• Reports
  • August 25, 2008
  • 9 minutes read

After Gaddafi, Egypt Opposition Wants Gamal Mubarak To Follow Suit

After Gaddafi, Egypt Opposition Wants Gamal Mubarak To Follow Suit

Egyptian opposition forces reacted differently towards Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi’s decision to renounce political work in an attempt to end rumors about his possible succession to his father Mu’ammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.


Although Egyptian opposition forces unanimously agreed on asking Gamal, the son of President Hosni Mubarak, to clarify his attitude towards the question of succession, some of them urged him to leave political life entirely, while the Muslim Brotherhood considered the news as “a media hype” and a “far-fetched” prospect in Egypt where the succession file is completely mysterious.


The resignation of Gaddafi came only two days after multiple calls to President Hosni Mubarak to resign following the example of the former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.


Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi announced his departure from the Libyan political life on Thursday in his speech to the Libyan city of Sabha, saying that he made this decision “to dispel rumors about [his] inheritance of power.” He also criticized the ruling Arab regimes describing them as “the laughingstock of the region.”


Commenting on this issue, Dr. Abdul Gelil Mustafa, the general coordinator of the Egyptian Movement for Change (Kefaya), said “Musharraf’s resignation under the pressure of opposition, and Saif Al-Islam’s leaving from the political life, are two attitudes which deserve respect and convey two direct messages to the Arab rulers including the Egyptian regime.”


“What happened in Pakistan and Libya will affect the Egyptian street positively, as reality confirms the fact that nations cannot be exploited, and we cannot return to the Monarchy after 50 years of its collapse by people’s will” he stated to Ikhwanweb.


Mustafa stressed that “rejecting succession of presidency in Egypt is the message of Kefaya movement for which it was founded in 2004, and Gamal Mubarak has to clarify his position and be aware of the impact of the Egyptian street’s reaction in determining the future of the country.”


“Arab countries have already become flimsy and dictatoria, and their parliaments have become just tools for executing the executive authority’s orders, and have no longer become legislative independent institutions, the thing which made them a laughingstock,” said Mustafa endorsing Saif Al-Islam’s description of the Arab situation.


About whether this was a temporary tactic statement, Mustafa said:  “I salute the young Gaddafi for his decision; he will succeed if he is honest.”     


Gamal Mubarak occupies the position of the Assistant Secretary-General and the Policies Secretary of the National Democratic Party. The policies secretariat is responsible for many of amendments and changes in the party and in the political system in Egypt. With Gamal’s rapid rise and appearance, his name has been known as the probable successor of his father, and his candidate for the coming presidential elections, several characters and political forces consider this as a step to what they called “succession”; yet Gamal didn’t deny or confirm his desire to seek the presidential office after his father.  


Gamal is facing a critical situation


Dr. Magdi Qorqor, the member of the frozen Labor Party, assured the fact that Gaddafi, the son, announced that Gamal Mubarak’s situation is “very critical” and asked the latter to “prove the truth of what he is saying about the fact that he will not succeed his father; by canceling the constitutional amendments which the ruling party has introduced recently to pave the way for him to be the coming president of Egypt”.


Qorqor does not ask Gamal to leave the political life “as this is his constitutional right, despite the fact that he “stormed it by his parachutes,” but to do that “through self-potentials not through the government potentials and its directions.”


Qorqor put aside the latest possibility; that’s because “Gamal has already become the de facto president of Egypt since the fall of the President Mubarak during his speech in the people’s Assembly.”


“I have recorded all Gamal’s statements since 1998 till 2007 and the results revealed the low rate of his statements in the early years, and their rise in recent years till last year when he ranked fourth in terms of the amount of statements after the President, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister”