Hosni Mubarak

Muhammad Hosni Said Mubarak (Arabic : محمد حسنى سيد مبارك ) (born May 4, 1928) commonly known as Hosni Mubarak (Arabic: حسنى مبارك ) has been the fourth President of Egypt for twenty-five years, since 14 October 1981.

Mubarak was appointed the Vice-President of the Republic of Egypt after moving up the ranks of the Egyptian Air Force. He ascended to the Presidency, succeeding President Anwar Sadat, following the latter's assassination on 6 October 1981.

As President of Egypt, he is considered to be one of the most powerful leaders in the region. Under the 1971 Constitution of Egypt, President Mubarak has exercised strong control over the country.

Biography

Mubarak was born on May 4 1928 in "Kafr El-Meselha", Al Monufiyah Governorate, Egypt. Upon completion of high school, he joined the Egyptian Military Academy, where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Military Sciences in 1949. In 1950, he joined the Air Force Academy and eventually earned a Bachelor's Degree in Aviation Sciences, and was assigned to the bombers squadrons. Part of his pilot's training he received at the Soviet pilot training school in Frunze (current Bishkek), in Soviet Kyrgyzstan. He then moved up the chain of command, holding the positions of pilot, instructor, squadron leader, and base commander. In 1964, he was appointed head of the Egyptian Military Delegation to the USSR.

In the years between 1967 and 1972, during the War of Attrition between Egypt and Israel, Mubarak was appointed Director of the Air Force Academy and Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Air Force. In 1972, he became Commander of the Air Force and deputy minister of war. In October 1973, following the October War, also known as Yom Kippur War and the 10th of Ramadan War, Mubarak was promoted to the rank of Air Chief Marshal. In April 1975, he was appointed Vice-President of Egypt and, in 1978, he was selected as Vice-Chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP).

Following the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat by fundamentalists in 1981, Mubarak became President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP). Mubarak has escaped no fewer than six assassination attempts.^*.

Hosni Mubarak is married to Suzanne Mubarak, and has two sons: Alaa, and Gamal.

Egypt under Mubarak

President Mubarak has been re-elected by majority votes in referenda for successive terms on four occasions: in 1987, 1993, 1999 and 2005. The results of the referenda are of questionable validity. No one runs against the President due to a restriction in the Egyptian Constitution in which the People's Assembly plays the main role in electing the President of the Republic. However in February 2005 Mubarak passed a constitutional amendment allowing parties directly running against the incumbent president. As expected, he was re-elected.

After increased domestic and international pressure for democratic reform in Egypt, on February 26 2005 Mubarak asked the largely rubber stamp parliament to amend the constitution to allow multi-candidate presidential elections by September 2005. Previously, Mubarak secured his position by having himself nominated by parliament, then confirmed without opposition in a referendum.

The September 2005 ballot was therefore a multiple candidate election rather than a referendum, but the electoral institutions, and security apparatus remain under the control of the President. The official state media, including the three government newspapers and state television also express views identical to the official line taken by Mubarak. In recent years however, there has been a steady growth in indepedent news outlets, especially independent newspapers which occassionally criticize the President and his family severely. Satellite channels beaming from Egypt such as the Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network for example, also exhibit relative openess as exhibited in their flagship program Al Qahira Al Yawm.

On July 28, Mubarak announced his candidacy, as he had been widely expected to do. The election which was scheduled for September 7 involved mass rigging activities according to civil organizations that observed the elections. Reports have shown that Mubarak's party used government vehicles to take public employees to vote for Mubarak. Votes were bought for Mubarak in poor suburbs and rural areas. It was also reported that thousands of illegal votes were allowed for Mubarak from citizens who were not registered to vote. On September 8, Dr. Ayman Nour, the candidate for Al-Ghad party, contested the election results and demanded a repeat of the election. On September 9, the Egyptian Electional Committee, consisting of several independent judges denied the demands of Dr. Ayman Nour.

Despite these reports by some observers however, a poll released by the Pew Research Center indicate that an overwhelming majority of Egyptians express confidence in Mubarak's leadership, with some 86% of those polled indicating they had either "a lot of confidence" or "some confidence" in Mubarak's leadership.Question 40, Poll

Egypt's return to the Arab League

Egypt was the only country in the history of the Arab League to be suspended from its membership due to President's Sadat's peace treaty with Israel, but it re-gained admission to the league - eight years after the 6 October 1981 assassination of Sadat - in 1989, under Mubarak. Its headquarters was relocated to its original setting in Cairo. ^* However, Mubarak started to lose support in Egypt in the mid-1990s. The breakthrough economic performance of the early 1990s was wasted. According to the List of countries by Human Development Index Egypt ranks 119th out of 177 countries and rates 0.659 on the index.

