When Egypt's Revolution Was at the Crossroads

Twelve Moments That Shook the World

A GREAT PIECE

By ESAM AL-AMIN
CounterPunch

".....Throughout the crisis, Hosni Mubarak displayed total incompetence and arrogance, sometimes even stupidity. All his decisions were a series of missteps, miscalculations and mismanagement. He was always a few days behind the events on the ground. Had he agreed to the modest demands on January 25, Mubarak most probably would have survived. By the time he dismissed his cabinet, hundreds of people had already lost their lives, raising the demands of the revolution.

When he was able to gain some sympathy after his second address, it quickly dissipated when the NDP goons were unleashed on the demonstrators. When the military was willing to let him serve out his term with dignity if he transferred his powers to his Vice President, he arrogantly refused and challenged them. By the end he incredibly dragged with him Suleiman and all the other officials that he had appointed. It was a textbook lesson on how not to handle revolutionary and popular demands.

One wonders if the revolution might have been aborted, slowed down, or taken a different path had Mubarak acted rationally or reasonably. But almost certainly, the youth of Egypt, determined to fulfill their dreams of a free, just and democratic society, would have pressed on until the end.

As one of the great Arab poets of his time, Nizar Qabbani described this generation of the youth that would lead the future Arab revolutions. Before his death in 1998, he foresaw their resolve for action and change when he prophesized:

We do not want an angry generation
To plough the sky
To blow up history
To blow up our thoughts.

We want a new generation
That does not forgive mistakes
That does not bend
We want a generation of giants.

Arab children,
Corn ears of the future,
You will break our chains,
Kill the opium in our heads,
Kill the illusions.

Arab children,
Don't read about our suffocated generation,
We are a hopeless case.
We are as worthless as a watermelon rind.
Don’t read about us,
Don’t ape us,
Don’t accept us,
Don’t accept our ideas,
We are a nation of crooks and jugglers.

Arab children,
Spring rain,
Corn ears of the future,
You are the generation
That will overcome defeat."