Last Thursday night Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei appeared for the first on air on the Egyptian national TV after his return back last year.
He did not speak for a long nor did he speak about his candidacy to presidency or his campaign and yet the interview was the best publicity he would ever get. Dr. ElBaradei made it clear that he does not seek a position and that what he wants is actually a better future for his country and his people.
Dr. Mohamed was clear to the point focus on his initiative ' The Egyptian citizen bill’ and his views about education and health care.
He spoke in numbers and this is very important. He made it clear that it does not contradict with Islam on the contrary it comes from the Holy Quran that stress on the human rights. He tackled the education point quickly. There were a lot of debate regarding his views about education and whether it should be free or not. ElBaradei since day one made it clear that we have in Egypt is fake free education yet he believes in the right of education and health care to all citizens.
ElBaradei spoke about that confusion about whether he would appear on national TV or not and he revealed that Lt.General Tarek Al Mahdy called him and apologized for that fiasco.
Of course some sources that say there were orders that Dr.ElBaradei should not speak about his campaign and that his segment would be 1/2 hour. Again as I hinted before it turned out that this did not affect ElBaradei’s popularity on the contrary it helped to raise his popularity against other potential candidates.
Another important thing Dr. ElBaradei mentioned and was not only interesting but also surprising and could be shocking for some , he met with field marshal Tantawy and general Sami Anan to discuss issues in Egypt especially the constitution. The commanders of SCAF made it clear to ElBaradei that the constitution committee will not be from one team ‘the majority team in the parliament’. One should be optimistic that someone like ElBaradei meets with SCAF from time to time , of course I do not understand why SCAF did not announce it in time.
Dr.ElBaradei was correct when he described SCAF as politically inexperienced council that suddenly found itself dealing with a flaming ball. Egypt indeed is like a flaming ball thanks to Mubarak.
Strangely people ignored that part about giving the good NDP members another chance , may be because we know that there are very few good NDP members.
I think Dr. ElBaradei is from the few candidates if he was not the only candidate that did not change his views like for instance Amr Moussa whom I am not ashamed from mentioning his name.
For sure we had a revolution because from a year ago these two men did not imagine that the day would come in less than a year and they would be sitting like that on Egyptian national TV.
I'm such a fan, God bless him, I also promote him so much amongst everyone around me here in London and Egypt, unfortunately I must admit, that this interview exposed his weak points, which personally I saw clearly, I have no doubts about his intentions and nationalism but started to question his ability to Manage strongly a rebellious bunch like us
ReplyDeleteDear Maha; for their to be a successful revolution in Egypt, the people must "manage" themselves. Your country, like most of the others, are ruled by international capital and the huge banks. That is what has to end. All that has happened thus far is that the general manager (Mubarak) has been ousted, and a new one (Tantawi) has been installed. Nothing has changed. The old regime is in tact. Egypt must find a directly democratic way to govern herself, the effort to find someone "strong" enough to "manage" Egypt.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I am really disheartened when I read/hear praise for el-Baradei. He has spent his whole life working for the same people who put Mubarak in power. He was their chief nuclear cop. You don't get into that position unless you are considered kosher in Washington, London, and Tel Aviv. And his recent propaganda book is full of lies.
Please Egypt, you have come so far, please don't fall into the free-market "democracy" trap. Do not look for leaders and governors, govern yourselves.
Egypt has no choices, no options and no power to decide what is best for its people. think about it in the light of the circumstance leading Ben Ali of Tunisia to leave to Saudi Arabia, according to his lawyer, he was told to leave based on Anonymous tip that an assassination attempt was about to take place. Now I am not taking anything from the revolutions but clear you mind and think out of the box, what if he was telling the truth? who would benefit from his assassination at his ripe old age? and if that was correct, can you think of the implication on both Tunisia and Egypt in terms of the real origin of both revolutions and who comes next when both are now bankrupt needing western money?
ReplyDeleteEgyptians, this is the man you want, a good balance between whatever is good for Egypt yet
ReplyDeletecommanding the respect of the west, he knows the inns and the outs, he knows the nuts and bolts of how to make Egypt great nationally and internationally, he will bring foreign contracts, industrial cooperation and commercial ventures to improve the Egyptian economy which is currently in tatters, and most importantly having witnessed how the Egyptian youth deals with corrupt leadership, will be fully aware that he needs to adhere to the democratic values that the ordinary Egyptians want.
Yes, respected just about everywhere, however democracy has nothing to fear from the leadership because in a democracy if a leader was corrupt then providing there is a good democratic process he or she could be thrown out through a mature voting system. What Egypt and most Arab state should fear in reality is not corruption in the leadership, rather it is the Army, the guys with big guns. The Army is key even if the leadership teamed up with the security forces to compromise the people, in this case a good army could step in and work with the people to enforce democracy. The Army holds the key to power one way or the other and that is the biggest danger to democracy in the Arab world as Gaddafi and El Assad demonstrated. However, if the Army teamed up with a corrupt or ruthless leader then that is bad and it would be difficult for any Arab state in that situation to implement a credible democratic process. in my view ElBaradei is the man who could accomplish a good transition to a credible democracy, in Tahrir square not fearing the state, he stood up when everybody was affraid of what Mubarrak would do next. The other point to make is that co-operation with the west in commerce, industry and education and science is very much key to developing a stronger Egypt providing there is a good multi-party political system and a an effective opposition system, and that needs to take place as soon as possible with calm and maturity.
ReplyDeleteYes that's exactly what we need, another IMF stooge. There will be no real democracy in a developing country without an independent economy and there will be no independent economy with crippling IMF loans. Luckily he has zero chance at the presidency, the only elections he can win is on facebook. *like*
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sobermusicians.com/Tunes/democracy.mp3
Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei is playing his cards close to his chest, he is part of the IMF establishment and would be the wrong choice for Egypt. You see, he along with many in Egypt are the Elite and the Elite are always given the job of writing constitutions. Thomas Jefferson was himself an Elite intellectual who managed to write the US constitution in a way that protects the interest of the elite, to protect the "men of distinction" from the commoners. So who is writing the Egyptian constitution? People like Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei will plunge Egypt into a financial and economic Abyss from which there will be no recovery, why? because the IMF will see to it that Egypt like Greece will be enslaved together with its people for decades to come. The Tunisians are clever enough to read the small print, how about the Egyptians?
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