Egypt: The Moment of Transition Is Now

Egypt: The Moment of Transition Is Now

Feisal G. Mohamed – Egypt: The Moment of Transition Is Now

Hillary Clinton appeared on Meet the Press this morning calling for an ?orderly? transition to ?real democracy? in Egypt. It is time to make that call more concrete. Al Arabiya has reported that judges and Al?Azhar scholars are joining the protesters on the streets in Cairo. Many of these and other opposition figures have coalesced behind former International Atomic Energy Agency leader Mohamed ElBaradei as someone equipped to lead a transitional government. A clear intellectual and political coalition committed to democratic reform has emerged.

This all comes as Hosni Mubarak?s every move reveals his true colors. His appointments yesterday?of army general and spy chief Omar Suleiman to vice president, and former air force commander Ahmed Shafik to prime minister?seem designed only to secure the support of the military rather than to address public demands for political and economic reform. Jets and tanks have adopted a more aggressive stance in Cairo this morning, and Mubarak continues to assure his fellow tyrants in the region that he will bring his people to heel.

Two days ago I posted a blog entry wondering how to read events in Tunisia and Egypt. The fog has lifted. Messy history rarely offers a choice clearer than the one Egypt now presents: continued emergency rule by a ruthless autocrat and his militarist successors, or democratic constitutional reform under the direction of a Nobel peace laureate. It is time for the United States to pull the plug on Mubarak?s regime and unequivocally to support a transitional government led by Mohamed ElBaradei. Any other course will show that this country has learned nothing from its morally disgusting record of supporting tyrants in the name of preserving its ?interests.?