The second obituary for Egypt’s Mubarak

Mobhare Matinyi, Washington DC.  The Citizen, Tanzania. Thursday, 21 June 2012 

Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, 84, the man who was born on Friday, May 4, 1928, the military officer who served as President of the Arab Republic of Egypt from October 14, 1981 to February 11, 2011, and the very important inmate who started serving his life sentence on June 2, 2012, is practically no more.

The former despot was pronounced clinically dead on Tuesday, June 19 by the Egyptian official news agency, MENA. Mubarak’s “clinical” death, which is now being denied, is his second death but he still needs another announcement for a “real” death, which will certainly be the third.

Considering that for the last three decades Mubarak had been Egyptian politics and Egyptian politics had been Mubarak; he met his “political” death when people’s power drove him from the presidency early last year.

Congratulations to the young Egyptians who said enough is enough and did everything they could to topple Mubarak’s autocratic regime. Unfortunately for these determined Egyptians, since that time their democratic processes have been moving on a rollercoaster of events that shows no sign of stability for the largest Arab nation in the world. Egypt has a population of about 85 million people.

The events preceding and following his removal have been painful for Egyptians, and that is why Mubarak got a life sentence for ordering the killing of protesters at Tahrir Square in the capital Cairo. Now the world is anxiously watching to see what will take place at his funeral.

Currently, Egyptians are busy dealing with major events: firstly, the dissolution of the democratically elected parliament by the military council and the tug of war between two presidential candidates each one claiming victory. I can’t imagine a worse time than this for Mubarak to die; nobody has time for him.

What is likely to make his funeral a big issue and possibly a reason for unnecessary chaos is an attempt by the military junta to accord him military respect as one of their former generals. At that point in time, Egyptians may feel disrespected and come out on the streets to protest. The majority of Egyptians would very much like to see Mubarak treated as a prisoner up to the last point. Unbelievably, Mubarak is dying as a lonely prisoner.

How did he ascend to power? Mubarak came to power in style following the assassination of President Muhammad Anwar El Sadat, the pro-Western Egyptian leader who was shot dead by hardcore Egyptians in 1981 after ruling the country for about eleven years. Mubarak, who had been serving as vice president since 1975, was sworn in as the new president.

Initially, Mubarak was a career officer in the Egyptian Air Force, and just before becoming vice president, he served as the air force commander between 1972 and 1975. In total, Mubarak had almost four decades as a big man, and as president he is actually the longest serving Egyptian ruler since Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Masoud ibn Agha (1805 – 1848).

The 18-day demonstrations during the 2011 Egyptian revolution are the ones to blame for Mubarak’s fall; a step which no one believed was a possibility until it started. With the largest armed forces in Africa, nobody thought that unarmed jobless young people could oust a powerful dictator like Mubarak, but it happened!

Thus, on February 11, 2011, his Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned as the president and transferred power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. By that time, Suleiman, once the most powerful intelligence chief in the Arab world, had been serving in the long-vacant vice presidency for just 14 days.

Then came the worst day for Mubarak, April 13, 2011, when a prosecutor ordered his arrest. His two billionaire sons were also arrested. Their official trial started on August 3, 2011, and by this June Mubarak was completely finished. As we speak, prosecutors are still trying to establish his involvement in the assassination of President Sadat; just imagine!

Since Tuesday, various sources have been reporting different status of his dying soul; in any case, Mubarak will never harass anyone again. Whether he is clinically dead or just in critical condition, Mubarak is gone!

The main problem now is the country that he is leaving behind: an unstable Egypt, an Egypt without a discipline master. Egypt, just like many other countries that went through a long dictatorship, is likely to become unstable before it stabilizes. That’s the bitter price any country has to pay before becoming stable once again, a reason why it is not advisable to play with democracy, justice, peace and stability once you acquire them.

Let’s hope that other African countries are looking, seeing, and watching for themselves, especially our dear great leaders who love clinging to power with an unspoken promise: until death do us part