David Ottaway, a senior researcher at the Woodrow Wilson Center, said that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s plans for political and economic reform are ambiguous, adding that there are signs of a return of the Nasser economic system model and Mubarak’s multi-party democracy.
Ottaway compared Sisi to the play "Waiting for Godot" in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for the arrival of someone named Godot.
In an opinion piece published by CNN on Thursday, Ottaway said that when Sisi, who was not a well-known military figure at the time, overthrew Mohamed Morsy, the country's first democratically elected president, he became a national savior for millions of secular Egyptians but at the same time a sworn enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
For several months after that, Egyptians waited to see if Sisi would run for president.
He said Sisi is like the mysterious character of the play “Waiting for Godot” because no one knows anything about his vision for Egypt’s future.
Even after Godot appeared, he said referring to Sisi, it is still unclear if he would resemble Nasser or Sadat, who won international acclaim for making peace with Israel, or Mubarak who remained in power for nearly 30 years.
He added that Sisi adopted a certain tone but no specific policies and that he postponed the hard choices at least until after Ramadan, leaving the people in a state of uncertainty as to what he or the new parliament would accomplish.
He also said that Sisi will not allow any independent power to emerge and will rule with an iron fist.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
