Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
Egypt’s state-run media is continuing to ignore today’s looming strike and protest called by the April 6 Youth movement and opposition groups Kefaya, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Ghad, led by the regime’s ex-political prisoner Ayman Nour.
The protest falls on the anniversary of last year’s demonstrations, which featured hundreds of arrests, 100 injuries and 3 deaths.
State-run papers are burying their heads in the sand and pretending the movement doesn’t exist, perhaps hoping they will slowly go away. While the disconnect might harm the turn-out at this year’s demonstrations, they may yet be boosted by this year’s official participation of opposition parties, 6 of April Youth’s Facebook group (with an admittedly meager 400 members), and coverage by neutral and anti-regime papers.
Al Dostor, an opposition daily run by Ibrahim Issa, is dubbing April 6 “the day of anger“:
A few hours and the day of anger, called forth by the April 6 Youth on the Internet through Facebook, begins. Several political powers announced their participation, and others announced their support only. Saturday witnessed a large increase in security activities, with the arrest of several collaborators with the April 6 movement.
The arrests are the latest in an intimidation campaign by Egypt’s government. The movement is calling for the release of two young women, Amina Taha and Sarah Rizk, who were distributing leaflets at a university promoting the protest.
The demands include:
- A minimum wage of 1200 Egyptian Pounds (about 213 dollars) per month.
- Beginning work on a new constitution, which would limit the President to two terms.
- Halting gas exports to Israel.
- Educational improvements and civil liberties guarantees.
It remains to be seen whether the Obama administration would be willing to pressure Mubarak into loosening the curbs on freedom and political participation, but it’s unlikely given the regime’s pivotal role in acting as a mediator between warring Palestinian factions, as well as between Hamas and Israel.
The other thing is that the demands for halting gas exports to Israel are quite unlikely to succeed. Egypt exports gas to Israel at prices so ludicrously below market rates that, in addition to being a politically unpopular move, might also be economically ruinous. But gas export collaboration with Israel helps guarantee the continuation of American aid, with Egypt being the region’s second highest recipient of US aid after Israel.
We’ll be watching the developments with interest.
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