“No Way, Hosni” The People Versus Mubarak
This weekend, the battle-royal between the people of Egypt and its stay-put President came to an end as the defiant leader finally bowed to pressure to quit office after 30 years.
A Western ally, Mubarak’s departure is accompanied by mixed reactions from world leaders and the media. While some rejoice with the protesters, others criticize America’s position calling their diplomacy of political correctness ‘naïve’.
The end of Mubarak’s regime also marks an end to emergency law that has been in effect since he took office in 1981. He was appointed Vice President in 1975 by President Anwar Sadat and became President on Sadat’s assassination six years later.
Pundits had wondered if Mubarak was next following the ouster of Tunisian strongman Ben Ali who was unseated by popular demand of the Tunisian people after 23 years in power. The Tunisian revolts sparked protests in Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Oman, Libya, Yemen, Mauritania and Algeria.
Business Week reports:
Hosni Mubarak ceded power to the Egyptian military as a popular revolt swept away the leader of the Arab world’s most populous state, throwing into question the future course of a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.
“We are not going to leave until all our demands are met,” said Hany Mikael, 26, a clothes producer and one of thousands of Egyptians who remained in Cairo’s Tahrir Square today after a night of celebrations. “We are waiting now for the army’s statement on their next step with a clear timeline on how they will form the transitional government and how they will meet the rest of our demands like cancelling parliament, removing the emergency law, and ensuring the independence of the judiciary.”
A nighttime curfew, which has been in place since Jan. 28, will be shortened to between midnight and 6 a.m., state television reported earlier. Security forces have arrested 10,147 out of a total of 23,060 prisoners who escaped across the nation during the unrest, state-run Nile News reported today, citing the Interior Ministry.
Yesterday Egyptians celebrated through the night in Cairo and other cities after an announcement that the 82-year-old president had resigned, bowing to the demands of protesters who had occupied the centre of the capital for 18 days. In downtown Mubarak subway station, revellers crossed out his name, replacing it with “Martyrs’ Station.”
Read the rest of this article in Businessweek
Reuters reports:
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers of the Jewish state to make no comment on the political cliffhanger in Cairo, to avoid inflaming an already explosive situation. But Israel’s President Shimon Peres comments “We always have had and still have great respect for President Mubarak,” he said on Monday. He then switched to the past tense. “I don’t say everything that he did was right, but he did one thing which all of us are thankful to him for: he kept the peace in the Middle East.”
One commentator in the daily Maariv titled “A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam” accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks.
“Who is advising them,” asked Aviad Pohoryles “to fuel the mob raging in the streets of Egypt and to demand the head of the person who five minutes ago was the bold ally of the president … an almost lone voice of sanity in the Middle East?”
“The politically correct diplomacy of American presidents throughout the generations … is painfully naive.”
Egypt, Israel’s most powerful neighbour, was the first Arab country to make peace with the Jewish state, in 1979. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed the treaty, was assassinated two years later by an Egyptian fanatic.
Read the rest of this article in Reuters
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