Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak said in a national address Thursday evening that he will not step down until a new president is selected in elections scheduled for September. He added that some powers are being transferred to Egypt’s vice president.
Saying a peaceful transfer of power is underway, Mr. Mubarak refused to give in to demands of tens of thousands of anti-government protesters who took to the streets for a 17th straight day to demand his immediate resignation.
Demonstrators in Cairo’s main Tahrir Square jeered and chanted “get out” during the speech. They had earlier danced in expectation that Mubarak would resign.
I don’t know about the rest of you but I was surprised at the degree of surprised reaction here. Sinners who hold power almost never give it up easily. This is true for us all.
Mubarak will stay or go depending on what he thinks he needs to do to save his own hide. He’ll stay as long as he thinks he can safely do so while maintaining power.
I just hope and pray that Egypt’s Christians will come out of it okay.
Regardless of the short term, the sources I’ve read have convinced me that Egypt and all the Arab world is in deep trouble as food gets more expensive.
#3 VW I think that is right – Food prices have precipitated riots across the area; not to say that that has not been the final straw on top of serious issues which have been there for a long time.
Hasn’t something gone wrong when it isn’t possible to tell the difference between ‘democracy in action’ and chaos in the streets? It’s what we Yanks tend to say when a Latin American dictator is overthrown in a leftist coup, things went wrong…..
#2: yes, this is what ‘Spengler’ says in his blog. The poverty, illiteracy and backwardness of most Egyptians are huge and make any change fraught with danger, esp. for relations with Israel and Egypt’s Christians. For the moment, I prefer the devil we know.
With many mouths, no oil and now the tourists are scared off, what has the country got?
It desperately need Israel’s help.
I found Spengler’s article very convincing. The problem is the economic and cultural backwardness of the Arab countries vs. the new economic strength of East Asia. Asians can now pay for wheat and Arabs can’t. Egypt has the internet, Facebook and Twitter (when they’re not shut off by the government) but it does not have a legal and governmental environment designed to foster entrepreneurship and economic growth which would reach below the top tier of the privileged.
I have mixed emotions about the situation. Most Egyptian Christians are likely to prefer the Mubarak regime to anything else because of the real threat of Islamism. Their current restrictions and troubles could quickly get a lot worse. On the other hand, the fall 2010 parliamentary elections, in which the ruling party got nearly all the seats, were a sham and everybody knows it. Mubarak has repressed the Brotherhood and related groups but he has also repressed groups having some interest in liberal democracy. I am not surprised that the street protesters, large numbers of whom do not appear to be Brotherhood people, don’t believe what Mubarak says.
My guess is that the military might be able to pull off managing the transition if it would force Mubarak out as the figurehead soon.
Mubarak has resigned.
more here
Power now has been vested in the Higher Council of the Army, pro tem
Let us pray this does the trick. The future of 8-10 million Egyptian Christians hangs in the balance.
Prayers for the people of Egypt and our friends there.
Comment on the BBC says:
According to article 84 of the Egyptian constitution, if the president steps down, the speaker of the People’s Assembly shall temporarily assume the presidency. Secondly, a new president shall be chosen within a maximum period of 60 days from the date of the vacancy of the presidential office. It is not clear if this will apply if the Higher Military Council is in charge of the nation’s affairs.
Statement of the Higher Council of the Armed Forces:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12429628
#13 was an earlier statement. There has yet to be comment since the resignation of the President.
You mean, Katherine #10, that the army retains control and somehow prevents the Muslim Brotherhood taking over eventually? That would seem to be the best and perhaps only hope for the Christian minorities.
This article is a helpful reminder of what is actually happening in the Middle Eastern nations:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/259534/lights-out-middle-east-s-christians-rich-lowry
Democracy in Arab, Islamic countries means that Islam governs and shari’ah rules, since that’s the will of the populace.
Yes, TACit #15, that is what I hope for. The end of the Mubarak regime has been in sight for some time. His son Gamal whom he hoped to install did not have popular support. The only thing that surprises me about this is that it has come before Hosni Mubarak’s death rather than after it.
As to the current Egyptian constitution, it requires that any presidential candidate have representation in Parliament, and the 2010 elections were so rigged that no one but the ruling party has any MPs. This is why, probably, the accession of the speaker of the Assembly would not have been acceptable to the crowd in Tahrir. If Western governments have any sense they will immediately begin providing advice on writing a more acceptable constitution to allow a new Parliament to be elected as well as a new President. Western-looking parties need a little time to organize.
Perhaps you are an expert TACit – but let’s wait and see. The army have dissolved the Cabinet and the Parliament, as the protesters had asked, and say they will rule with the head of the Constitutional Court, so it looks as if they are setting up for elections in the near future.
I know very little about the scene, only what other people think about it. Rather I am asking why we should expect this to turn out differently, that is, better than Iraq, for instance – which has been a disaster, particularly for Christians.
For one thing, Egypt’s Christian population is 10% or perhaps more, much larger than Iraq’s. Certainly the danger of an Islamist coup exists, but the army is very popular and may be able to move events towards a more secular regime. The army generally has opposed the Brotherhood and related movements and supports the Israeli peace treaty. Army elite ranks are loaded with officers who have trained in the USA. We can hope, and we can pray.
Well let’s pray for Egypt.
Perhaps the situation may turn out to be analagous to Turkey, whose secular democracy the army has guaranteed for 90 years. Prayers anyway.