Egyptian Crowds Reject Mubarak Speech, Pledge Massive Friday Protests
11 February 2011By Juan Cole
The roller coaster media ride on Thursday centered on
stories coming out of unnamed, highly placed Egyptian
sources that President Hosni Mubarak would give a
speech that evening in which he stepped down. When the
time came, and Mubarak finally spoke, he did no such
thing. He remained president, and only said that he
was transferring some unspecified powers, at some
unspecified time, to his vice president, Omar
Suleiman, a former head of military intelligence
allegedly implicated in torture. Most likely, Mubarak
interpreted what he planned to do in his own mind as a
kind of stepping down, and gave sufficiently ambiguous
indications that those around him misunderstood his
intentions.
The danger is that by raising expectations and then
dashing them, Mubarak may have created an even more
volatile revolutionary situation, which could easily
deteriorate into violence and a spiral of violence.
In 1992 the Algerian generals held parliamentary
elections and allowed the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS),
the Muslim fundamentalist party, to compete. FIS
unexpectedly won more than two-thirds of seats in
parliament, which would have allowed them to amend the
constitution. The generals were suddenly stricken with
fear at what might happen, and they abruptly declared
the election null and void. Millions of FIS supporters
were outraged, feeling their victory had been stolen
from them. The situation deteriorated into a civil war
between fundamentalists and secularists that
ultimately killed perhaps 150,000 to 200,000 persons
over the succeeding decade, and left Algeria to this
day in a fragile political condition.
Basically, the rule in politics is that you don't
raise people's hopes if you aren't prepared to follow
through on your pledges.
After the crowd at Tahrir Square absorbed the news
that Mubarak was still president and that his gestures
to them were mostly vague or symbolic, they were from
all accounts angry. Some took off their shoes and
showed the soles, a sign of disrespect. To their
credit, the protesters mostly quietly dispersed in
order to get some rest for Friday, when they were
already calling for major protests.
But, some were so exercised that 3,000 headed toward
the presidential palace, where they staged a
demonstration. Another 10,000 headed toward the
television station, which they surrounded. The
symbology here was dire, since the first thing a
coup-maker in the Arab world does is to send tanks to
surround the television station.
In the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the
crowds were enraged by the speech, according to
Aljazeera. correspondent. Some chanted, "Hosni Mubarak,
shame, shame; you want Egypt engulfed in flame!" They
planned for a big procession on Friday after prayers,
and smaller neighborhood rallies.
Amr: Memo from Egypt: We Shall Not Be Moved
Ahmed Amr writes from Cairo in a guest column for
Informed Comment
Memo from Egypt: We Shall Not Be
Moved
With every passing day, the Egyptian uprising gathers
strength as more citizens rally to the cause and
demand the immediate resignation of Hosni Mubarak. The
regime's pillars are crumbling. Yesterday, the
demonstrators surged out of Tahrir Square and marched
towards the National Assembly and the building that
houses the Ministry of Interior. But perhaps the most
important development was the smaller demonstrations
held in front of government owned media outlets and
the resignations of a number of prominent journalists
on the regime's payroll.
The defection of journalists and TV personalities
means that the regime has lost its ability to control
the message. Until Monday, the coverage of the
uprising by the government owned press has been
scandalous. Now, the change in tone coming from the
regime's very own megaphone suggests that even state
paid propagandists have read the writing on the wall
and decided that the demonstrators have gained the
upper hand.
One prominent headline in Wednesday's issue of Al-Ahram,
the official megaphone of the regime, demonstrated the
dramatic tilt in coverage. "Fi Al Tahrir Hata al
Raheel" translates into "We'll Occupy Tahrir Square
until Mubarak steps down" or in other words "We shall
not be moved." That would have been unthinkable a week
ago.
What's more astonishing about these developments is
that a day earlier, Omar Suleiman, held a two hour
meeting with the management of major government daily
papers and privately owned opposition papers. I guess
whatever message he was trying to deliver just didn't
sink in. It appears that even disreputable government
employed journalists have bailed out on Mubarak
because they understand the liability of being too
closely identified with the dictatorial regime.
Every journalist in the country is suddenly howling
about the mind boggling corruption of Mubarak's
government. The former minister of interior, Habib
Adly, apparently amassed a fortune of $1.3 billion
dollars. Not bad for a government employee. Other
former ministers have amassed similar fortunes.
According to Al-Ahram, the former Minister of Tourism,
The former Minister of Housing and the former Minister
of Health are all billionaires and the attorney
general has already issued orders freezing their
assets and barring them from leaving the country. In a
country where the minimum wage was only recently
raised to the equivalent of $70 a month, even a
million dollars is considered surreal wealth. So you
can only imagine how these revelations sit with the
man on the street especially when they are confirmed
by the government's own media establishment.
Of course, the net worth of the Mubarak clan is still
a taboo subject. There is speculation in the foreign
press that the president is one of the richest men in
the world with a fortune estimated at $40 billion. Al-Ahram
won't go there – not yet anyhow. But the disturbing
news of the first family's fabulous wealth has already
reached Tahrir Square and it helps explain why the
demonstrations are gaining strength.
With the sudden change in the sentiments of the
scribes of the government press, all eyes are now
focused on the army. So far, the army has maintained a
neutral stance. The common wisdom in the western press
is that the army will eventually tilt towards the
regime because its senior officers are beneficiaries
of many perks. That might be true but they're still
Egyptians and they won't easily give up their status
as the single most respected institution in the
country. While the generals are often handsomely
rewarded by the regime for their loyalty, the vast
majority of officers are middle class and their
compensation has taken a downward dive even as Mubarak
targeted his largess towards the police and the
Republican Guards. Anybody who knows anything about
Egypt understands that the junior officers in the
military will abandon their posts before accepting
orders to abort a popular uprising. The military
establishment has two choices – they can play a
meaningful and constructive role in the Post-Mubarak
era or they can prop up the faltering regime for a few
months at the expense of losing the trust of their
people.
As the uprising gains momentum, college professors,
professional associations and trade unions are joining
the fray. They know which way the tide is turning and
so does the army's rank and file.
The young people who led this uprising have a spirit
and a love of country that no Egyptian can ignore.
There is a surge of patriotism in the country that
transcends anything seen since the 1973 war. Egypt has
not experienced a popular uprising of this magnitude
since 1919 when Egyptians became the first third world
people to secure nominal independence from the British
Empire. Those kids in Tahrir Square know their history
and have seen three hundred of their finest shed their
blood for freedom. They will honor their sacrifices by
standing tall against any force that attempts to abort
their uprising. A word to the wise – listen carefully
to what these young men and women are saying – "we
shall not be moved."
Ahmed Amr is an Egyptian American and the former
editor of NileMedia.com
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments