The Trial of Pharaoh, Seven Thousand Years After, Part II by Jamil Shawwa

Mubarak, until he left, abdicated power, and handed Egypt’s interim ruling to his students, the generals of the Egyptian military, did not have any legacy. He succeeded Anwar El-Sadat, whom, by many accounts, was larger than life, and continued and managed Egypt, taking into account the heritage of the 1952 revolution and Egypt’s regional role including its most important task, the peace with the State of Israel and establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Moreover, being the most visible and important and effective vehicle of peace to the Arab and Islamic countries. He was resilient, played a pivotal role in aligning the Arab countries against Saddam of Iraq and later on against the terrorist Osama Bin Laden. In the early 2000, and with the arrival of the conservatives, the Republicans, back to power in America, and George W. Bush doctrine, “either with us or against us” after the attacks on America of 09/11/2001, Mubarak new that the game has changed, he knew then, that after him, there will be democracy in Egypt and he knew that the winds of change that cruised all over the world must finally reach him, and his country and eventually will change things. Mubarak knew all along that his son will never rule Egypt, but he played the game until the end and until the signal came that he must leave. Mubarak is a strong, skilled and confident politician, a dictator of course, but not a murderer, not an assassin and not a coward. No one expected Mubarak to have a legacy, to be remembered beyond what I stated above, beyond being the transitional figure that Sadat chose brilliantly to prepare and have Egypt, after him, a democratic place in the Middle East. Few days ago, Mubarak built his legacy and he cemented it in unbreakable concrete and in larger than life iron cast. He ended once and for all the Pharaoh’s image from the brains and the psychics of the Egyptian people. Mubarak in one picture, ended seven thousand years of the rule of the pharaohs, ended the Egyptian slavery to their rulers. Mubarak wanted to stay in Egypt and wanted to be dragged to court and wanted to be pictured in a cage in a court room at the police academy in Cairo. Mubarak looked at the camera and gave the looks of a good man, a man that loves his people, and is doing the ultimate sacrifice for them, to be dragged, the ruler of Egypt, the pharaoh, the dictator, to be tried like any alleged criminal. Mubarak’s legacy to go down like this reminded me of James Cagney in one of those early 20^th century movies” The Public Enemy” when he, Cagney, decided to surrender, and he is the notorious criminal, and in the cell begging for mercy; he died *“Yellow” so the kids in the movie who were looking up to him as an “accomplishment criminal” would stop thinking like that and only think of that Yellow criminal and murderer. Mubarak was like Cagney, except Mubarak will not die Yellow as Cagney in fact did not in that movie; he looked coward, acted yellow, but he was the most courageous. Mubarak did his country the ultimate favor and the ultimate sacrifice. He tossed aside his history, his pride and decided to tell the Egyptians, here I’m the pharaoh, in cage, please take a shot at me. Mubarak is telling the Egyptians that there will never again be a pharaoh ruling Egypt.

* Coward.

Also read part one   http://arabamericanwire.blogspot.com/2011/04/trial-of-pharaoh-seven-thousand-years.html