Mubarak goes - Egypt makes history (News Feature)

By Gregor Mayer Feb 11, 2011, 17:49 GMT

Cairo - In the end the president did not address his people. It was left to his deputy, Omar Suleiman, to speak the all important words on camera:

'After these difficult times in the country, President Mohamed Hosny Mubarak decided he is leaving office and appointed the High Council of the Armed Forces to run the affairs the country.'

It was the end of a drawn-out drama. After 30 years in power Mubarak was driven from office by the will of the Egyptian people.

More than 1 million of them gathered in Cairo's central Tahrir Square broke out in jubilation on hearing the news that Mubarak had bowed to the popular will after 18 days of anti-government protests.

People danced, cheered, sang and waved flags as the sound of gunfire, car horns, and ululations rang through the Egyptian capital.

'I can't believe it, the Egyptian people have finally cast of their yoke,' one of the activists yelled in Tahrir Square.

The mass protest will go down in history, not only in Egypt, but throughout the entire Middle East.

A ruler of the old school, not the worst in comparison to others, was confronted by a population that unexpectedly and self-assuredly stood up for its rights.

Mubarak failed to grasp that his time had come. The young movement that demanded freedom, democracy and human dignity was immune to the machinations of his sinister intelligence service groomed in methods of former Communist-bloc states.

'How did you do that? Who's behind you?,' interrogators demanded to know from the secret heroes of the revolution, activists like Google employee Wael Ghonim, who was detained for 12 days.

The Facebook generation used social networking to take on the nation's hierarchy. As the nation's youth cranked up their internet and Twitter campaign for political change, ordinary Egyptians woke up from the decades of apathy.

Lack of freedom and democracy, and the deep social divisions in society, affected these people as well. In growing numbers, they joined in the protest movement and used strikes to increase pressure.

Mubarak clung to power when he made his television address on Thursday evening, insisting he would remain head of state until the next presidential elections in September.

His unyielding speech only made things worse. More than 1 people poured in to the streets on Friday, calling firmly but peacefully on the president to recognize that the time had come for him to go.

The quiet revolution had become unstoppable and Mubarak disappeared to his vacation home in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el- Sheikh.

It was not immediately clear whether he stepped down of his own free will or was forced by the military to make the most painful decision of his life.

But that was not so important. Egypt could finally breath again after two-and-a-half weeks of uncertainly and 300 deaths caused by a government in its death throes.

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