Officials insist that President Mubarak is in perfect health, but some media pundits remain sceptical, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed There is nothing unusual about people speculating about the political future of the country in the post- President Hosni Mubarak period. People have the right to wonder what lies ahead. Recent rumours of Mubarak's ill-health set off a frenzy of speculation concerning the political future of the country. Some commentators warned that the Muslim Brotherhood was spewing such rumours to advance its own political ends. Others noted that this was a golden opportunity to take stock and determine the country's political future. Media pundits speculated about a tell-all tale of doom and despair. Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, however, was quoted as putting a positive spin on the news. "[The president] is in perfect health," she told reporters. Apparently, the Mrs Mubarak was quoted in the pan-Arab television satellite channel Al-Arabiya as saying that the president is in perfect health. All this nonsensical babble would have buried the career of many other politicians, but not so Mubarak. More worrying is whether the pundits just want to write whatever people want to read, regardless of the consequences. Magdi Mehanna wrote in the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom about the rumour concerning President Mubarak's deteriorating health. "In the past, rumours spread, then disappeared when the president made an appearance or when a news item was published saying that his excellency inaugurated some projects here or there. However, these days rumours spread while the state, with all its apparatuses, are unable to stop them... the state is weak and shaky and unable to face rumours since people have lost confidence in the regime completely and are ready to believe anything told them [from other sources]. "[This has happened] because the regime has not taken the people into consideration at anytime." Mehanna expressed his concern over the future of the country, insisting that, "all this is happening because Mubarak does not want to draw a clear-cut picture of the future of the regime in Egypt, although he is able to do so." He continued, "and when matters worsen to this extent, the regime has to wait to the end, which has drawn near," Mehanna concluded. Rumour about President Mubarak's health was the centre of debate in the press. Momtaz El-Qott wrote in the weekly pro-government Akhbar Al-Yom about the alleged aims behind the rumour. "There is not a shadow of a doubt that the rumour about President Mubarak's health was not aimed at a personal insult. Rather it was aimed at undermining Egypt's economy, for in some markets the impact of such rumours is sometimes destructive. The rumour was born abroad, and some newspapers received and unethically spread it without realising that the real aim behind it was shaking the confidence in the [positive] investment and reform atmosphere in Egypt." Under the headline "Defaming the president" Abdallah Kamal, writing in the weekly state-owned magazine Rose El-Youssef, wondered about the legal implications of the torrent of gossip concerning the president's health. "Where is the application of the law from this press chaos [which spread the rumour about the president's health]?" Kamal suspected a conspiracy theory behind the hearsay. "This rumour is the outcome of a meeting of interests between opportunists in the stock exchange and chaos planners inside and outside the country. "Even after the president appeared in Borg Al-Arab district, the rumour machine kept feeding people, claiming that he is not [the real] president, but an alternative." Be that as it may, Saad Hagras, writing in the daily business-oriented Al-Alam Al-Yom, warned about the implications of the vicious rumour-mongering. "The president's statements [following the rumours] means that the government has failed in reacting efficiently to refute these rumours while in their first stages. It also means that the official media has failed in facing these claims in spite of the political and economic unrest they caused. The president's statements also mean that we lack an effective mechanism which makes clear the facts regarding the president's health." Meanwhile, Wael El-Ibrashi, writing in the weekly opposition Sawt Al-Umma about the president's health, warned of the consequences of not specifying an heir apparent. "We have a haphazard regime that suffers from interest and survival conflicts. There was no minister or official who dared to deal with the crisis of [the rumours about] the president's health." The weekly opposition Al-Arabi ran an op-ed by its editor-in-chief, Abdallah El-Sennawi, about the reality of Mubarak's health. "There is no smoke without fire... Dick Cheney's office informed Arab figures about Mubarak suffering from a health crisis." The daily opposition Al-Ahrar ran a feature about the torture of Egyptians working abroad, especially in Arab Gulf countries. "Torturing Egyptians is a continuing series", ran the headline of a feature written by Hanan Mohamed. In the article, Hafez Abu Saada, secretary-general of the Egyptian Human Rights Organisation, was quoted as saying the government has not come to the rescue of Egyptians working abroad. "The Foreign Ministry has failed to protect [Egyptian] citizens and it accuses us [human rights organisations] of stirring unrest," Mohamed noted. In much the same vein, the issue of the ill-treatment of Egyptian expatriates in some other Arab countries still dominated the headlines and opinion pieces. Mahmoud Moawwad, writing in the daily Al-Ahram, warned of the consequences of ignoring the crisis of Egyptian employees being tortured abroad. In his column entitled "Why do they hate Egyptians?" Moawwad stressed that Egyptian workers abroad need to be protected from torture and humiliation. "Insults [to Egyptians] has soared in all the Arab Gulf countries, as if there is a secret agreement [between them] to discriminate against Egyptians [working there]... what is happening [to Egyptians] is a normal reflection of an Arab [animosity] towards the Egyptian people," Moawwad noted. He concluded, however, that the main issue was that Egyptians are being humiliated at home and that their ill-treatment in Egypt encourages foreigners to mistreat Egyptians. "There remains only one fact that we [Egyptians] should admit: humiliation [of Egyptians] always starts on home turf, not in the countries they immigrate to." In much the same vein, the weekly magazine Rose El-Youssef also ran a feature about the ill-treatment of Egyptians in the other Arab countries. "Why are Egyptians humiliated in the Arab countries?" asked Ahmed Basha, who wrote the feature. "The phenomenon has spread to an extent that we cannot ignore. No day passes without a news item appearing about violations of Egyptian communities rights in Arab countries. This phenomenon should not be overlooked when soft diplomatic messages are issued from the sister Arab countries and which do not include an apology or punishing the guilty. This phenomenon also should not be overlooked when [Arab officials] try to depict violence against Egyptians as mere individual transgression," Basha concluded.
