Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak gave the first indication on Saturday he was preparing an eventual handover of power by naming a vice-president for the first time in 30 years after protests that have rocked the foundations of the state.
Mr Mubarak’s decision to pick Mr Omar Suleiman, his intelligence chief and confidant, as his No. 2 is the first time the 82-year-old leader has hinted at a succession plan and may suggest he will not run in an election scheduled for September.
Whether he can hold on to power until then, however, remained in question. Many believe the Army holds the key. Until five days of unprecedented scenes of popular defiance and chaos across the country, officials had suggested Mr Mubarak would run again.
If not him, many Egyptians believed, his son, Gamal, 47, could be lined up to run. This now seems impossible. Omar Suleiman, 74, has long been central in key policy areas, including the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, an issue vital to Egypt’s relationship with key aid donor the United States.
Some protesters, whose actions forced Mr Mubarak to send the Army onto the streets of the biggest Arab nation, were not happy with a decision that looks set to ensure power stays in the hands of military and security institutions. “He is just like Mubarak, there is no change,” a protester told Reuters outside the interior ministry, where thousands were protesting, moments after the appointment.
The appointment as Prime Minister of Ahmad Shafiq — who is, like Mr Mubarak himself, a former commander of the Air Force — also indicated a preference for responding to public demands for change with limited changes in personnel. Mubarak’s decision on Friday to sack the government failed to impress protesters.
On the streets of Cairo, soldiers repelled protesters who attacked a Central government building. But elsewhere in the city, troops took no action as people stayed on the streets despite warnings to stay indoors after 4 pm local time.
A group of 50 people approached a military cordon carrying a sign reading “Army and People Together”. Soldiers pulled back a barrier and let the group through: “There is a curfew,” one lieutenant said. “But the Army isn’t going to shoot anyone.” The protesters, many of them young urban poor or students, are enraged over endemic poverty, corruption and unemployment as well as the lack of democracy in Egypt.
Egyptians jubilantly climbed atop Army tanks and armoured personnel carriers enforcing security in Cairo on Saturday. In Tahrir Square in the centre of the city, protesters hoisted an Army officer waving an Egyptian flag on their shoulders and chanted “The people and the Army are one hand together!” While there was no evidence of a large-scale fraying of soldiers’ loyalty, the military appeared to be going to great lengths to calm the capital without antagonising demonstrators. At least one officer ordered his troops to avoid even pushing them.
It was not clear if the unrest still surging in Cairo and around the country would end up pushing the Army to abandon either its easygoing stance, or its loyalty to the regime. The Army has enjoyed the respect of citizens who perceive it as the country’s least corrupt and most efficient public institution, particularly compared to a police force notorious for heavy handedness and corruption. It is touted as having defeated Israel in the 1973 Mideast War, and revered for that role.
The military, for its part, sees itself as the guarantor of national stability and above the political fray, loyal to both the government and what it sees as the interests of the general population.
The Army was clearly projecting an image of being the ultimate power in the country Friday and Saturday, moving swiftly to protect the state TV building, Parliament, the Prime Minister’s office and the Egyptian Museum.
The Speaker of Parliament was later quoted as saying there were no plans to meet demands for early elections. For some, however, naming Mr Suleiman at the formal right-hand of Mr Mubarak was a relief after millions had looked on in panic as security in Egypt disintegrated with protesters ripping up pictures of Mr Mubarak and torching government buildings. “I am happy. I feel this is a change and the people will be happy. They wanted something, they want to feel they could make a difference,” said Effat Abdul-Hamid, a private security guard. Analysts said it was the first indication that Mr Mubarak had realised the magnitude of the upheaval that gripped his country, the Arab world’s most populous state. “This is a step in the right direction, but I am afraid it is a late step,” said Hassan Nafaa, politics professor at Cairo University, adding that much may depend on how Mr Suleiman, as a senior representative of the military, could capitalise on public regard for the Army to smooth the departure of Mr Mubarak.
“The street will not be convinced by Omar Suleiman at this moment unless Omar Suleiman addresses the people and says there will be a new system and that Mubarak has handed power over to him and that the military is in control of the situation and has a programme of a democratic transition,” Nafaa said.
IN Cairo, protesters hugged and kissed the soldiers and posed for photographs with them. Some spray-painted the military vehicles with slogans demanding the ouster of President Mubarak. Some soldiers stood by and watched as looters sat upon supermarkets, shopping malls, police stations and nightclubs. But the Army will soon have to enforce order on the streets and that, in turn, would risk the goodwill of some of the protesters. That shift was already evident on Saturday, when it warned it would deal harshly with “violators” and strongly advised against breaching the night-time curfew or joining gatherings.
The unrest, which follows the overthrow of Tunisian strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two weeks ago in a popular uprising, has sent shock waves through the Middle East, where other autocratic rulers may face similar challenges.
On the Corniche promenade alongside the river Nile in Cairo, people stayed out after the curfew deadline, standing by tanks and chatting with soldiers who took no action to disperse them. Earlier on Saturday, several thousand people flocked to central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, waving Egyptian flags and pumping their arms in the air in unison. “The people demand the President be put on trial,” they chanted.
The scene contrasted with Friday, when police fired teargas and rubber bullets and protesters hurled stones in running battles. Government buildings, including the ruling party headquarters, were set alight by demonstrators.
While the police are generally feared as an instrument of repression, the Army is seen as a national institution. Rosemary Hollis, at London’s City University, said the Army had to decide whether it stood with Mubarak or the people: “It’s one of those moments where as with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe they can come down to individual lieutenants and soldiers to decide whether they fire on the crowd or not.”
DOZENS KILLED
In Alexandria, police used teargas and live ammunition against demonstrators earlier on Saturday. Protests continued in the port city after curfew, witnesses said. According to a Reuters tally, at least 74 people have been killed during the week. Medical sources said at least 1,030 people were injured in Cairo. Clashes have also occurred in Suez, near the eastern terminal of the canal linking Europe and Asia.
Mubarak, has held power since the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat by Islamist soldiers. He promised to address Egyptians’ grievances in a televised speech on Friday. So far, the protest movement seems to have no clear leader or organisation. Prominent activist Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Laureate for his work with the UN nuclear agency, returned to Egypt from Europe to join the protests. But many Egyptians feel he has not spent enough time in the country.