The revolution opened the door to countless possibilities for Egypt and its people. One of those doors is literature. No doubt, for years to come, Egyptian writers will be responding to the incredible events of the past twenty days. Abdel Halim Qandeel’s “Al-Raees al-Badeel” (The Replacement President) is a compilation of articles published by Dar al-Thaqafa al-Gadeeda, a book that offers insight into the revolution and the reasons behind it. It is published close on the heels of the revolution, and goes a long way toward illuminating recent events.
“Al-Raees al-Badeel” includes more than 50 articles written by journalist Abdel Halim Qandeel between 2006-2010. The firey articles are all highly critical of the political arena in Egypt, the reign of Mubarak and the “political joke” that are the so-called opposition parties.
Qandeeel discuss the political exclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood in preparation for the 2010 parliamentary elections and the 2011 presidential elections, as well as the military lawsuits against its leaders who were accused of money laundering and financing terrorist groups, an arrest campaign that started in the early nineties, according to Qandeel’s previous book, “Al-Ayam Al-Akhera” (The Last Days), published in 2008.
In this new book, Qandeel compares the angry and lost Egyptians to a train with no stops and no destination. The author describes Egypt as a “family business” led by the Mubaraks; his somber yet poetic writing takes readers along a road of dark predictions and speculations that linger between victory and defeat, pride and humiliation.
Qandeel then moves onto the forgery or the “coding” of the elections, criticizing the opposition in the political arena and comparing them to a bunch of masked actors playing a fake role in return for half a million pounds in presidential campaign fees.
Gamal Mubarak got his fair share of the wealth as well, according to Qandeel. He writes that Mubarak Junior made the core of his fortune from buying Egypt’s debt in favor of the bank he worked for at the time, which consisted of paying half or less of the amount of money to the lending country while keeping Egypt committed to the whole amount. Qandeel also asserts that the president's son, in the last few years, has assumed political roles that he is not entitled too, which puts him under legal questioning. The author quotes President Hosni Mubarak in a 2005 interview as saying “My son is helping me!” Qandeel compares Egypt to a koshari store, where both Mubaraks share ownership.
He then moves on to the opposition, focusing on the Kefaya movement, Amr Moussa and Mohamed ElBaradei. Qandeel predicted the rise of Baradei through the people. He describes the rise, fall and the rise again of the Kefaya movement, which, since 2009, has served as an umbrella for the 6th of April movement and the young people organizing on Facebook.
In his earlier work, “Al-Ayam Al-Akhera," Qandeel describes an awakening of the people, a social explosion that would lead eventually to the fall of a system that has long been clinically dead. In that book, Qandeel presents scenarios in which either the Muslim Brotherhood or the army takes over. He explains that the army has been silent for 30 years, since Tantawi took over in the 1990s and showed no interest in participating in political life; this suited the future plans of Gamal Mubarak, he says.
Qandeel also predicts the rise of Omar Suleiman as Mubarak’s Vice President, something which, he explains, was vetoed by Suzanne Mubarak until recently.
In both books, Qandeel offers many scenarios and explains many political agendas that surfaced in reality only in the last few weeks. He was able to predict a revolution, and offer insight and explanation for how it occurred.
