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Analyst: Egyptâs President Mubarak Sees Crisis as 'Manageable'

   Peter Clottey  February 01, 2011

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

   Anti-government protesters demonstrate in Tahrir, or Liberation Square
   in  Cairo,  Egypt,  Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011. More than a quarter-million
   people  flooded  into  the  heart of Cairo Tuesday, filling the city's
   main square in by far the largest demonstration in a week of unceasing
   demands  for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in
   power. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

   An Egyptian-based human rights activist told VOA beleaguered President
   Hosni  Mubarakâs  Tuesday  nightâs  speech  shows  his belief that the
   ongoing âsituation is manageable.â

   Heba  Morayef,  a  Human Rights Watch researcher, said the protestersâ
   message is clear that President Mubarak should step down after serving
   as the countryâs leader for three decades.

   âI  think the protesters are trying to keep the momentum going to draw
   in  additional  protesters  to  keep the numbers up because, while the
   numbers  remain  high  and the interest is there, they want to sustain
   that  pressure  from  that  perspective  on  the government and on the
   president specifically,â said Morayef.

   âWhether or not the president will respond to those demands I think is
   doubtful,  in  the  short term, as his latest speech has shown. He has
   rejected  the  primary  demand of resignation, but made an offering of
   not  running  in  the  next  election. This does remind one to such an
   extent of the concession that [former Tunisian President Zine Abidine]
   Ben  Ali  made  towards  protestersâ demands by committing to leave by
   2014.â

   In  his late Tuesday speech, President Mubarak told the nation he will
   not  run  for office in the upcoming election scheduled for September.
   His  remarks  on  state television came after hundreds of thousands of
   Egyptians  took  to  the streets nationwide in peaceful demonstrations
   demanding that the embattled president resign.

   However,  it  is  unclear if his decision will quell demands from many
   Egyptian protesters who want to see him leave office right away. After
   the speech, some demonstrators chanted demands that Mr. Mubarak vacate
   office immediately. âLeave! Leave!,â they shouted.

   In Cairo, throngs of people who had gathered for hours listened to the
   speech  in  Tahrir (Liberation) Square - a focal point of the peaceful
   protests.

   Some analysts say President Mubarak wants to âstallâ for time in order
   to  consolidate  what they described as his shaken grip on power. But,
   Morayef  said  the  protesters want a transition to new leadership for
   the country.

   âThere  are  enough  angry  constituencies  out  there  on  the square
   [Tahrir] who have legitimate demands, whether these are socio-economic
   or  political, or who just feel itâs time for a change in leadership,â
   said Morayef.

   âTahrir, over the last few days, has become a safe space of expression
   and  assembly.  Itâs  not an experience Egyptians ever had before, the
   fact  that  they  can  say  whatever they want, they can say it to the
   media  and  there  is no police around to be scared off; any potential
   consequences  for  you  and for your family is a new experience, and I
   think that is not one they are likely to forget very soon.â

   Opposition  activist Mohamed ElBaradei told U.S. cable news television
   (CNN)  that  Mr.  Mubarak's  decision  to  remain in power will extend
   Egypt's âagonyâ until Septemberâs election. He called the move an "act
   of deception" from someone who "does not want to let go.â

   âHis  latest  speech  shows  that  President  Mubarak  still feels the
   situation  is  manageable,  and he feels that, by granting some of the
   demands by protesters, that will calm down the level of anger and will
   allow  things  to  continue  more or less like they were before,â said
   Morayef.

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