Egyptian Leader Becoming Senile
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I know what you're thinking: where's the news?
Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak is as good as dead (as is the Saudi king, more on that below). Age 82, he has been Egypt's Pharaoh for over 29years. Seven prime ministers have come and gone, but Mubarak remains president and has publicly avowed that he will continue to serve [sic] his nation until his last breath. Although not the region's worst or most corrupt offender, Mubarak still is an authoritarian ruler who reigns through emergency powers (annually renewed since he took office) and decrees.
The president is believed to be very sick and recently underwent extensive surgery in Germany for reasons which remain classified. The mere fact that he's 82 does not bode well for longevity and Mubarak has ambitions to place his son - Gamal - as his successor. The young Mubarak is currently running an America-esque campaign presented as an innocent listening tour in town-hall forums for selected guests and pre-screened questions. He's truly a man of the people! If only real Egyptians could tell them what they thought. And campaign posters - Gamal claims no involvement - have started to prop up in Cairo promoting his candidacy for the 2011 presidential election. The Egyptian people are appalled that their detested leader would finally depart only for them to suffer one last injustice in the coronation of Gamal. Dictatorship is one thing, but Egypt is a declared republic now imitating the nepotism of Gulf royals. There is such intense hatred of both Mubaraks and of the possibility of such a succession that it remains hard to believe that it could go off without mass protest.
But that is the current rotten state of Arab governments. And the fact that Arab leaders do not exhibit any restraint and leave office only with their feet up. Mubarak is clearly senile as a recently U.S. diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks makes certain:
"He also displayed one apparent lapse in memory in telling Congressman Israel that Gamal is forty-one years old; he is in fact forty-four."
But like the Saudi king, currently undergoing surgery in a New York hospital, Tunisia's Ben Ali and all the other assorted tyrants none of these men would dare to ever show humility and leave office, even when they have lost much of their cognitive skills.
