February 14, 2011By Arnaud de BorchgraveThe “Cairo Necropolis” is a bustling jumble of tombs and mausoleums where some 5 million homeless and impoverished (out of 18 million Cairenes) live and work among their dead relatives and ancestors. Along the base of the Moqatham Hills, the City of the Dead stretches for four miles from northern to southernCairo. With 40 percent of Egypt’s 82 million living below or just above the United Nation’s poverty line of $2 a day, many come to Dead City looking for work, shelter and food.Just to keep up with population pressures, the government has to generate 1 million new jobs a year, which is mission impossible. So the Egyptian bureaucracy, started 5,000 years ago, keeps growing. The recent 30 percent hike in world food prices brought social pressures to a boil.After three weeks of ’round-the-clock demonstrations, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down from his pharaonic perch but didn’t leave Egypt. In hisRed Sea abode in Sharm el Sheik, Mr. Mubarak was surrounded by hundreds of loyal guards and state security personnel. Tourists and ajournalists on access roads were checked and searched by security police. In Cairo, Tahrir (Liberation) Square, occupied day and night by up to 250,000 for almost three weeks, was now cleaned up – and the army definitely in charge.The demonstrators had gone home but many were muttering about a return to the square unless the military accelerated free elections and a new civilian government with no links to the Mubarak regime. A few dozen did return to Tahrir Square still guarded by tanks and armored personnel carriers. Army personnel dismantled their tents and firmly showed them the exit. The suspension of the constitution puts Egypt under martial law. Both houses of parliament were dissolved and the “Armed Forces Supreme Council” is now Egypt’s official ruler.The acting head of government is 75-year-old Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, a Mubarak crony who’s been army chief since 1995. He is also defense minister – and the man in charge of pending elections in the fall. His acting government is made up of Mubarak loyalists. In a WikiLeak cable, one U.S. official called Mr. Tantawi “Mubarak’s poodle.” In the 1991 Gulf War, he commanded one of two Egyptian divisions and developed close relationships with U.S. officers. The first political decision was to dissolve parliament, where Mr. Mubarak’s National Democratic Party won most of the seats in last year’s elections.The much feared Muslim Brotherhood (MB) dropped out of the runoff round of the elections, accusing the government of “fraud, terrorism and violence carried out by police and thugs.”Mr. Tantawi’s first priority was to restore security. Inmates from six prisons had either been let out or escaped during the demonstrations that coveredAlexandria, Mansura, Tanta and Port Said in the Nile Delta and Aswan and Assiut in Upper Egypt. Some al Qaeda suspects are among them.Egypt is now in a twilight zone. Mr. Tantawi’s ruling council is in sole control for six months or until presidential and parliamentary elections can be held. The constitution has been abolished and its articles have to be amended or rewritten. No one believes this can be done much before the end of the year. Rules for a popular referendum to endorse constitutional amendments will also have to be negotiated.Egypt is faced with a legal obstacle course that will take months and anger millions of impatient protesters who already suspect foul play. They cannot turn against the conscript army, the country’s most popular institution. And army commanders are in no hurry to see a civilian government, democratically elected, looking into army involvement in the economy.No one knows how much of the economy is in the hands of generals. The system was partly copied from the Pakistani army, whose retired field-grade officers are involved in about 60 percent of the economy. In Egypt, estimates range from 20 percent to 45 percent. Over the past 30 years that he has been in power, Mr. Mubarak facilitated large government contracts for friends and supporters. Egypt now boasts 26 billionaires.Son Gamal Mubarak married the daughter of one of them. A number took off in private jets shortly after the popular uprising got under way Jan. 25. But stories about Mr. Mubarak’s $40 billion to $70 billion fortune are hogwash spread by Al Jazeera TV. One or two billion is closer to the mark and still staggering. Mr. Mubarak himself maintained a presidential fleet of nine executive Gulfstream jets, worth $335 million, bought through U.S. military assistance of $1.3 billion a year.Much has been said and written about the role social media played in sparking the Egyptian upheaval. Facebook and Twitter got all the credit. Wael Ghoneim, the Dubai-based Google advertising executive, emerged as the revolution’s leading cybervoice hero. It cost him 12 ugly days in prison before being released. Back in Tahrir Square, he was mobbed by well-wishers. But that was only one megabyte of the cyberrevolution. The first cybersalvo was fired Dec. 17, when Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian vegetable vendor committed suicide by setting himself on fire, which triggered the Tunisian uprising – and the flight of Tunisian President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali. Little known European social networks then stepped in with the idea that provided the Egyptian spark plug.Jan. 25 was National Police Day in Egypt – and a public holiday. Euro social network “43 Things” is where you create a goal and then ask new friends to sharpen the objective. It’s also perfect for improving on the idea of flooding Liberation Square with squatters. Euro-based Badoo and Bebo also pitched their cybertents and fielded “town criers.” The cyberpump was primed for Google’s Mr. Ghoneim. The resulting cybercontagion has now rippled all over the Arab world.Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based and -owned global network, has angered Arab leaders from Marakesh to Medina with its catty-to-stinging liberal criticisms of monarchies and authoritarian regimes. Its nonstop, 24/7 Egyptian coverage was visually superb. But its running commentaries were a cheering section for the self-proclaimed revolutionaries.Algeria, under dictatorial rule since independence in 1962, and Yemen, under the same president for 33 years, were fighting off almost daily demonstrations. Gulf oil states under hereditary rulers were quiescent – for the time being. But Kuwait wasn’t taking any chances. It decreed a $3,000 tax-free gift for each inhabitant. Bahrain followed suit with $2,700. Stay tuned.Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor-at-large of The Washington Times and United Press International.
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