In an article in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram titled "The NDP is Dead; Long Live the NDP?", columnist and satirist Nabil Shawkat wrote that though Mubarak has been ousted, his party and establishment live on and seem to be using the familiar old methods of bullying their opponents, persecuting the press, and ranting about foreign intervention.
The following is an English translation of the article published in the English edition of Al-Ahram:[1]
A Ruling Party, like the Mythical Hydra, Has Many Heads and Far-Reaching Tentacles
"Mubarak is now out of the picture, perhaps by orders of his vice president. He is not going to be part of the future of this country. He will either leave Egypt in an 'honorable' way, or simply be pushed to the rear to sign papers and occasionally be rolled out to repeat a few well-rehearsed phrases. Mubarak is no more. His son is no more. His party is no more. But the spirit of his rule, the essence of his regime, and the methods of his era are far from over.
"It is dangerous to kill a ruling party, because like the hydra of lore, ruling parties have many heads, far-reaching tentacles, and very deep pockets. I know the army has denied any connection with the pro-Mubarak marauders, but this denial is far from being completely sincere. Only yesterday I passed by a security vehicle near the Italian Club in Bulak, north of Tahrir Square. Inside it, a plainclothes officer was organizing a small mob to attack or harass a certain person. I heard the order given while I was passing by, so I looked at the license plates. Sure enough, they were army plates.
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"For the past few days, the army has been accusing unnamed individuals of wearing its uniforms and spreading chaos. Perhaps this was a stolen army vehicle. But then again, maybe it wasn’t.
"The signs are already worrying. The prime minister, Ahmad Shafiq, has appeared on television more than once, disassociating himself from the violence against the demonstrators and denying giving any orders to that effect. I believe him. But then again, I know that some orders have been given, for the marauders are just too organized to lack leadership.
"Shafiq may have been telling the truth. But Omar Suleiman, the vice-president and interim president-in-waiting, hasn't deigned to come clean. In his first television interview, he gave the impression that he was running the country, and that, if he wanted, he could tell Mubarak to go to his room and stay there. The same day, Christiane Amanpour interviewed the president, but without the benefit of a camera. Mubarak is 'grounded', no longer allowed to play with the media in public.
"Then Suleiman uttered his first lie. He said that the Tahrir demonstrators, who have practically brought him to power, or at least to temporary power, were being manipulated by 'foreign agendas.' This was the first lie from a fresh regime, and it had the bitter taste of the deposed one. Suleiman made the statement on Thursday, the same day that saw a witch hunt against foreign journalists in Cairo, with dozens beaten, arrested, and their cameras seized or smashed. I was in Tahrir Square that day. I had my ID checked several times by disbanded internal security personnel who were guarding the pro-Mubarak marauders. One of them volunteered that they had 'caught' a Jew in Tahrir Square. 'So what if they found fifty Jews?' I said. He didn’t answer. The day before, they had discovered an Israeli engineer sitting at a coffeehouse in Port Sa'id or Isma'iliya. This was supposed to be proof of something, damning evidence against the Tahrir protestors."
"If It Looks like the NDP, Talks like the NDP, and Walks like the NDP, Perhaps It Is the NDP"
"If it looks like the NDP, talks like the NDP, and walks like the NDP, perhaps it is the NDP. I know that our ruling party is burned, beaten, and bruised. It can no longer sport the glamorous 'new look' of Gamal Mubarak or dance to the intricate choreography of Ahmad Ezz. But the NDP lives on.
"In ancient Egypt, the period of mourning for the dead was 40 days. That was how long it took the dead to travel from the world of the living to the underworld of eternity. The NDP has only been dead for a week or so, and its ghost is still running around like a chicken with its head cut off, shouting support for a president who is sulking in his bedroom, ranting against invisible 'foreign agendas,' and giving orders from abandoned or donated army vehicles. If this continues beyond the 40-day period of mourning, there is a chance that a new NDP will rise from the ashes and make us tremble once more."
[1] Al-Ahram (Egypt), February 6, 2011. The text has been edited for clarity.
