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Standing Up to Mubarak

[Washington Post] Michele Dunne - Since President George W. Bush's freedom agenda flamed out years ago, relations between Washington and Cairo have settled back into the comfortable pre-Sept. 11 pattern. Egypt will elect a new parliament next year and a new president in 2011. By then, Mubarak will be 83, and even if he decides to run again - after 30 years in power under a state of "emergency" that allows him to suspend laws - it is likely to be a few years at most before change comes. Obama should ask Mubarak how he plans to address rising demand for the rule of law and free political competition in Egypt. The U.S. administration should reconsider its disengagement from Egyptian civil society and find a way to establish partnerships with the many institutions and organizations that can play constructive roles in a transition toward a more open system. Then Obama will have shown his respect not just for our man in Cairo but for 83 million Egyptians as well. The writer is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and editor of the Arab Reform Bulletin.
2009-08-18 06:00:00
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