Thursday
10Feb2005
The ongoing Omar vs. Gamal Debate
By 
Josh Stacher
Josh Stacher
In the 8 February LA Times, friend and journalist Hossam Hamalawy published an interesting article on the "other" often-rumored presidential successor to Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Mukhaberat head Omar Sulayman.
The article is a nice background piece for the uninitiated.
The substanital contribution comes at the end of the piece where al-Misri al-Youm manager, Hisham Kassem, and Gamal Mubarak political advisor, Mohamad Kimal speculate on Sulayman's chances for Egypt's succession chances.
Kassem argues - "You can say today Omar Suleiman is the most prominent military figure with his influence and closeness to the president," and "Still, no one can guess who will succeed Mubarak to power. But it is not going to be a civilian."
Conversely Kimal states, "Is Omar Suleiman powerful? Yes he is. Does he have a strong say in politics? Yes, But any talk about Omar Suleiman drafting domestic policy or competing for power is pure exaggeration and fiction."
The latter statement is the clearest stance I have heard a member of the influential NDP's Policies Secretariat make re the situation
___________
This should re-fan the flames of this ongoing debate.
The article is a nice background piece for the uninitiated.
The substanital contribution comes at the end of the piece where al-Misri al-Youm manager, Hisham Kassem, and Gamal Mubarak political advisor, Mohamad Kimal speculate on Sulayman's chances for Egypt's succession chances.
Kassem argues - "You can say today Omar Suleiman is the most prominent military figure with his influence and closeness to the president," and "Still, no one can guess who will succeed Mubarak to power. But it is not going to be a civilian."
Conversely Kimal states, "Is Omar Suleiman powerful? Yes he is. Does he have a strong say in politics? Yes, But any talk about Omar Suleiman drafting domestic policy or competing for power is pure exaggeration and fiction."
The latter statement is the clearest stance I have heard a member of the influential NDP's Policies Secretariat make re the situation
___________
This should re-fan the flames of this ongoing debate.
Tags: Egypt
Egypt
Reader Comments (2)
HK thinks Suleiman is a sure win. He never thought Gamal was a contender.
I quite like the symmetry of Suleiman - his cloak'n'dagger persona provides quite a neat reason why Mubarak has never appointed a deputy.
The big question, to my mind, is exactly how unified is the NDP? Is there a split between Gamal-ists and the old-school military contingent? Because if so, there could be some kind of vested interest in making light of or exaggerating Suleiman's chances...