New World Man

Slate has an impressive assessment of Hosni Mubarak’s rule over Egypt. There’s no doubt that there is an appetite for democratic reform, and that Mubarak has run the country as an autocrat, but by ME standards he hasn’t done all that badly by the average Egyptian which is why many people point out that election or not, Mubarak may remain in power for some time.

The article is worth reading for the historical view on Mubarak’s reign.

Imagine that after Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, Gerald Ford became president–for life. Imagine that over the next 24 years, he declared a state of emergency and ruled over a tame parliament and hobbled opposition, holding on to power through clever politicking, brute force, and good luck. Something like this scenario describes modern Egypt and its longest-serving head of state, Hosni Mubarak–who then surprised his ruling party, his country, and the world last Saturday by announcing his support for a constitutional amendment that would allow others to run against him in the presidential election planned for this coming fall.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 7th, 2005 at 00:40 and is filed under politics, war on terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.