Al-Sisi continues to send the Egyptians messages of austerity and hard times. In a televised speech during his youth conference in Sharm al-Sheikh, al-Sisi recalled one of his bedtime stories, saying that he has spent 10 years having nothing in his fridge but water. He then said that no one has heard his voice (referring to his patience).
Egyptians on the social networking sites mocked al-Sisi’s statement, enclosing a hashtag of: #al-Sisi_fridge that was rated number #1 on twitter trend chart.
Wael Kandil, a journalist and writer, commented on al-Sisi’s statement on twitter saying that “One day, someone had a psychological complex from his empty fridge, so he decided when he grows up to fill the morgue fridges with dead bodies.”
In the same context, Mohamed al-Omda, a former Egyptian member of parliament, said on Twitter, “Over ten years, al-Sisi’s fridge had nothing but water; we hope he will keep the water to compensate for the Nile water shortage after the completion of the Renaissance Dam construction, as it (water in Sisi’s fridge) can be used for drinking and irrigation.”
Haitham Abu Khalil, a human rights activist, wondered: “Will the brothers of ‘rice’ move to send something to al-Sisi, as it seems that he isn’t ok.” (in reference to the Gulf countries who have provided financial aid to the military coup leader reaching billions of dollars. However, al-Sisi had mocked at the Gulf countries, saying that they have so much money as rice).
Al-Sisi, known for his controversial solutions for Egypt’s economy, once asked the Egyptian bank officials in one of his speeches to find mechanisms to benefit from the “change” (coins as opposed to banknotes) to install them in “small projects for Egypt”.
He said, “Can we take it (the change)? I don’t know how will you do it? I mean that the money change as the 50 piasters and 1 pound in the transactions can be deposited in a special bank account for financing projects and services.”
Al-Sisi added in a speech that was broadcast via the Egyptian state-owned T.V. that Egyptians want to donate to these projects but they don’t know the mechanism.
Al-Sisi continued, “Here is a strong mechanism: we are talking about the transactions of almost 20 or 30 million people daily,” “if the change is 1 pound and 90 piasters, it would reach a huge sum; if we get this “change”, we will have 10 to 12 billion Egyptian pounds”
“Please, I want this money; but I don’t know how?”
In response, al-Sisi’s initiative has caused a mocking stream through the social networking sites as activists launched a hashtag: “Say Good morning to Egypt and donate your “change” The hashtag quickly topped the list of comments on Twitter at the time.
Moreover, al-Sisi’s suggestions were also mocked by the social media when he asked the Egyptians for donating money to the government to solve Egypt’s economic problems.
On February 24 2016, Al-Sisi said in a speech at al-Galaa Theater, Cairo – where he launched the government’s long-term sustainable development strategy, “Egypt Vision 2030 – that the Egyptian people should donate to the government, saying, “We should all say: ‘Good morning, Egypt’ and donate one pound,” he said, adding that the Egyptians should support their national economy against foreign threats which seek to destroy Egypt.
One of the most quoted lines from the speech came when Sisi said, “I will use a very difficult expression …If it were possible for me to be sold, I would sell myself.”
At that time, social media users mocked Sisi’s improvised speech for weeks. One prankster even put Al-Sisi up for sale on the global auction site eBay describing him as a “lightly used field marshal.”
