Egypt: Desert storm | Editorial

All now rests on the determination of the people of Egypt. And they have, surely, come too far to retreat Hosni Mubarak has run out of road. This is obvious to all: to the police who have fled the streets, to senior members resigning from the ruling party, and to the millions of Egyptians who have taken over its cities . But not to the president himself. On Saturday he appointed a successor – as if he still had the moral authority to do so. The demonstrators did not budge. Anti-government slogans were sprayed on the side of tanks, with the tacit approval of the conscripts manning them. The curfew kept on being ignored, and yesterday a new name was added to the passenger list of the plane that the crowds hope will fly the regime to Saudi Arabia. It was that of the president’s latest appointee. He is General Omar Suleiman , the intelligence chief who saved his president in an assassination attempt, and has since been involved in all Egypt’s power-brokering, in Israel and elsewhere. He once negotiated a truce between Fatah and Hamas, but has since helped to keep Gaza’s siege intact and the Palestinians divided. The self-appointed nemesis of Hamas’s political relative, the Muslim Brotherhood in his own country, he is the sort of Arab strongman whom Israel feels (and the US used to feel) instinctively at home with. A doer, whose deeds are as effective as they are hidden. The same reasons make him anathema to the nationalist revolution taking place on the streets. How things develop depends very much on the role that the army is seen to play in the next few critical days. Citizens woke up yesterday to find al-Jazeera’s broadcasts via an Egyptian satellite halted, and a heavy military presence on the streets. It is the one remaining sign of the state and the regime is clearly playing the security card, one of the last it has to play. Its message is crude – but could still be effective. It is saying that the only alternative to Mubarak is chaos. And yet the fact that some of the looting is being organised by plain-clothed policemen is not lost on citizens. Many have formed vigilante groups to protect their property. A battle is being waged for the army’s hearts and minds. Demonstrators want it to guarantee constitutional change, and to oversee the creation of a national unity government and then fresh and fair elections. But for that to happen, Mubarak and his henchmen have to go first. If, however, the military checkpoints going up all over Egypt’s cities become a Suleiman-tied noose, lowered gently round the neck of mass protest, a very different scenario could emerge. Yesterday troops fired into the air to protect a fire engine being attacked in Tahrir Square , the centre of the storm, while air force jets soared provocatively overhead. There were no signs of the popular protest dimming yesterday, which was supposed to be a day of work. In Tunisia, a government of national unity has become a revolving door , as the remaining stalwarts of the ousted Ben Ali regime are whistled off stage, one by one. About the only one left is the prime minister himself. A similar clear out could soon be underway in Egypt if this revolution succeeds. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel was watching events closely, as well he might. The US, in full retreat from the position it expressed only a week ago, told Mubarak that shuffling the deck would not be enough, and secretary of state Hillary Clinton yesterday uttered two words that are particularly ominous for him – “orderly transition”. However this drama plays out, something quite profound is changing in the Arab world. So often written off, or thought to have been subsumed by Islamism, pan-Arabism is finding voice once again in the shape of this secular protest against dictatorship. A demonstration taking place in Jordan was cut short only by the collective wish of Jordanians to watch al-Jazeera’s live coverage of the progress of this potent political force on the streets of Cairo. All now rests on the determination of the people of Egypt. And they have, surely, come too far to retreat. Egypt Middle East Protest guardian.co.uk

Posted by on January 31, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry