Egypt's Next Leader Won't Be A Creature of Tahrir Square

Wall Strret Journal ^ | May 25. 2012 | FOUAD AJAMI

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Egypt's Next Leader Won't Be A Creature of Tahrir Square It is not a coincidence that one candidate is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the other Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister.

By FOUAD AJAMI

The prevalent view that this week's presidential election is Egypt's first experiment with the ballot box is only partly true. Egyptians of a certain age knew parliamentary life and the competition of political parties. This was during the liberal interlude between 1923, when the country became independent from British rule, and 1952.

In that year a cabal of young military officers led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser upended the old order, abolished the monarchy—and delivered Egypt into six decades of authoritarianism.

The new men in charge disdained parliaments and political parties and banished the resident foreigners—Italians, Greeks, Armenians, Jews—who had been the driving force in the nation's economic life. They sequestered property, and they vowed to make Egypt a dominant military power. -Snip_

It is not a coincidence that this runoff is between a member of the old guard, the military-bureaucratic class, and the Muslim Brotherhood. It is rather very symbolic of Egypt today.

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This is not a people known for violent jihads. Egypt has been spared the kind of bloodletting that visited Lebanon, Syria and Iraq in recent decades. May it be so for years to come. This election may have had its flaws, a constitution is yet to be drafted, but the old civility still holds.

A new republic has emerged, born in Tahrir Square. Two contenders for the presidency of the republic are not creatures of that square. But this is not the first time that the fruits of a revolution were picked by those who were strangers to its exertions.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304707604577426193121155980.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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Mr. Ajami is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. His newest book, "The Syrian Rebellion," will be released by Hoover Institution Press at the end of this month.

Egypt has the largest in the region. This runoff election is already better than the worst case possibility.

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You might like this article by Mr Ajami: Barack Obama the Pessimist His lack of faith in American exceptionalism has dashed any hope of a 'transformational' presidency. August 1, 2011

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"Egypt has the largest in the region. This runoff election is already better than the worst case possibility."

Well, I suppose, if we are looking for mass graves, but the Muslim Brotherhood will win and the lights will go out for Christians and women. Egypt will become part of the Greater Caliphate as the Arab Winter descends over the region.

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Not sure if you read the full article, but there is much more hope and history in Egypt than other countries in the region. Fouad Ajami sounds hopeful and the Egyptian friends (Christian) I talk to are hopeful as well.

Its been over a year since the revolution, and the election culled the most radical candidates. Though originally skeptical, I’m much more positive about the prospects now.