Triumph of people's power

We salute the people of Egypt for relentlessly protesting against their dictatorial president of 30 years, Hosni Mubarak, and forcing him to quit office late Friday. Mubarak, 82, had ruled the country for three decades with an iron fist and to compel him to bow down to the wishes of the people was no mean feat by any means. What happened in Egypt over the past 18 days or for that matter in Nepal in 2006 when the people had forced King Gyanendra Shah to give back power to the people are concrete examples that in this age of Facebook and Twitter where people are updated almost every second about what is happening in other parts of the world, it is impossible for a regime to survive if it does not work for the best interests of its people and guarantee them fundamental freedoms.



There was an explosion of joy on Friday in the African nation when Mubarak’s deputy Omar Suleiman declared that the president was handing over power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The army has rightfully made it clear that “it is not an alternative to a legitimate government acceptable to the people” meaning that sooner rather than later it will make way for general elections and a government elected by the people. And the Egyptians deserve nothing less because this is precisely the reason why thousands of them had risked their lives and braved the weather to gather in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests, and other parts of the country, since Jan 25.



The Egyptians, however, have to be mindful that the hard work has not finished but has, in fact, just begun. One, the people have to see to it that the country does not fall into the hands of radical elements and, two, they have to be prepared for a long and arduous journey ahead. Democracy, after all, does not assure that everything will be hunky-dory; it is just an insurance against things going terribly wrong. Overhauling a system that supported and sustained an autocrat and developing a country at a pace that people would like are really no easy tasks.



We are happy to see that many of the Western countries such as the US, which sided with Mubarak and funded his regime, have slowly but surely accepted the political changes in Egypt. We hope that they will also genuinely support the new democratic regime and continue to help them morally and financially so that real democracy can take roots in the country.

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