Revisiting the Mubarak era this October: Fourteen years after his removal, what kind of president was he for Egypt?

Mohammed Hosni Mubarak’s stellar military career in aviation ended in 1975 when President Sadat appointed him as his vice president. Upon Sadat’s death by unnatural causes, Mubarak replaced him as the fourth president of the Republic of Egypt. He was elected four times (1987, 1993, 1999, and 2005), holding power longer than the two previous presidents had altogether. Ignoring constitutional term-limit-s, Mubarak broke the law to extend his years in office.

During his lifetime, Mubarak had never shown any interest in political affairs and was without personal aspirations in the political arena. For this very reason, Mubarak was an ideal choice as Sadat’s right-hand man. It was best for Sadat’s personal security that his VP was without political ambition and yet was a military man. This satisfied the military establishment in control of the country since Nasser. Eventually, as Sadat’s VP, Mubarak began to develop political interests, and he became the vice president of Egypt’s majority political party in 1978.
The military career Mubarak left behind

Mubarak came from a small town called Al Maselah in Egypt’s Delta region in the governorate of Al Manufaiea where Sadat was born. After secondary school, he attended The Military College and, in 1948, obtained a bachelor’s degree in military science. Adding to that in 1950, he earned another bachelor’s degree in air sciences from The Air Force College.
Mubarak quickly rose through the military ranks, becoming the youngest pilot in command when in 1964 he was appointed commander of an air base west of Cairo. In 1967, he was appointed -dir-ector of The Military College. He then became Chief of staff of the The Egyptian Air Force.

His real escalation to power in the military came after the 1973 war. As head of Egyptian military aviation his skill and courage during warfare led to Sadat’s interest in promoting Mubarak to vice president.
President Mubarak’s foreign policy -restore-d Egypt’s prestige among Arab leaders
Once Mubarak became president, he tried but failed to recover the occupied Taba region through -dir-ect negotiations with Israel. Mubarak then resorted to international court, which ended in 1988 by ruling in Egypt’s favor, and Taba was recovered in 1989.

Mubarak continued Sadat’s policy of peace with Israel, honoring the peace agreement of the Camp David Accords. For this, he faced rejection from a large percentage of Egyptians, Arab-Muslims in particular.
Mubarak -restore-d diplomatic relations between Egypt and neighboring Arab countries, which had been interrupted due to the visit of Sadat to Israel. He reinstated the Arab League headquarters and offices in Cairo as it had been before Sadat’s visit to Israel, regaining Egypt’s leadership role with Arab countries. Mubarak’s foreign policy was welcomed and praised in the West, yet at home and within Arab countries, his foreign policy with Israel generated enemies. In fact, in 1995 he was the target of a failed assassination attempt in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

He relied on a pragmatic approach in dealing with thorny regional issues, and his opponents saw it as a lack of clear political vision.

Mubarak’s domestic failure
Lacking the charismatic figure of the late Nasser and the oratory speeches of the late Sadat, Mubarak was plain and unimpressive as the leader of the country. Over a span of thirty years, Mubarak’s government accomplished two major projects, subway construction and youth housing, which was financed by the IMF. However, the critical dilemmas were ignored, such as high unemployment and rampant inflation.
For almost 30 years, he resisted any demands for democratic election reforms-;- however, due to popular protests he implemented certain reforms in his last term. Despite them, the spread of corruption in the bureaucracy and the electoral system continued. Opponents seeking power and looking to replace Mubarak were still disadvantaged by the process as Mubarak’s reforms suited only his party majority. All told, Mubarak brought no national plan of action to the country and lacked a comprehensive vision.

Mubarak encountered increasing domestic pressure to introduce political and economic reforms. Meanwhile, the opposition intensified after the Parliamentary elections of the People s Assembly in November 2010, which resulted in the election of a parliament controlled by the ruling National Democratic Party with an overwhelming majority of more than 90%. Basically, he stayed in power doing nothing as he prepared a family plan to hand off the nation to Gamal, his oldest son, who was playing a significant role in the ruling political party.
Rebellion of the masses

It was at the end of 2010 that many Coptic Christians began to protest the violent Islamic attacks on the church in Upper Egypt. After the Christian march to the Mespero public broadcasting building and massacre of 21 people by military tanks, certain organizers of the demonstrators contacted me to spread the information in the West. They explained by first-hand account the brutality of the military even though they walked through the streets empty handed and unarmed.
A few months later, on Police Day, January 25, 2011, the country witnessed a series of mass demonstrations that lasted for days and reached its peak three days later on January 28. This day became known as Rage Friday. It ended with the imposition of a state curfew and the army’s deployment to the streets of Cairo and around the country.
To control the situation in the late afternoon of Rage Friday, Mubarak appeared on TV announcing the dissolution of the government. The next day, he appointed the aviation secretary, Ahmad Shafiq, as prime minister tasked to form a new government. On the 28th of January, Mubarak took a step he failed to do for three decades and finally appointed a vice president. He chose the -dir-ector of Intelligence, Major Omar Suleiman.

On various occasions, Mubarak alluded to his intention to step down from power, but he never followed through. However, on February 11 and in compliance to the demonstrators’ demands, his vice president announced that Mubarak resigned his position. Vice President Suleiman assigned the military council to run the country s affairs.
This was an illegal move by Suleiman. As Mubarak’s vice president, he should have been installed as the acting president of Egypt until another election could be held. However, this was the beginning of a problem-reaction-solution scheme by the military to eventually have the populous of Egypt accept the military as a favorable choice for office and control over the country.
What was the military’s role in politics and governing going forward? Was the military behind the citizen uprising to rid a potential Mubarak dynasty? Was the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood a part of this scheme? I will explore these questions in my article to follow.

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