Celebrations were in order. Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and his military leaders were enjoying what had become an annual commemoration of Egypt’s “victory†in the 1973 war against Israel that had given the Jewish state a wake-up call, ended its occupation of Sinai and culminated in a 1979 peace treaty brokered by then-American President Jimmy Carter. As the parade sauntered through Cairo, a truck pulled in front of the president’s position and Khaled Islambouli jumped out and threw three grenades at the president. Only one exploded, but as they detonated, armed men opened fire on Sadat, leaving him breathless and the country devastated by the death of its leader. Ironically, the men on usual duty to protect the president were absent from the military parade, having been on pilgrimage to Mecca. The resulting murder by radicals left the country in chaos, but Hosni Mubarak was soon to put his mark on the country, enacting an emergency law that persists to this day. When we look back at October 6, 1981, despite the widespread anger and frustration among Egyptians and their Arab counterparts for Sadat’s willingness to make peace with Israel – a realist approach to a circular fight – Sadat’s presidency could have given Egypt back to the people. Instead, the country has been left in the hands of Mubarak and his cronies. Now, 28 years on from that fateful day in 1981, Egypt is much the same as it was then, possibly worse. “The military is still the leaders in terms of what can and cannot happen in this country, [President] Mubarak is a military man and his power remains buttressed by their support,†said former Egyptian General Mohamed Qadry Said. “We cannot underestimate the military’s role in politics in Egypt.†Emergency law has been promised to be repealed by Mubarak on a number of occasions, but this has been left to the wasteland along with a number of other promises espoused by the Egyptian government. Journalists, human rights workers and activists continue to feel the brunt of repression and intimidation. With today marking the October 6 national holiday, the assassination of Sadat stands out as a turning point in Egyptian politics. The Mubarak takeover, conspiracies aside, has been nearly three decades of uncertainty, anger and doubt. It is easy to talk of the negatives of the Mubarak administration, their fear of another assassination following Islambouli and crew’s dismantling of what had been a near unbreakable domestic security and military presence. Mubarak has followed his predecessors by enacting policies of fear, detention and hatred that have kept Egyptians in line for decades; unwilling to combat the growing power wielded by the president and his men. Today, in 2009, Egypt continues to stumble on the domestic stage, as unrest grows among workers, activists and intellectuals alike. The only people living in Neverland are the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) members, who love the status quo of power, but times are changing, at least in terms of those willing to speak out. “We are speaking out more because it is time to force change, but many of us are unwilling to do so publicly,†began a Muslim Brotherhood youth activist who asked not to be named, “because look what happens when people speak out. They go to jail and this scares people.†The youth activist argues that Egyptians as a whole have much more to worry about that celebrating a national holiday, or demanding a better life. “Many people struggle to survive, so to ask them to protest or take to the streets is unfair.†This is the crux of the matter. When Sadat was president, he attempted to end subsidies for bread. The Egyptian population responded with massive protests that yielded results. Today, Mubarak has never weakened in the face of domestic trouble. In 2006, when the country’s leading judges spoke out over alleged vote rigging in the 2005 Parliamentary elections, the government struck back, arresting demonstrators and attempting to remove the outspoken judges from their mantle. Nothing changed. The Western media is quick, even hopeful, that a revolution of some kind will take place in the country in the near future, but this is doubtful. Unlike Sadat, Mubarak has chosen to follow Nasser’s ideology of ruling: power and double-standards. As American aid continues to flow into the country, Mubarak has allowed the country’s government-supported media flagrantly attack Washington. Israel, a nation that the government has signed a peace accord with, due to Sadat’s forward thinking, has left Egyptians demanding an equality that the Jewish state is not willing to give. We can learn much from the aftermath of the 1981 assassination and the detrimental policies that have been enacted by Mubarak since his rise to power, but the one thing that the killing has left on the Egyptian psyche, in both leaders and its people, is the concept of fear. Egyptians live in fear. Mubarak is fearful of losing his stranglehold on power and the country’s burgeoning activist community is fearful of the heavy hand of the state. Until this idea of fear is liquidated, Egypt will not fully understand how the death of Sadat in 1981 at a military parade commemorating the “victory†against Israel, changed the country for the worse. BM
