Egyptian Chronicles: Mubarak’s Speech In the New 2010 Parliament : Parallel Parliament And Wikileaks Shadow

President Mubarak addressed the new 2010 parliament and the Shura council today the December 19,2010 and his speech was very interesting because he covered a lot of issues including the parallel parliament , the peace process and the Wikileaks’ cables. You can watch parts from the speech in video in Arabic “without translation” after the break.

Mubarak addressing the pillars of ARE !!

Here are highlights from his speech :

“Let them have fun” that was President Mubarak has said about the parallel parliament in what is considered the strongest official reaction about that parliament. I do not know how the parallel parliament’s members react to that mockery especially Pro- Mubarak members like Mustafa Bakry “Let them have fun” is so similar to “Let them eat cake”.
“What we say in public is what we say behind doors” and that was the first and highest official statement in Egypt about the Wikileaks cables scandal. Unfortunately what Mubarak says is not 100% and we all know why but it is easy to think that the public will buy that claim from someone who promised to stay two presidential terms in 1981 !!
Mubarak spoke about our nuclear peaceful program which we do not know when it will actually started nor which foreign company will build the reactors for us. Our nuke program is used to show how patriot our president is and how keen he is our nuke program.
Egypt did not ask economic help for anyone in the last two decades !!!!
How do you define all these aids and grants from the first world countries then starting from the States and ended by Poland lately !!
Israel is behind the failure of the peace process and we are working for a Palestinian state whose capital is in East Jerusalem. Why does not Egypt recognize the Palestinian state whose capital is East Jerusalem then !!??
The Nile water is from our main priorities and we work on strengthening our relations with the Nile basin countries. Ethiopia and Uganda are spreading rumors that we are going to launch a war with them , what you are doing instead of diplomatic talks !!??
Mubarak or rather the NDP will discuss 7 new law drafts in the parliament.

If you watch the speech , you will not be able to ignore his fragile voice that can't hide the traces of old age and illness despite looking fine from the outside.
Of course the NDPian cheered for their leader in a way that does not suit a parliament. Mubarak joked several times with the NDP MPs who laughed in his funny remarks.

Suzanne Mubarak attended the session along with her sons Gamal and Alaa who were seated besides army men whom we know their names now.

Alaa and Gamal Mubarak

It was noticeable that the PM’s wife Mrs. Zeinab Zaki attended the session too in her first political event appearance.

Suzanne Mubarak and Zeinab Zaki (R)

She was seated beside the first lady according to the protocol and also to deny the rumors that the first lady does not like her. It is worth to mention that Nazif’s late first wife had a low profile too just like all the PM’s wives in Egypt.
Pope Shnouda III attended the session to deny the rumors that he would boycott the official activities including attending that session to object the appointment of Gamal Assad¹ in the parliament to represent the Christians and the imprisonment of the Omraneya clashes protesters.² He was seated as usual besides the Sheikh of Al Azhar and the Mufti of the Egyptian state. President Mubarak was criticized by Christian groups especially abroad for ignoring the national unity issue.

The grand Mufti, Pope of Alexandria and Sheikh of Azhar

The founders of the parallel parliament had to fire back on the president’ mockery , according to the spokesperson of the parliament and Wafd party member former MP Alaa Abdel Manaam that that was President Mubarak’s own view and he had to be assured that they were serious in that parliament.
As usual the Mubarak convoy paralyzed down town Cairo Sunday morning despite Ismail Iskandrani described very smooth security measures during the speech in the area in his blog.
Notes
1. Gamal Assad is from the famous outspoken Christians against the Church. Assad is also known for his opposition to the government and was surprised with that presidential decree.
2. The General protescuter ordered the release of 70 protesters last week
Photo Source : MENA Agency