The Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, “may stand down” this evening, according to the secretary general of the ruling NDP party, Dr Hossam Badrawi. Mubarak is expected to make an announcement about his future some time this evening.
“I’m expecting him to pass his decision for the constitution amendments and for him to go to the constitution and transmit his authorities as president to his vice-president,” said Dr Badrawi in an interview with Channel 4 News today.
“He made mistakes but he sees himself as someone that does not deserve getting out of power, of his service, that way,” Dr Badrawi continued. “At the same time he realises that it’s the time to change. That’s my impression in the last two days.”
Claims that Mubarak is to step down soon have been denied by the Egyptian information minister, Anas el-Feky, who told the Reuters news agency: “The president is still in power and he is not stepping down. The president is not stepping down and everything you heard in the media is a rumour.”
If Mubarak were to stand down, however, it would be the culmination of a historic few weeks in the Middle East. Popular unrest in the region spread rapidly after an uprising in Tunisia resulted in the Tunisian president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, fleeing the country on 14 January.
On 25 January, protests erupted in Egypt, calling upon the country’s octogenarian president, Hosni Mubarak, to resign as president. Even after 17 days, protesters still fill Tahrir Square in Cairo calling for Mubarak’s exit.
The Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan argued in last week’s New Statesman that the events in Egypt could prove a tipping point for political change in the Arab world:
Who could have predicted that Egypt would soon witness such unprecedented popular protest? A barrier has fallen. Nothing will be the same again. It is quite likely that other countries will follow the lead of Egypt, given its central and symbolic significance.
The regional impact of Mubarak stepping down will be huge, yet the exact consequences are unpredictable. After the revolutions in both Tunisian and Egyptian, the political message is clear: with non-violent mass protest, anything is possible and no autocratic government is safe and secure any longer.
Presidents and kings are feeling the pressure of this historical turning point. The unrest has reached Algeria, Yemen and Mauritania. One should also look at Jordan, Syria and even Saudi Arabia: preventive reforms have been announced, as if there were a common feeling of fear and vulnerability. The rulers of all these countries know that if the Egyptian is collapsing, they run the risk of the same destiny. This state of instability is worrying and at the same time very promising. The Arab world is awakening with dignity and hope.
And in this week’s magazine, John Pilger argues that the Egyptian uprising has forced the west to reconsider its vew of the Arab world.
The uprising in Egypt has discredited every western media stereotype about the Arabs. The courage, determination, eloquence and grace of those in Liberation Square contrast with “our” specious fear-mongering, with its al-Qaeda and Iran bogeys and iron-clad assumptions of the “moral leadership of the west”. It is not surprising that the recent source of truth about the imperial abuse of the Middle East, WikiLeaks, is itself subjected to craven and petty abuse in those self-congratulating newspapers that set the limits of elite liberal debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps they are worried. Public awareness is rising and bypassing them.
Elsewhere in the magazine, the Middle East expert Olivier Roy explains the significance of the revolts and explains why everything you thought you knew about the Middle East is wrong.
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