Arab autocrats sleeping like babies
AFP/Getty Images If you’re reading the papers this week, you know that there’s a constitutional crisis brewing in Pakistan. But Egypt, too? As Blake mentioned in the brief this morning, Egypt is due to hold a nationwide referendum on a series of constitutional amendments on Monday. The amendments were only finalized days ago, leaving Egyptians ...
If you’re reading the papers this week, you know that there’s a constitutional crisis brewing in Pakistan. But Egypt, too? As Blake mentioned in the brief this morning, Egypt is due to hold a nationwide referendum on a series of constitutional amendments on Monday. The amendments were only finalized days ago, leaving Egyptians less than a week to make up their minds about the future of their political system.
Marc Lynch puts it this way:
Amnesty International has described the changes as “the biggest threat to Egyptian democracy since emergency laws passed after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat by Islamist extremists in 1981.” That’s exactly right. Except these aren’t emergency laws: this revises the Constitution itself …. Mubarak is about to do exactly what he always accuses Islamists of secretly planning: win an election and then use his majority to abolish democracy.
Mubarak’s blatant power grab would have been far less likely had it not been for Iraq. In the current FP cover story Who Wins in Iraq?, Middle East expert Marina Ottaway crowns Arab dictators some of the biggest beneficiaries of the war. With the United States in no mood to press for democratic reforms in the region, Middle East strongmen are resting easy. And none is sleeping more soundly than Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Case in point: Just last week, Bush thanked Mubarak for all his efforts in bringing freedom to Iraq.
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