Opinion: Egypt 2012: Has revolution set in?

The swearing in of Muhammad Morsi to the office of the Egyptian president in the first week of July 2012 should ideally have marked the end of the political upheaval that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

However, the problems that had triggered across the region the ripple of dissent known as the Arab Spring – economic stagnation, price rise, rising unemployment in the background of authoritarian rule – have not disappeared during the period of turmoil.

Given the strategic significance of Egypt in the global trade in oil on account of the Suez Canal, the international community is keen that these matters are resolved with minimum dislocation. But for a large number of Egyptians, the change of guard has opened up an opportunity for more enduring change – and for many of them, Morsi’s rise to presidency, and with him that of the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) – marks not the end of the revolution, rather its beginning.