The opposition makes its first move
Issandr El Amrani
Screengrab by Sultan Qassemi
Above is a picture of al-Sayed Badawi, the president of the Wafd party (the most established of Egypt's legal opposition parties) appearing on al-Jazeera and making the following demands:
- A new national unity government
- The dissolution of parliament
- New elections under a proportional representation system
The full announcement is here [Arabic].
My gut reaction: this is either a significant break with the Wafd's behavior for over 30 years, or he is making this announcement on behalf of the regime. Why the conspiracy theory? Because he doesn't mention the question of the presidency, a chief demand of the protestors. Perhaps he should be given the benefit of the doubt.
Meanwhile, the National Association for Change has made its own demands, including asking Mubarak to step down and Gamal to be disqualified from the presidency, as well as the dissolution of the parliament. Other groups have other demands, including a new minimum wage and the firing of the interior minister.
These people should be coordinating — and remember they are not the ones who protested tonight.
P.S. Interesting timing.
Reader Comments (2)
Many ordinary secular westerners are sympathetic to the plight of those who are living under the rule of despotic governments, especially in north Africa and the Middle East. Egypt has been one place I have hoped to see change, and, now that Tunisians have made the bold move to oust their oppressors, and Egyptians have bravely started to do the same, I can only congratulate them. I hope Egypt frees itself with as little loss of life as possible, though tragically already there have been losses. May your god protect you...
This is only the begining inshallah. Tunis first and who knows how many will follow. Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morroco, Saudi, Syria, Yeman and even the Gulf states; the list is a long one.
The Arab nation is boiling over and has been for a very long time.
The West in general and the Americans in particular are reaping the fruit of their designs in the area. The support of these corrupt and dictatorial regimes in military, financial and other means such as intelligiance and security, torture etc.. has so far paid handsome dividends to the west.
It looks as if the sleeping giant is slowly but surely stirring into life and with the support of the people like that in Tunisia who knows what the political map of the Arab World will look at the end of 2011!!.
Saudi Arabia will have to build quite few 5 star hotels to house all those disgusting ex-dictators fleeing from their peoples!!!!!.