Muhammad Hosni 
Mubarak, former air force commander, was the vice president of Egypt when President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981. Since then Mubarak has been ruling Egypt as a quasi-military leader under emergency rule as the president, without even appointing a vice president.
Under his leadership Egypt has seen domestic stability and economic developments, but suppressed democracy and basic human rights. There has been many attempts to overthrow him and he has survived at least six assassination attempts. Mubarak has managed to overpower its citizens and managed to rule Egypt for 3 decades, by fighting off a powerful opposition with the support from police and military. He has also positioned himself as a close partner of the Israel and the West. He has been a trusted ally of successive United States administrations. This has enabled him to attract western support and continuous flow of US aid to strengthen his administration and grip on power day by day.
As can be seen in many of the dictatorial regimes like Iraq, Jordon, Syria, Libya and North Korea, in Egypt Mubaarak has laid groundwork to guarantee succession of political power within his family and has already pushed up his son, 40 year old Gamal Mubarak, to a top leadership position of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
The advancement of internet and information communication technology (ICT) has enable interaction of ideas across different socio-political and geographic boundaries, overcoming standard border controls imposed by states. This has strengthened the phenomenon of globalization and enabled penetration of democratic ideology and the concept of human rights or civic education in general, to most suppressed and isolated communities resulting in weaker ruling elites and secretive dictatorships and status quo because of the empowered general public and strengthened reform, human rights and democracy movements.
A clear example of this is evident from the Maldives, a 100% Islamic country composed of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean. A very small reform, human rights and democracy movement headed by Mohamed Nasheed, gained popular support and enough momentum to bring an end to the 30 year old dictatorship of President Maumoon Abdull Qayoom. When the democracy movement was initiated dictator Gayoom tried to curb the political opposition by instigating fear, arbitrary arrests and by using brutal force. Later he tried to shrink the impetus of reform, human rights and democracy movement by “promising reform” – by bringing new faces to the cabinet and by announcing a “reform agenda”. However, dictator Gayoom was finally forced to allow for constitutional amendments and free and fair election for the 1st time in the Maldives, to lose for the popular, young and democratic presidential candidate Mohamed Nasheed.
The transition of power form dictatorship to democracy in the Maldives happened without bloodshed on 11 November 2008 and has proven the world that there is no inconsistency between Islam and democracy. President Nasheed has proven that democracy can be practiced in Islamic countries.
Anti-
government demonstrations demanding reform, human rights and democracy, which began in December 2010 in Tunisia has followed the example set by the Maldives and toppled dictator, Mr. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Jan 2011 after 23 years in power and lead to the formation of a unity government in search of democracy. Tunisian public is waiting to elect a democratic leader within six months as promised by Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi.
The events in Tunisia have helped inspire the anti-government protests in Egypt. Following this, protests erupted in Egypt and forced the 82 year old dictator to promise political and constitutional reforms, and to appoint a vice president and a prime minister in February 2011. Finally Mubarak is force to bow down to public pressures and resign from office. Now Egyptian public is anxiously waiting to elect their democratic leader. However the problem with Egypt is the lack of democratic institutions and functional political parties.
I would like to congratulate Egyptian Public for their achievement in ousting a dictator and I would also like to recognize President Hosni Mubarak’s services to Egypt and congratulate him for being courageous enough to resign from office to bow for public demands. He has demonstrated his love for the country by finally departing peacefully.
These are encouraging developments, and I am confident that the citizens would be forced to bring down all the dictatorial regimes in the Middle East and rest of the world to elect democratic governments. The question is, which country would be next to go democratic? Many western media reports say that it would be Iran, but I disagree with that since as I see, Iran is pretty democratic and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has popular support in Iran. I think the next could be Yemen, Jordan, Libya and Syria. If that happens, it would send shock waves to Saudi Royal Family!
Reference:
Profile: Hosni Mubarak, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12301713
Tunisia protests against Ben Ali left 200 dead, says UN, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12335692
Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, a proponent of change, may one day lead Libya, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/25/AR2010052505143.html
