Charles Levinson gives a good roundup of Egyptian press and political reactions to Mubarak's multiparty gambit. Curiously, the one perspective which appears nowhere in this roundup is the argument broached by al Hayat yesterday: that this will smooth the way for Gamal Mubarak to succeed his father, to be an elected George W Bush rather than an appointed Bashar al Assad. I don't know whether that's because Egyptians aren't thinking like that, or whether Charles just didn't find room for that in his lengthy and informative post.
The Arab press seems to be mulling it over just like Egyptians are, trying to figure out whether this is a serious step forward or a clever move by Mubarak to pre-empt real reform. Al Quds al Arabi runs the most skeptical piece today saying that "the opposition considers Mubarak's change of the contitution to be a superficial change to satisfy Bush": no plausible candidates to compete with him, election rules which guarantee his victory, and preparation for a democratic inheritance (i.e. succession). Al Quds attributes Mubarak's sudden change to rising internal pressure as well as American pressure. Its reporter, Khaled al Shami, says that some consider the change the appearance of light at the end of a long tunnel of oppression, but he then quotes an opposition source saying that there was nothing to justify the excitement which has greeted Mubarak's move.
Meanwhile, al Hayat reports that opposition parties are exploring their options about who might compete against Mubarak. Not much more to what struck me as a pretty matter of fact report. Ditto for al Sharq al Awsat. On the editorial front, I've seen some cheerleading from al Sharq al Awsat (Ahmed al Rubai thinks that this is a major step forward which only congenital skeptics could have doubts about; Mona al Tahawy had a more reflective and interesting piece yesterday suggesting that other Arabs should join her in admitting that they were wrong in doubting that the invasion of Iraq would spur democratization in the region). Al Hayat, it seems to me, is having a tough time dragging its attention away from Lebanon, understandably enough.
That's all for now.
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