Word: mubarak
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...once it happened, even if no one saw it coming. Across the Middle East last week, a tide of good news suggested that another corner might be near. Amid the flush of springlike exuberance, though, it was hard to know which events history would immortalize. Was it President Hosni Mubarak's startling announcement that Egypt would hold its first-ever secret ballot, multiparty presidential elections? Was it the popular demonstrations in Beirut two days later that finally forced the resignation of the Syrian-backed Prime Minister and his Cabinet? Or did the start of something momentous come on Thursday, when...
EGYPT Criticism of Hosni Mubarak is still dangerous in Egypt: the one newspaper that dared publish an open attack on the country's leader was shut down a few years ago. But with the world around him changing, Mubarak is too shrewd a politician not to perceive the dangers in resisting the tide of reform. No one is sure exactly what moved the autocratic Mubarak to permit multiparty presidential elections instead of the rubber-stamp referendums that have given him four six-year terms in office. But after the government arrested liberal party head Ayman Nour last month on charges...
...presidential and municipal polls (and they'll elect a new legislature in the summer), Saudis (well, male Saudis, anyway) voting in unprecedented elections to relatively toothless municipal councils, Lebanese protestors forcing the resignation of a pro-Syrian government, and last weekend?s proposal by Egypt?s President Hosni Mubarak to open up the traditional single-candidate elections that have endorsed his 24-year reign to other candidates (albeit only those approved by a legislature heavily stacked in the ruling party?s favor). Clearly, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has prompted the beginnings of what could be a seismic shift...
...example may be most relevant is Egypt. It's an open secret that the Muslim Brotherhood remains by far the most important opposition grouping in the country, despite the fact that it's formally banned from participating in politics. Even under electoral rules stacked to maintain the control of Mubarak and his National Democratic Party, the Brotherhood managed to sneak in a handful of candidates as independents. And despite some egregious strongarm tactics designed to stop their supporters even getting to the polls, they still emerged as the single largest opposition bloc in parliament. Now, Mubarak is proposing...
...tempting, right now, for the Bush administration to tacitly endorse Mubarak's exclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood from the political process. After all, the Brotherhood has hard line views on both the U.S. and Israel. Still, in the long run, excluding them could be a disaster. Look no further than Algeria to see why: In 1991, the military regime there yielded to pressure and held elections. But when it became clear that the Islamic Salvation Front had won the first phase of the poll, democracy was abruptly canceled. The result was a savage terror backlash that has seen more than...