President--elect Barack Obama's triumphs have held Egyptian and Arab commentators enthralled, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed Cheers from Egypt Obama loomed large, but the educational crisis, opposition despair and the Ghad's bonfire featured prominently Believing is everything. Believing in the American dream, believing in the American political system, and believing in oneself are key concepts that preoccupied Egyptian pundits. America's racist baggage took a tumble and Egyptians, like many others throughout the world, celebrated. Be that as it may, Egypt played host to Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and President Hosni Mubarak paid a visit to Sudan where Sudanese First Vice President Silva Kiir in the southern Sudanese capital Juba warmly received him. Obama's landslide victory in the US presidential elections last week dominated the headlines in the Egyptian press. "Obama rewrites American history", ran the headline of the official daily Al-Ahram. "President Mubarak congratulates Obama and asks him to solve the Palestinian[-Israeli] conflict", read another headline. Meanwhile, the editorial of the paper hailed the unprecedented victory "as evidence that America is able to change and progress and overcome the racist problem from which black people have suffered." The paper added, "Obama's victory turns a new leaf on a grim history in which millions of people suffered unbearable psychological, physical pain over several centuries because of being born with dark skin." The editorial went on: "Obama has a great chance to make peace in the world. He has a chance to stop the wave of animosity against Islam championed by the former right conservative administration that raised the slogan of war and conflict. Obama has a golden opportunity to reach a fair, permanent settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, withdraw from Iraq, bring about stability to Afghanistan, and stop violating other states' sovereignty." The editorial concluded with "Congratulations to the Americans for electing Obama." Writing in the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom, Osama El-Ghazali Harb, chairman of the newly established Democratic Front Party, said that "we in Egypt and in the Arab world used to look at the United States from the perspective of the Arab- Israeli conflict. "I don't believe that US foreign policy will experience any kind of dramatic or drastic change during Obama's reign, especially as far as its policies towards the Middle East are concerned. The big change has already happened -- Obama's victory in the presidential race." Harb drew a sarcastic comparison between democracy in America and in Egypt. "The struggle between Obama and Hillary Clinton did not turn into a conflict dividing the Democratic Party, and neither did it transform into a fight between their supporters in which thugs and Molotov cocktails were used." Harb was sarcastically referring to the clash that erupted last week in the downtown headquarters of the liberal Ghad Party that led to its burning down. He continued, "the American elections reminded us of our poor, miserable political conditions in Egypt, where there are no correct electorate lists and no unbiased election supervision. We have astonishing tricks [adopted by the authorities] that turn dozens of voters into thousands or tens of thousands of voters, and back into dozens in the final outcome." There are a number of critics who believe that Obama is severely restricted and is not free to manoeuvre politically because of the overwhelming influence of the Zionist lobby in the US. Not only Obama, but John McCain, too, was under their influence. Writing in the official daily Al-Akhbar, satirist Ahmed Ragab argued, "In all the speeches given by Barack Obama and John McCain, Israel was always the winner." On the domestic front, and commenting on the numerous attempts by successive education ministers to amend the educational system, pundits continued to reflect on the conditions of education in Egypt, especially in light of a recent series of violent incidents against children at schools that culminated in the death of a pupil in Alexandria. Writing in the daily liberal-leaning Nahdet Masr, Ismail Ibrahim argued, "successive Egyptian education ministers used students as guinea pigs to test their own points of view [on education]." Veteran education expert Hamed Ammar argued in Al-Ahram that, "the remedy of the ailments of education could be summed up in the lack of necessary funds which hampers the achievement of any real, essential progress in our education." Ammar added, "sufficient funds are the only means that can bring about educational reform." Accordingly, the writer suggested that Egypt "needs to allocate 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the state's budget on education. This reasonable budget could provide better salaries [for teachers], and finance the building of a great number of schools to ease overcrowding in classes that stands as an obstacle in the way of an efficient, fruitful educational process." Clashes in the Ghad Party last week between the supporters of its jailed, founding leader Ayman Nour and those of current party head Moussa Mustafa and which led to the burning down of its downtown headquarters made headlines. "The state agencies connived with [chairman of the party] Mustafa to burn down my office [and the headquarters of the party]," Nour, who is in jail on election forgery charges, was quoted as saying in Al-Masry Al-Yom. "I was terrified to see the transgressions in my office and property which resulted in burning it down on purpose," he added. "The concept of freedom of expression is a relative one," wrote Gaber Asfour in Al-Ahram. "The essence of the concept is the freedom of people to exercise their inalienable right to free thinking and creativity in a manner that conveys the results and conclusions to others," Asfour elaborated. Whatever the meaning, what is of relevance as far as the writer is concerned, is that given the dramatic changes taking place in the world, the people of Egypt must come to grips with the key concepts of democracy.
