Mubarak's last hurrah

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has announced that he would step down later this year at the end of his fifth term. In a national broadcast late Tuesday night - having seen his fate being sealed by the million-man rally at the Tehrir Square in the heart of Cairo despite the country-wide curfew - he also announced that he would not be a candidate for the sixth presidential term in election in September.
A commitment by him not to be the presidential candidate for another term was his opponents' persistent demand, but no more. They demand his ouster right now - at the latest within two days. He has forfeited the public's trust and words - laced with a tinge of finality that 'he lived in Egypt and would die in Egypt', and that 'I fought and defended its land' - now appear so hollow and empty. From all that is happening on the streets of Cairo and other major cities for more than a week now, it's clear President Mubarak's time is up. If his gradual surrender may be in line with some past instances, when rejected leaders succeeded in buying time and thus deflated revolutionary public zeal against them, that's doomed to fail. He is descending a bottomless pit.
It is not only President Hosni Mubarak who is the target of public anger, the entire Arab World is in the throes of a major revolution that is buffeting the region. Last month, another autocratic ruler, president Zien El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, was ousted by the people in an ambience that now embraces most of the Arabs, as waves set in motion have begun rocking other countries like Yemen, Jordan, and Sudan. How long the rest of the Arab world would remain safe is anybody's guess.
Of course, the persistent incidence of official corruption, selective justice, unremitting violation of human rights, gross unemployment, ever-deepening poverty and economic polarisation resulting in a sharpened division between the haves and have-nots flourished in these one-man rules. And the people's hopes kept dwindling as dictators nurtured their sons and scion as future leaders, paving the way for them by ruthlessly snuffing out potential challenges in their way. But what seems to have triggered the volcanic eruptions against the authoritarian regimes is the people's judgement that their leaders are puppets dancing to the American tunes, protecting and promoting United States' interests in the Middle East, the most paramount being acquiescence to Israel's unrelenting aggression against the Palestinians. Silence on the part of these rulers in the face of Israel's refusal to stop illegal settlements and its bid to cleansing off its Arab inhabitants must be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
But for all practical purposes, Egypt's modern-day Pharaoh is now history - of no use to its patrons in the West. Proof: within a few days of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call for an "orderly transition", the United States completely deserted Hosni Mubarak. As President Obama told the Egyptian leader that the 'status quo is not sustainable - change must take place' Senator John Kerry, a powerful voice in the US Congress, was quite blunt; he has asked Hosni Mubarak to quit, now. In fact, things have come to such a pass in Cairo that nobody, even the United States, want to be on the wrong side of history.
Media reports suggest that the argument that Arab dictators exploited to rouse American fears of the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power in case Hosni Mubarak was ousted, has lost currency. In a recent write-up, Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says that "the Obama administration should not be afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood. Living with it won't be easy but it should not be seen as inevitably our enemy" - although the reality on the ground suggests that the Muslim Brotherhood is only a part of the ongoing movement, not leading it from the front. A 'board of trustees', comprising all segments of opposition, including the Muslim Brotherhood, controls the street agitation, with Muhammad Al-Baradei as its chief negotiator.
As during the last turbulent week the anti-Hosni Mubarak forces have been extremely peaceful - the burning and looting that took place in Cairo and other cities is said to be the handiwork of the government - inspired outfits - and the armed forces have behaved responsibly, there should be no excuse against an immediate handover. If President Hosni Mubarak is as sincere to his people and country as he claimed last night, he would authenticate his words by stepping down without any further loss of time. By keep clinging to power he would be only perpetuating the people's miseries and grossly undermine his country's economic strength.