Egypt on the Brink by Tarek Osman

Author:Tarek Osman [Osman, Tarek]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780300177268
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2013-07-30T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

THE MUBARAK YEARS

THE ARGUMENT OF Jonathan Fenby's insightful book France on the Brink1 – that the character, style and personal experience of a country's president can strongly influence its political system – is of central relevance to Egypt's experience. The absolutist nature of Egypt's presidency since the inception of the republic in 1953 makes the nature and outlook of the ruler a matter of vital importance to his subjects.

Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt was dynamic and revolutionary. It grabbed the political landscape of the region via a thunderous coup that abolished monarchism; installed republicanism; transformed the country's socio-economic fabric; eliminated entire social strata and created others; built whole industries; introduced ground-breaking political systems; created new political forces; entered into wars (close and far away); and triggered the regional political tsunami of Arab nationalism. In culture, too, the new era opened the way for an intoxicating artistic ambience where literature, films and plays vibrantly reflected and expressed the wider tumult. Nasser's ambition, energy and intelligence were indispensable to Egypt's self-invention in the 1950s and 1960s. Nasser was not only a grandly ambitious leader, but also a man with varied interests ranging from art, cinema, photography, literature and music to the study of history and biography. Nasser's fans paint him as a larger than life figure comparable to Otto von Bismarck, Nehru or Charles de Gaulle.

Anwar Sadat, too, led Egypt through an era of change. The new president's leadership – following the war against Israel in 1973 – represented in effect a counter-coup against Nasser's model, incorporating a series of bouleversements: Sadat broke with the USSR to make Egypt a staunch ally of the United States, initiated the peace process with Israel by his dramatic flight to Jerusalem in 1977 and led Egypt away from socialist-style central planning towards what was intended to be free-market capitalism. His policies brought about major changes in the composition of the country's middle class. Sadat may have lacked Nasser's charisma, but he did cultivate a fatherly, leader-of-the-tribe persona that secured him considerable popular appeal. In contrast to Nasser, who interacted with his people as a missionary figure charting a path to national glory and redemption, Sadat was the village chief (oumda): a traditionally dressed, honoured, pious and modest guest at weddings, funerals and regional celebrations, ready to engage in discussions on matters of day-to-day concern.

Hosni Mubarak's Egypt was a very different story. The man possessed neither Nasser's grandeur nor Sadat's appeal. A leading Egyptian publication once described Mubarak as severely lacking in the leadership department but excelling in executing tasks and delivering policies. At the time of Mubarak's sudden accession after Sadat's assassination in October 1981, some argued that such a profile perfectly suited the new occupant of the presidential office, on the grounds that Egypt and the Egyptians needed a tranquillizer to relieve the pain. Indeed, it was plausible to suggest that after the tumultuous changes of the previous three decades – from Arab nationalism to Islamism, Nasser's political mobilizations to Sadat's frenetic upheavals, from frequent conflicts to relentless social and economic change – the country needed a period of calm.

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