International Leaders: Egypt

The following is a discussion of the leadership of Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt. This discussion does not attempt to delineate the military history of Mubarak, nor does it focus on the timeline of his presidency. Instead, we discuss several interesting facts about Mubarak as a nation leader. Suffice it to say that Mubarak was born into an upper-middle class family and received his military education in Egypt and the Soviet Union, moving up the ranks of the Egyptian military before going into politics in the mid 1970’s and becoming President in 1981.

Mubarak’s leadership has been quite interesting. Although he was elected in 1981, he has also been reelected four times since. As was the case in Iraq with Hussein, until 2005, no one ran against Mubarak, due to the constitution which gives the People’s Assembly the main role in electing the President. This was the case until 2006, when Mubarak, under international pressure, passed an amendment allowing parties to run against the President; still, strict criteria must be met and there may be no religion-based political parties. The 2005 elections caused rioting against the rigging of votes by Mubarak’s party. As a result, the Egyptian police killed at least eight people on December 7th outside a polling station.

After getting Egypt readmitted to the Arab League in 1989, Mubarak began to lose support after unsuccessfully utilizing Egypt’s economic growth to meet people’s basic needs. Egypt’s ranking on the List of countries by Human Development Index (119) places it well below countries such as Mongolia, Nicaragua, and even the Palestinian Territories. Egypt also ranks 70th of 159 on the Corruption Perceptions Index under such countries as Mexico, Ghana, and Cuba. Freedom of expression has also been an issue increasing opposition against Mubarak. In March 2006, a female journalist was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for claiming that an Egyptian judge took bribes. This was the second such sentence imposed in two weeks.

Although Mubarak was popular among the people of Egypt before his presidency and through the early part of it, it seems as if he has lost much of his support. Egyptian and international entities alike are claiming that it is time for new leadership in Egypt. Egyptians, it seems, want to move toward liberalism. Mubarak, no matter how much he claims it, is not taking the necessary steps to meet his nation’s aspirations.