Firmly In Control

The world waited with bated breath. The U.S. administration let it be known discreetly that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was prepared to announce he was stepping down from the presidency, meeting the demands of the anti-government protesters in Tahrir Square. Great relief, that finally the protesters, who have repeatedly refused the armed forces' request to move on, vacate the square and permit life to return to normal, would have no reason to continue their vigil.

President Mubarak had other ideas. He resolutely refused to leave his post, at a time when he was needed to oversee an orderly transition in government. He and his newly-appointed cabinet have already made considerable concessions to the demands of the anti-regime crowd. They have met with opposition party representatives. Have taken strides toward changes that will ameliorate hardship for many.

But the country is in desperate need of calm, of a return to order. So that people can return to opened and operating shops and manufacturing enterprises, so that foreign investors will have their doubts erased that their investments will be imperilled by anarchic chaos, and so that tourism can resume, at the high point in the season.

The stock exchange will re-open, banks will be prepared for business, people will be paid, food deliveries can re-commence as transportation is once again enabled, and bakeries will receive their deliveries of wheat so they can bake the bread that the poor are entitled to. President Mubarak spoke to his people calmly and with dignified purpose.

The Western media interpreted his speech as "paternalistic", as "arrogant", described him as "defiant". He was, in fact, comporting himself as would a confident, determined president of a great country whose valuable experience and level-headed direction his country needs at this time in its history. The old order has come to a screeching halt. The new stands on the cusp of delivery.

It is the anarchic energy of the tens of thousands of protesters who demand the immediate ouster of their president that has, in fact, been "defiant", not the dignified response of their president. He and his colleagues are perfectly correct that it is not the nervous tension of foreign governments that will impel their actions toward the democracy the protesters claim is their right.

Whether democracy does in fact result from the upheaval of the past few weeks and the following weeks and months, history will tell. In the meanwhile, President Mubarak has demonstrated his mettle in firmly informing his international colleagues that it is he and his government who will see their country into the future, not they.