Egypt

We interrupt our regular blogging for an update from Egypt. Today on February 11, 2011 President Hosni Mubarak resigned after 18 days of mass protests all over Egypt. For the past 30 years President Mubarak ruled under emergency law. However, years of repression and torture of the political opposition, economic stagnation, and poverty finally drove the Egyptian people out into the streets to protest. While Mubarak spent the past few weeks attempting to make a deal with his people, his concessions instead of appeasing further fueled the anger and frustration of ordinary Egyptians. Mubarak also deployed uniformed and plainclothes policemen to suppress the demonstrations, while the Egyptian Army both protected the protesters and separated clashes between government and civilian groups, thus containing widespread violence.

A few hours ago Vice President Omar Suleiman announced the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak; joy erupted in the streets of Egypt. Among the calls for democracy and freedom, there are also calls for justice. The Egyptians want to put Mubarak and those close to him on trial to return money which left government coffers for personal gain. However Egypt’s large and expansive government structure is one of the very few job options for ordinary Egyptians and I hope that they do not end I paying for financial infractions of the leadership.  

According to Vice President Omar Suleiman the Egyptian military will supervise constitutional reforms. Military oversight is nothing to Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s most charismatic leader and reformer came to power through a military coup. After the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat, Nasser’s handpicked heir, President Hosni Mubarak has ruled with the help of a temporary emergency law which was extended for the last time in March 2010. Will the military move aside once all reforms are instituted and the Egyptian people elect their leadership? How will these reform look? Will a new charismatic leader emerge to take up Nasser’s legacy?  

Egypt is not the only country in the neighborhood to have experienced military takeovers and rule. The presidency of Iraq was created through a military coup. Syria went through over 20 cabinets shortly after independence from France. Syria’s political instability and disastrous participation in the 1948 Arab – Israeli War also ended in a series of military coups starting in 1949. Lastly, although Turkey has been a parliamentary democracy since the Republic’s creation in 1923, military involvement in politics is still the norm.

Egypt truly stands at a crossroads and I wish for the Egyptian people to have every opportunity they need to steer their country in the direction of equality, personal choice, economic development and political freedom.