For a number of reasons, the Egyptian people eagerly awaited President Mubarak's May Day speech on Thursday more than any of his previous speeches. After all, it was the first live speech to be delivered by the president after a two-month absence to recover from surgery. The people wanted to see for themselves just how the president was doing. What's more, the speech comes at a critical stage, when living standards have drastically deteriorated, forcibly pushing millions under the poverty line as a result of the soaring prices that have marked Mubarak's 30-year reign. Throughout this period, wages have not been raised to reflect inflation, which recently prompted the State Council to issue an edict setting the minimum wage at LE1200 per month. So workers were keen to hear what the president had to say on this score. Thirdly, the speech comes at a time when people are more concerned than ever about Egypt's political future. The political scene today is witnessing unprecedented movement by a myriad of forces demanding constitutional reform and guarantees of fair parliamentary and presidential elections. Such concerns are understandable, since the president--who just turned 82--has nothing more to offer, even if he decides to run for a sixth term until 2017. That is why Egypt's political forces are insisting on a democratic transition of power. The Egyptian people were reassured of the president's good health--to a degree--when they watched him speak, but they were not reassured by the speech's content. For he did not address the minimum wage issue--he chose instead to talk about signs of Egypt's economic strength--and ignored other, more important criticisms about corruption and the limits of freedom in Egypt. Nor did the president succeed in reassuring the people about their future, but rather repeated warnings to these same political forces of the possible "chaos" they risked causing. And when he talked about the solidity of the constitution, he seemed to have forgotten how the national charter had been tailor-made to serve his ruling party and son. I wish the president had broached these issues in his speech. And I hope that he realizes that "chaos" may come from his party's intransigence--not from the opposition's calls for reform.
