As anti-government protesters appeared immersed in hammering out the final details of their next rally planned for Friday, vocal disapproval of protesters for demanding that President Hosni Mubarak resign intensified.
Yesterday’s rival rallies–where thousands of Egyptians called for the suspension of anti-Mubarak protests–manifested the dissent, as fears mounted that continued confrontations could lead to yet greater casualties and economic damage. Not all of these protesters were necessarily supportive of Mubarak; many held that the opposition should settle for the concessions that the president has already made in order to restore stability to the country.
Hanaa al-Shamy, a 62-year-old former teacher, was among protesters who marched in the upper-middle class neighborhood of Mohandessin. Accompanied by her 39-year-old daughter and 40-year-old son-in law, she called for the protesters’ to moderate their demands.
“Why are they [the protesters] so intransigent? I’m not concerned about Hosni Mubarak. Let him just stay until his term ends and then we can take it from there,” said al-Shamy.
“I am worried about Egypt; the country is getting burned,” added al-Shamy.
Her daughter Noran al-Sawy expressed similar fears.
“I went to the demonstration because I wanted stability. Enough with protests; the country is collapsing.”
“What they [anti-Mubarak protesters] asked for has already been achieved, Mubarak is not running again for president and he will remain as a symbolic president until he leaves,” added al-Sawy.
This line of thinking began to gain momentum after Mubarak had announced on Tuesday that he will not run for a sixth presidential term. In a televised speech, he pledged the passage of two constitutional amendments that would ease eligibility requirements for presidential candidates and curb the number of terms a ruler can serve. He also pledged to enforce upcoming legal rulings that could threaten the ruling party seats in the People’s Assembly. In December, the NDP secured about 90 percent of parliamentary seats in a race widely dismissed as fraudulent. Mubarak’s presidential term is set to expire this upcoming fall.
For young activists, Mubarak’s pledges were not enough. The fact that Mubarak’s speech ignored calls to dissolve the parliament, abrogate the state of emergency and embark on a constitutional overhaul has raised suspicions that the regime might not be genuinely interested in achieving democratic reforms. Opposition groups declared earlier that they refuse to engage in negotiations with the government until Mubarak resigns.
Newly-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, for his part, tried to convince the resilient opposition to drop the demand for Mubarak’s departure before he has completed his term. In an interview with BBC Arabic satellite television, Shafiq implied that the government genuinely intends to achieve reform. “There is no bad will in what you are seeing. The picture has become clear,” he said.
With his speech, the 82-year-old president had sought to deal a blow to the revolt by shaking public sympathy with protestors, according to Ashraf al-Sherif, a political scientist with the American University in Cairo.
“The regime initiated a counterrevolution among certain segments of society especially high classes whose interests depend on the maintenance of stability,” said al-Sherif. “People’s feelings have changed. The revolutionary coalition has been broken and of course the regime is doing that on purpose.”
The beliefs of Salma Adly, a 32-year-old upper middle class woman, would seem to prove al-Sherif’s point. She believes that protesters should have ended heir sit-in after Mubarak’s speech.
“I am for change and I believe that we cannot be ruled by the same person for 30 years,” said Adly, who works as a coordinator for a joint project between the USAID and the Ministry of Family and Population. “However, after the president’s last speech, I realized that people should settle down and wait until his term is over for the sake of stability.”
“We have had enough this week. We have experienced things that we have never seen before. We were never used to locking our doors with iron chains and seeing our kids that terrified…,” added Adly, a mother of two children, who said she had never engaged in political action.
The disturbance of people’s daily life for the last week must have contributed to Adly’s change of heart. Since Friday, a tight curfew has been enforced in Cairo and many provinces. In the meantime, Egyptians have been complaining about a shortage in basic commodities including food and fuel. Most stores have closed their doors to customers following incidents of vandalism and looting that occurred last week. Egypt's stock market declined by 16 percent in just two days last week.
The state-owned media has contended that the resumption of normal life is contingent upon an end to protests.
Along the same lines, pages seeking to dissuade Egyptians from engaging in Friday’s mass protest have began to pop up on the social networking site Facebook.
“If you want chaos, chaos has happened. If you want change, that has also taken place. If you want the president, he will stay till the end of his term. If you do not want him, he will not run again. If you want renaissance, it is about time that we get together to achieve it,” reads the Facebook page titled “No to Friday Protests.”
Yet, none of these pleas seem to have any influence on the protesters who have camped in Tahrir square for nearly a week. Tens of thousands of Egyptians continue to flood the area, raising the same banners and shouting the same slogans, as they did during the rallies’ first days.
“We are not afraid of losing momentum,” said Nasser Abdel Hamed, a prominent leader in youth-based groups. “People who took to the streets in Cairo and other provinces have a cause that they will never give up. They want Mubarak to go. These people are our source of strength.”
At least 200 people have been killed since the eruption of anti-Mubarak protests on 25 Jan. In Cairo, violence ceased for four days after military intervention. Since Saturday, protesters have rallied in downtown Cairo where tanks and military personnel were stationed. The military presence had provided protesters with sufficient protection until yesterday when thugs stormed in the area, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at protesters. At least five were killed in those clashes.
The opposition should not give up demanding for Mubarak’s ouster, added al-Sherif.
“The opposition must maintain a maximalist position. If protesters lower their demands, Mubarak won’t make any concessions,” he said.
