CAIRO, Feb 10, (AFP): Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday he had delegated power to his deputy and proposed constitutional changes but stopped short of resigning, infuriating protesters who had urged him to go.
His televised speech was met with angry chants of “Down, Down with Mubarak” among the more than 200,000 people who packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square on the 17th day of massive nationwide protests demanding the strongman’s overthrow.
Many of the protesters called for an immediate general strike and angrily addressed the army, which had deployed large numbers of troops and tanks around the protest: “Egyptian army, the choice is now, the regime or the people!”
Hopes had run high that Mubarak would step down immediately after the military leadership had announced hours earlier that it would step in to ensure the country’s security and see that the people’s “legitimate” demands were met.
But by the end of his speech the 82-year-old remained president.
Delegating his powers to his vice president and former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, he said he would remain leader through a transition process until September and would one day die in Egypt.
Delegate power
“I have decided to delegate power to the vice president based on the constitution,” a frail Mubarak said in a scratchy voice.
“I am conscious of the dangers of this crossroad... and this forces us to prioritise the higher interests of the nation.”
He went on to take an apparent swipe at the United States and other countries that have pushed him to accelerate a transition to democracy, saying: “I have never bent to foreign diktats.
“I have always preserved peace and worked for Egypt and its stability.”
The speech failed to appease protesters, who for the last two weeks have called for the end of Mubarak’s regime in massive demonstrations that have rocked the most populous Arab country.
Speaking also on television soon after Mubarak, Vice President Omar Suleiman urged protesters to go home or back to work.
But as they began peacefully filing out of Tahrir Square, the chants grew darker. “To the palace we are heading, martyrs by the millions!” they shouted.
Earlier, the square had been bathed in a carnival atmosphere, as many tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered to celebrate what they hoped would be Mubarak’s final speech of a three-decade-long autocratic reign.
When they realised he was refusing to step down, the mood changed and deep-seated anger rose to the surface.
Hundreds of protesters took off their shoes and brandished them at the screen on which they had seen Mubarak’s speech, an insult in Arab societies, and others chanted: “Down with Mubarak, leave, leave!”
The crowd chanted “Neither Mubarak nor Suleiman!” as one elderly woman in the crowd moaned: “The old man just won’t give up power.”
Supermarket worker Rahman Gamal, 30, said: “Omar Suleiman and Mubarak are the same. They are two faces of the same coin. Our first demand is that he leave. If he doesn’t leave, I won’t leave.”
“He is still speaking to us as if we were fools,” said Ali Hassan, another protester. “He is a general defeated on the battlefield who will not retreat before inflicting as many casualties as he can.”
Thousands of the protesters have been occupying the square since January 28, demanding democratic reform and an end to the Mubarak regime. They have set up a sprawling tented encampment, surrounding by a cordon of troops and tanks.
US President Barack Obama said the world was watching “history unfold” and said America would do all it could to ensure a genuine transition to democracy.
Obama, speaking in the northern state of Michigan, directly addressed the young people of Egypt who have swelled the massive crowds in Cairo.
“What is absolutely clear is that we are witnessing history unfold. It is a moment of transformation that is taking place because the people of Egypt are calling for change,” he said.
Earlier, tens of thousands of Egyptian workers striking nationwide had swelled the protesters’ ranks on the eve of Friday’s Muslim day of prayers, when protest groups have urged millions to turn out in what could be the biggest show of defiance yet.
A security official confirmed union reports that thousands of employees in the public sector were staging strikes in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, the canal city of Suez and elsewhere on the north coast and the Red Sea.
Trade unionist Kamal Abbas said that since nationwide rallies erupted on January 25 to demand an end to Mubarak’s rule, “we have started to hear of the billions of dollars that officials hold in personal accounts.
“So many employees feel it is time to stand up and demand their rights.”
Workers at Egypt’s largest factory — the Misr Spinning and Weaving textile plant, which employs 24,000 people in the Nile Delta — padlocked the buildings and massed in front of the administrative offices.
Dissident
Leading Egyptian dissident Mohamed ElBaradei proposed Thursday that a three-person national unity government succeed President Hosni Mubarak and his deputy, and steer Egypt to democracy.
In an interview with Foreign Policy Magazine, ElBaradei said the US-backed transition process led by Vice President Omar Suleiman will fail to take the country to democracy unless “we keep kicking their behinds.”
ElBaradei added: “I think the whole process is a faulty process. You don’t get the fox to be in charge of the chicken coop.”
He recalled that Suleiman, whom Mubarak recently named his first ever vice president, said Egypt does not have the “culture” of democracy.
“No, I don’t have any confidence” in Suleiman, ElBaradei added.
The military leaders who have practiced dictatorship for three decades “don’t understand, let alone are willing to move Egypt into democracy, unless we keep kicking their behinds,” he said.
ElBaradei said he urges young Egyptians, whom he says are the only ones who can bring change because they have “no hidden agenda,” to maintain their mass protests until they satisfy their demands — above all that Mubarak leave.
He implied Suleiman also leave when he said “there is no credibility in either Mubarak or Suleiman or anybody who is associated with that regime.”
His advice to the young people is to take charge of the “transitional period of a year,” he said.
“And I am suggesting a presidential council of three people, a transitional government of national salvation, national unity under a caretaker government of people who have sterling reputations, have experience,” he said.
The national unity government would “then prepare the country for free and fair elections,” he added.
He called for abolishing the current constitution and replacing it with a new one “which is really democratic, with a president who has checks and balances” on him.
He also pushed for abolishing the “rigged” parliament and replacing it with one that “has the power of the purse and oversight” as well as establishing an independent judiciary.
ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was the head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, outlined a similar political transition in an interview with Austria’s die Presse daily.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that it was up to the Egyptian people to decide their future after President Hosni Mubarak’s statement that he would stay in power.
“It is up to the Egyptian people to find a way and to do it according to their own constitution,” Barak told reporters after a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
“I think we should not pretend that we are more important for the Egyptian people than their own interests. I don’t think I have to respond on this,” he said.
EU
The time for Egypt to secure a change in government “is now,” the European Union’s chief diplomat Catherine Ashton said late Thursday after President Hosni Mubarak clung on in a televised speech.
“The time for change is now,” she underlined in a fresh statement released after the veteran leader left massed protesters disappointed and angry by refusing to quit immediately.
“President Mubarak has not yet opened the way to faster and deeper reforms,” Ashton said, adding: “We will pay close attention to the response by the Egyptian people in the coming hours and days.”
The strongman said he had delegated power to his deputy and proposed constitutional changes but stopped short of resigning, and his speech was met with angry chants of “Down, Down with Mubarak” among the more than 200,000 people who packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
It was the 17th day of massive nationwide protests and many of the protesters called for an immediate general strike and angrily addressed the army, which had deployed large numbers of troops and tanks around the protest.
“The demands and expectations of the Egyptian people must be met,” Ashton insisted, saying “it is for them to judge whether the steps announced by President Mubarak fulfil their expectations and aspirations.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday he hoped Egypt will move towards democracy and not end up with Iran-style religious “dictatorship.”
“I hope with all my heart that the nascent democracy in Egypt will take the time to give itself political formations... to move along the road to democracy and not towards religious dictatorship like in Iran,” he said in an interview.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday he had delegated power to his deputy and proposed constitutional changes but stopped short of resigning, infuriating protesters who had urged him to go.