Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian Leader Ousted in Arab Spring, Dies at 91  

By: Jordan Beaumont, Lily Colpitts, & Stephanie Camacho

Last month, the former autocratic president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, passed away at the age of 91. Mubarak was born in the Nile River Delta in 1929 and began his soon to be a political career as a member of the Egyptian air force. He later became the official president of Egypt in the year 1981 and remained in office for the next 30 years. However, since he was in office for so long, the Mubarak regime was no luxury. For starters, as stated in this New York Times article, “Mr. Mubarak never intended to be president. His rise was described as an accident of history, set in motion when Islamist radicals in the military shot and killed his predecessor, Anwar el-Sadat.” Throughout his reign, Mubarak maintained a strong alliance with the West, which ultimately angered the Egyptian citizens and influenced their disliking of him as president. On February 11th, 2011, Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign after an 18-day protest that had emerged on behalf of his inadequate leadership. After Mubarak’s resignation, the Muslim Brotherhood won almost half of the seats in the People’s Assembly, and later had a member of their organization run in the 2012 presidential election. The Muslim Brotherhood was established a year before Mubarak’s birth, 1928, by a man named Hassan al-Banna. Their teachings and beliefs “has influenced Islamist movements around the world with its model of political activism combined with Islamic charity work,” as said in a BBC news article. Mubarak ultimately viewed the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to his power, and later ban the organization to ensure his safety and security. But what other components caused the Mubarak regime to fall apart in 2011?

Hosni Mubarak was originally in the military and leader at the time, Sadat, praised him for his leadership. It was in 1972 that he named Mubarak his vice president which pleased the military. In 1981, Sadat was assassinated and Hosni Mubarack was sitting next to him so under emergency laws he became the new leader of Egypt. As a new leader for his country, he focused more on foreign relations instead of domestic laws. He helped bring better relations between Egypt and the other Arab nations, and he also created good connections with the U.S. Despite these foreign successes, it did not help with his domestic problem of establishing a system that would improve many of his impoverished people. Mubarak's loss in power was also influenced “by the shock wave of popular unrest in the Arab world — calls for democracy, the rule of law and an end to corruption — that came to be called the Arab Spring” as stated in the New York Times article. It was under his rule that “The United Nations Children’s Fund said in a 2010 report that the number of poor Egyptian households with children had exceeded 1996 levels and that 23 percent of children under the age of 15 in that country were living in poverty. In Upper Egypt, the report said, 45.3 percent of the children lived in poverty.” He didn't leave his position in power until the Egyptian revolution forced him to step down, but even that did not satisfy the public. In August 2011, he was put on trial, but it did not provide closure for Egyptian society. It wasn't until 2017 that he was released from the Maadi military hospital, and died of ongoing kidney failure this year.   

As president, Mubarak’s main focus was stability and security. However, due to his focus only being on those two aspects, the government remained unchanged for a very long time, causing many citizens to riot against him and influenced his reign to come to an end. Also, as a result of his tight hold on power and belief that his citizens were not ready to be ruled by democracy and rather favored autocracy, there was no other successor or vice president appointed until he decided that it was necessary for support. As a consequence of his belief that he was the father of his nation and that his citizens were his children, he refused to resign from the presidency until a revolution arose demanding his resignation. Additionally, although Mubarak was willing to maintain Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel and have strong connections with the West while in office, he angered the public most when he embraced the idea of not changing or progressing Egypt in any way. Because of Mubarak’s single-minded decisions to have an autocratic government with no vision or noted accomplishment for his nation to solve any crisis, he instead chose to lead Egypt into its downfall after his ruling. 

The course theme that relates to this briefing would be explaining how individualism can be said to have liberated people but also be criticized as alienating. Before Mubarak’s ruling, Egypt was struggling to manage its peace internationally during the Suez Canal Crisis until treaties and stronger alliances were established. Mubarak was elected in 1981 by the public after he proposed his intentions to continue its peace treaty with Israel and have strong relations with the West during his terms in the office with his autocratic government. Although he fulfilled this promise, with his relentless choices to have his country remain the same, he lacked communication with his citizens which eventually led to his resignation. Because he refused to change and his indigent vision for Egypt’s future successes, he eventually led his country on the path to hitting rock bottom.

Discussion Questions 

- How is a sturdy democracy beneficial to a country? In what ways could it disrupt a country or society?

- Should a country be solely run on security and stability? What other components are needed?