves revenge. It neither rights the mistakes of the past nor serves the future. On the contrary, it adds unnecessary new mistakes.

Egypt is at a crossroads; the Arab world is also at a crossroads. The choices the Egyptian people will adopt and the direction the new regime will choose will definitely affect the disturbing political scene in other Arab countries.

In two weeks' time a new era will begin in Egypt; either one party will rule or there will be wider political participation. The people will decide which way the Egyptian revolution will go and which direction the Arab Spring is heading.

The writer is former minister of information and media expert. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.