New media have become the latest technique Gamal Mubarak, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s son, is seen to have adopted to reach out to people, particularly the youth. Gamal, widely seen in Egypt and abroad as the president-in-waiting, has engaged with Egyptians in an open discussion on the Internet through the social networking website Facebook. The young Mubarak seems to be treading the same path as American President Obama during his presidential election campaign in attracting young people to his calls for “change.†However, this approach, which worked well for President Obama, may not be as effective in Gamal Mubarak’s case, with the Internet in Egypt fraught with much hostility towards the ruling National Democratic Party and the Egyptian government as a whole. Web-based dialogue Egyptians were invited by the NDP website on 9 August to send their questions via Facebook or through a dedicated affiliated website called Sharek to be answered by Gamal Mubarak during his meeting with a group of academic researchers from universities on August 12. Interested individuals were given until midday August 11, to post their questions. During the discussion, carried live on Sharek, the younger Mubarak answered a variety of questions about soaring prices, unemployment, political reforms, Egypt ’s foreign policy, corruption and education. The deadline given to put questions before the actual discussion has given rise to doubts that some “critical†questions might have been filtered. Internet a hostile environment The Internet dialogue appears to be part of a new strategy within the NDP to use new media tools through which the president’s son may able to reach out to people before the coming presidential elections in 2011. However, the Internet does not seem to be suitable ground for the NDP to play. It has already been used as a political opposition platform. Anti-government bloggers and Facebook activists have been dominating the cyberspace since the Egyptian blogosphere started to flourish in 2005. The opposition Facebook group “April 6th Youth Movement” has been joined by more than 74,000 members. According to a report published in 2008, there are more than 160,000 blogs, most of which are hostile to the government. Moreover, there have also been counter campaigns on Facebook opposing the nomination of the young Mubarak as presidential candidate. In the same context, the Egyptian Al-Masry Al-Youm daily recently said that a conference on Facebook, organized by the government-run Al-Ahram newspaper some months back, attacked the ruling party’s use of social networking sites, as it “has cut the party down to the personality of Mubarak, has not attracted a lot of members, has not made any significant contributions to online discussions.” Article criticizes discussion Writing in the opposition al-Wafd daily on August 12, Mohamed Amin said that “the route to [the] presidency does not begin from Facebook. “The Obama technique may work in the USA , but it is does not necessarily suit Egypt.” Amin added that the majority of Egyptians “do not use the Internet or know about Facebook.” A valid argument, given that Internet penetration in the country stands at around 12 percent and a large chunk of those who use the Internet do so for entertainment purposes. “The route to the presidency does not begin from the top but from the bottom, namely from the villages where the sanitary drainage system is not functioning and where typhoid fever is widespread,†he noted. “One cannot reach out to the people and assume the presidency through a lecture at a university or a discussion on Facebook,” Amin said. BM