Mubarak and corruption

A dramatic drop in support for Mubarak occurred with news that his son Alaa was favoured in government tenders and privatization. Transparency International (TI) is an international organisation addressing corruption, including, but not limited to, political corruption. The Index of perception of corruption rates Egypt as follows: index:3.4 and ranks 70/159 countries.

Fear of family dictatorship

As Alaa left the picture around the year 2000, Mubarak's second son Gamal started rising in the National Democratic Party and succeeded in getting a newer generation of neo-liberals into the party, and eventually the government. Due to Gamal's increasing visibility and influence, rumours about his being groomed for the presidency became common. Nevertheless, this was publicly refuted by the president several times. Many believe that his succession would mean a hereditary pseudo-monarchy (see Family dictatorship).

Changing Economic Scene

In July 2004, Mubarak accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and the entire cabinet. Mubarak appointed Ahmed Nazif as the new Prime Minister. The new cabinet is generally viewed with optimism, and economic conditions are starting to improve considerably after a period of stagnation. The new cabinet headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif was somewhat successful in overcoming the grim economic situation. The Egyptian stock market came in first place out of all emerging markets in terms of percentage increase for the fiscal year 2004/2005. Unemployment still persists however, and Mubarak has come under criticism for favoring big business and privatization as opposed to workers' rights.

Wars and the monetary gain from the first Gulf war

President Mubarak spoke out against the 2003 war on Iraq, arguing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be tackled first. Egypt was a member of the allied coalition in the 1991 Gulf War and Egyptian foot soldiers were some of the first to land in Kuwait to evict Iraqi forces. Egypt like many other countries, was lured into the 1991 Gulf War with offers of economic aid or debt forgiveness. Reports that sums as large as $500,000 per soldier were paid or debt forgiven were published in the news media. The Economist cites: The programme worked like a charm: a textbook case, says the IMF. In fact, luck was on Hosni Mubarak’s side—helped by his own quick judgment. When America was hunting for a military alliance to force Iraq out of Kuwait, Egypt’s president joined without hesitation. His reward, after the 1991 Gulf war, was that America, the Gulf states and Europe forgave Egypt around $20 billion-worth of debt, and rescheduled nearly as much again. ^*

Being that Egyptians were some of the first to land in Kuwait, Egypt is rumored to having sufferred more casualities than reported. According to Reporters Without Borders; Egyptian media ranks 143 out of 167 in freedom of the press ^*.

Mubarak and the Coptic church

Prior to Mubarak assuming the presidency, former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat ordered Pope Shenouda, the Pope of the Orthodox Coptic church into exile at the Monastery of St. Bishoi. In addition, eight bishops, twenty-four priests, and many other prominent Copts were placed under arrest. Sadat replaced the church hierarchy with a committee of five bishops and referred to Pope Shenouda as the "ex-pope." More than three years after Sadat's 1981 assassination and Mubarak assuming power, President Hosni Mubarak released Pope Shenouda from exile on January 2, 1985. He returned to Cairo to celebrate the January 7th Christmas mass to a crowd of more than ten thousand. Christians have enjoyed relatively greater rights under Mubarak with their January 7th holiday (Christmas in the orthodox calendar) being declared a national holiday in 2002.

Twenty-five years of Emergency Law rule

Recently he has come under criticism for extending Egypt's Emergency Law (the country has been under a state of emergency since Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981)

Political Posts

Re-elected for a fifth term of office (September 2005)
Chairman of the G-15 (1998&2000)
Re-elected for a fourth term of office (1999)
Chairman of the Arab Summit since June (1996)
Chairman of the Organization of African Unity "OAU"(1993 - 1994)
Re-elected for a third term of office (1993)
Chairman of the Organization of African Unity "OAU"(1989 - 1990)
Re-elected for a second term of office (1987)
President of the National Democratic Party (1982)
President of the Republic (1981)
Vice-President of the National Democratic Party (NDP) (1979)
Vice-President of the Arab Republic of Egypt (1975)
Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General (1974)
Commander of the Air Force and Deputy Minister of Defense (1972)
Chief of Staff of the Air Force (1969)
Director of the Air Force Academy (1968)
Commander of Cairo West Air Base (1964)
Joined FROUNZ Military Academy, USSR (1964)
Lecturer in Air Force Academy (1952 - 1959)

External links

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