Egyptian Spring -- Four Items

By John Ballard

We wait and hope.
In a few hours North America will be mostly asleep as the sun rises on another day in Egypt, seven or eight hours ahead. By the time we awaken, it will be past noon in Cairo. No one knows what to expect but attempts to delay regime change in Egypt will be futile. Egyptians have delayed this moment for two generations and a few more days' delay will not quench their spirit.

My personal hope is that the US will facilitate the emergence of a representative government in Egypt which will be an example for the rest of the Middle East. These first two readings show that I am not alone.

?A Need For Free and Fair Elections in Egypt: A Statement by the Working Group on Egypt
From the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace there is this:

Amidst the turmoil in Egypt, it is important for the United States to remain focused on the interests of the Egyptian people as well as the legitimacy and stability of the Egyptian government.

Only free and fair elections provide the prospect for a peaceful transfer of power to a government recognized as legitimate by the Egyptian people. We urge the Obama administration to pursue these fundamental objectives in the coming days and press the Egyptian government to:

• call for free and fair elections for president and for parliament to be held as soon as possible;


• amend the Egyptian Constitution to allow opposition candidates to register to run for the presidency;


• immediately lift the state of emergency, release political prisoners, and allow for freedom of media and assembly;


• allow domestic election monitors to operate throughout the country, without fear of arrest or violence;


• immediately invite international monitors to enter the country and monitor the process leading to elections, reporting on the government's compliance with these measures to the international community; and


• publicly declare that Hosni Mubarak will agree not to run for re-election.

We further recommend that the Obama administration suspend all economic and military assistance to Egypt until the government accepts and implements these measures.

?Ex-officials urge Obama to suspend aid to Egypt by Laura Rosen in Politico who links the above statement.

�I think Mubarak has a week at most left in office,� Andrew Albertson, formerly with the Project on Middle East Democracy and the working group, told POLITICO Saturday. �He�s ultimately done. Either he flees fast, or there�s a transition to [newly appointed Vice President Omar] Suleiman, or the protests continue. Meanwhile, people are becoming incredibly angry with the U.S.," which is perceived, Albertson said, to be propping up Mubarak.

�Given the situation we are now finding ourselves in, President Obama needs to say, 'Hosni Mubarak should go,'� Albertson continued. �That's what's needed to save the [U.S.] relationship with the Egyptian people.�

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, not a member of the working group, also argued Saturday that Obama would soon have to tell Mubarak to go, ideally after a transition plan has been worked out.

"At this point, facing by far the biggest foreign policy crisis of his presidency, Obama cannot afford to backtrack," Indyk, vice president for foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, wrote on MSNBC.com Saturday. "He will soon have to decide whether to tell Mubarak that the United States no longer supports him and that it's time for him to go."

Washington Egypt hands suggested there was tension inside the Obama administration -- which met for three hours Saturday on the Egypt crisis -- between those advocating the U.S. maintain a �cautious� policy of hedging its bets for now that Mubarak might stay on, and those who see that his departure is inevitable. They also said that some members of the administration were influenced by Israel�s concern at losing a reliable peace partner.

This comment left at the site is reasonable:

Stopping aid at this point would be rash, and increase intransigence on the part of Mubarak. What we should do, however, is to make it clear that if he does not go ( said the right way of course ) we will stop aid. With the aid question, we may be able to build a bridge for Mubarak so that he can control, within reason,his exit from power. Also others, that may face danger, need a safe exit also. With out this, serious bloodshed could still occur.

?We've waited for this revolution for years. Other despots should quail by Mona Eltahawy.  Read these words from the next generation.
Calling for change and demanding a president simply leave is far more inspiring than armed insurrection and calls for "death to the tyrant." It may change tomorrow, but I'm very impressed with the civility of what we have seen so far.

My birth at the end of July 1967 makes me a child of the naksa, or setback, as the Arab defeat during the June 1967 war with Israel is euphemistically known in Arabic. My parents' generation grew up high on the Arab nationalism that Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser brandished in the 1950s. But we "Children of the Naksa", hemmed in by humiliation, have spent so much of our lives uncomfortably stepping into pride's large, empty shoes.

But here now finally are our children � Generation Facebook � kicking aside the burden of history, determined to show us just how easy it is to tell the dictator it's time to go.

?Live From the Egyptian Revolution by Sharif Abdel Kouddous.
An inspiring statement by another child of this ancient, proud and historically peaceful country.

I grew up in Egypt. I spent half my life here. But Saturday, when my plane from JFK airport touched down in Cairo, I arrived in a different country than the one I had known all my life. This is not Hosni Mubarak�s Egypt anymore and, regardless of what happens, it will never be again.

In Tahrir Square, thousands of Egyptians�men and women, young and old, rich and poor�gathered today to celebrate their victory over the regime�s hated police and state security forces and to call on Mubarak to step down and leave once and for all. They talked about the massive protest on Friday, the culmination of three days of demonstrations that began on January 25th to mark National Police Day. It was an act of popular revolt the likes of which many Egyptians never thought they would see during Mubarak�s reign. "The regime has been convincing us very well that we cannot do it, but Tunisians gave us an idea and it took us only three days and we did it," said Ahmad El Esseily, a 35 year-old author and TV/radio talk show host who took park in the demonstrations. "We are a lot of people and we are strong."