CAIRO: As the great majority of Egyptians are still in tune with long-standing authorities like the military, a recent poll shed light on how the people's general opinions are at the root of a recent decrease in support of mass-mobilization. Nonetheless, this first post-revolutionary poll shows how Mubarak's ouster energized Egyptians' hopes for a better future. The American Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project published the results on Monday. Concerning Egypt's near future, 1000 Egyptians polled by the Pew Research Center pointed at the improvement of economic conditions (80%), the establishment of a judicial system fair and free from the influence of other powers (79%) and the freedom of speech and criticism (63%) as their main priorities. Moreover, the toll recorded a consistent disfavor against the United States (79%), many Egyptians showing also a negative opinion about US regional policies in the Middle East (39%). In a recent press conference, founding member of the 6 of April movement Waleed Rashed denied the movement had received any kind of support from the US, declaring the movement's intention to suit whoever slanders them with such lies. Rashed reminded the audience that the 6 of April movement refused to meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her visit to Cairo in March, adding that whatever was obtained during the revolution is an internal matter and has to be credited to Egyptians only. 6 of April movement's strong criticism of US authorities is rooted in the long lasting relations between ousted President Hosni Mubarak and the American administration. The demonstrators' main demand in Tahrir Square was the Supreme Council of Armed Forces' (SCAF) resignation and the nomination of a civil Presidential Council. Many demonstrators find it difficult to forget that Tantawi was Field Marshall under Mubarak, and seemed to enjoy the good relations between Egypt and the U.S.A. as much as the ousted President. Nonetheless, 24 percent of the Egyptians do not support the 6 of April Youth movement, one of the main actors in the popular mobilization that brought to the President's ouster. After the Persecutor General summoned Hosni Mubarak for interrogation and his sons Gamal and Alaa's were imprisoned, much of Tahrir's enthusiasm has gone lost, and many people are happy with a military government ad interim to eventually lead to parliamentary and presidential elections. Indeed, an overwhelming majority support the presidential candidacy of two of the ousted regime's colonels: the head of the SCAF Field Marshall Mohamed Tantawy (90%) and of the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa (89%). According to the poll, the Army still enjoy the support of not less than 88 percent of the population, closely followed by religious leaders (81%). 43 percent think it is somewhat likely that fair elections will ever be held, whilst there is no figure to illustrate whether the people really believe there will ever be any election at all. On a different note, only 39 percent of the Egyptian are unfavorable to Mohamed ElBaradei's leadership, as many see the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency as an outsider, having spent most of his life outside Egypt. ElBaradei's participation to Tahrir's demonstrations in the early days of the revolution might have conquered the first pages of State-run and foreign media, but weighed little if anything with protesters. Moreover, on his return to Egypt ElBaradei was targeted by Egyptian media, who showed the pictures of his daughter sitting on the beach in a bikini. This stripped the politicians of much of the conservatives' consent. Indeed, as recorded by the poll 89 percent of the Egyptian believing that laws should follow the teachings of the Quran, against only five percent who believe the legislation should not be affected by any religious teachings. A leaders' decent moral behavior is a quality highly valued by the public opinion. Therefore, also corruption is one of the people's main concerns as well as the lack of democracy (both at 53%). 44 percent also indicated the lack of economic prosperity as one of the main sources of stress, whilst 49 percent said that a strong economy is more important than a good democracy. But as main Egyptian media are still far from the removal of the old regime's remainders, the poll shows that the share of social networks users (23%) has increased by 5 percent from December 2010. Today as much as in the early days of the revolution, social networks like Facebook and Twitter give a crucial contribution to popular mobilizations, and offer spaces for the discussion of topics still banned from great part of state and private-owned media. Nonetheless, 65 percent of the Egyptians do not use the Internet or email, and therefore prefer looking into more traditional media. A poll published on Monday by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project showed that Egyptians are still optimistic about the future of their country. As the great majority is still in tune with long-standing authorities like the military, the toll shows some a lack of unity between the people's general opinions and recent, main political development. BM
