The combined economic power of the multinational corporations operating in Egypt today surpasses the national economy many times over. The energy companies alone have 11 times more money than Egypt’s total GDP. That economic power translates into influence and control over government policy. While this is perhaps more obvious in Egypt than elsewhere, it is, in fact, the prevailing reality in most countries, including western countries.
It is crucial for business to keep you distracted with simply shuffling the personnel in government; having elections and debates and so forth; so that you will not notice the glaring reality that real control is in the hands of the private economy.
Why is it so important for them to keep you distracted this way? It is because the actual power structure is extremely vulnerable, and if you began to re-organize your efforts to target the corporations that own the government, instead of targeting the government itself, they would have no choice but to concede to your demands.