A Day in the Life of a Dictatorship Posted by Shadi Hamid

Last week, during the Egyptian ruling party's annual convention, Ahmed Ezz, prominent member of the deceptively-named "National Democratic Party," blasted the opposition for being fragmented and weak, suggesting that it was disturbed by the NDP's "tremendous development and achievements." Yes, that must be it. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that opposition activists are routinely rounded up, put in prison, and tortured.

During the same convention, Gamal Mubarak, the likely successor to his father, Hosni, accused the opposition of wishing to take Egypt "30 years backward." When I read this, I found myself initially confused. "Hmm, That doesn't sound so bad," I thought. I went ahead and checked out Egypt's freedom house numbers, and sure enough, its score for 1978 was 5/4. Today, it's 6/5 and will probably be even worse when they release new figures next year.

Gamal, stop being coy: In response to the usual questions about who the NDP would "nominate" to be its next president, the son responds that "no party announces its candidates for president three years before elections are scheduled to take place." Translation: "I'm running for president."

In other news, there is apparently a new opposition group called "The Conference of the Hidden Minority." Ummm, I have no idea what that could possibly mean. Don't they mean "silent majority"?

Comments

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[EnglishForDirtyForeigners]

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[rob]

i think your making assumptions about Gamal Mubarak being the next President. Several serious analysts, such as Dia Rashwan this week in Al-Dostor, are arguing that Gamal will not be the next President. According to their analysis, most if not all of Gamal's influence is related to his position as the son of the President. When the President dies, Gamal will lose alot of his influence. He has no indpendent power base outside ofbeing the son of the President. When that disapears, he loses alot of power.

Rashwan argues the next President is going to come from the Army. Anyway, my point is that its far far from a foregone conclusion that Gamal is next President of Egypt.

[omar]

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[Peace]

Maybe Obama, who grew up in Indonesia, when it was under military rule, will presure the Egyptian government to democratize or at least talk to the opposition parties.

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