Egypt protests: The feeling in Tahrir Square was one of disbelief

‘He’s not going? What the hell does he want?’ Ahdaf Soueif in a packed square in Cairo on the reaction to Mubarak’s speech The clock on the Arab League building said 8.30. Everyone was in Tahrir Square. I stood in front of one of the many impromptu stages – stood isn’t quite right. I bounced. Everybody was clapping, swaying, singing. Wust el-Balad was playing: “Put your shoulder by my shoulder/ we’ll break bread together/ and however hard it is/ we’ll invent/ a modern revolution.” The square was rocking. There was even a half moon nestling in the fronds of a palm tree above us. The air was happy, excited, anticipatory. Now, at midnight, how very different. We stood in the square and listened to Mubarak’s speech over a loudspeaker. Every once in a while someone would start an angry chant but people would shush them. Everyone was listening intently, and no one could believe their ears. Exclamations erupted: “He’s not going? What the hell does he want?” When Mubarak started on the “I was once young like you” riff, a great collective groan went up. As he finished his speech the drums and chanting started: “Don’t you understand? We. Will. Stand!” This was interspersed with the usual “Irhal!” – depart. The dominant feeling at that moment was of disbelief. No one could credit that after millions of people had demanded the departure of the regime and all the scandals that have erupted over the past days, Mubarak could come on and simply repeat the same tired old tropes. Adding to them a further smokescreen about not succumbing to foreign pressure. It defied belief that a president who has alienated and ruined his country by following American policies for 30 years was now staking a claim to independence of foreign influence. The other dominant feeling was that we, the people, had been insulted. Mr Mubarak patronised the protesters – again. And once again, he demonstrated how much less he is than the people he has brutalised for so long. The protests, as the whole world knows, have been open, peaceable, cohesive, good-humoured. Once again, the president played the divisive card: here was a man standing against foreign intervention, worried about the economy, wanting security and stability for his country – every one of these a misrepresentation aimed at discrediting the protests. By choosing this path, Mubarak is deliberately pushing Egypt further into crisis. He is putting the army in a position where they will soon have to confront either the Egyptian people or the president and his presidential guard. He is also ensuring that by the time the revolution is victorious, the military will be in a far stronger position than when all this started. We are on the streets. There is no turning back. Egypt Protest Middle East Ahdaf Soueif guardian.co.uk

Posted by on February 11, 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