Gamal Mubarak's press conference yesterday

Thanks to Zeinobia's Egyptian Chronicles blog, I have watched parts
of Gamal Mubarak's pretty long press conference in Cairo yesterday,
as part of the proceedings of the (ruling) National Democratic Party's
annual conference.

Gamal Mubarak, and the Egyptian regime, have an obvious and very
serious problem: who succeeds his father, President Hosni Mubarak?
His answer: "it is still two years to 2011, when the president's term
expires", is seen as a diplomatic smokescreen.

The National Democratic Party (NDP) behaves as if it knows the
answer to the question. Indeed, Gamal Mubarak himself accepts
treatment that is not in line in any way, shape or form with his
official position: policy director of the ruling NDP. He travels
with huge entourages, has chats with George W Bush in the White
House, and gets undue attention in the Egyptian press.

The position of policy director is not a high-profile one in any
major party in any country. Only political geeks know, for example,
who the policy director is of the Conservative Party in the UK, or
the policy director of the CDU Party in Germany. So, Gamal is hugely
discredited by this pretence that he is just a normal policy director
like any other. He is not: he does not act like one, nor is he treated
like one.

But moving past this very serious problem with his profile, I do not
disagree with much of what he says. The NDP is - possibly for the
first time - consistently formulating policies outside of the testing
environment of government. He is right: the other parties are not
coming up with studied policy ideas. The thing is though, Gamal
Mubarak's ideas are not the issue. The issue is that there is no one
else in the arena to debate his ideas with.

Why? Because the various structures of the state, who are still
fused with the NDP, do not behave independently. They crack down,
they rig elections, they scare, ... The other parties are not
focusing on policies because there are far more important
priorities: constitutional change, independence of the judiciary,
separation of state apparatuses from government, free and fair
elections, etc.

Gamal Mubarak talks high-mindedly to audiences who think he is
living in a virtual reality. He stands there complaining that no one
else is offering ideas, that the opposition change their words at
will. He tries to bring a more objective and optimistic tone to the
various issues of the country. But you gotta do this out in the real
world, Gamal.

Out there where there is no protection from daddy's people. Out
there where you behave like you are not special, you are like
everyone else. Out there where you are dealt with as who you are,
not the presumed successor to your father.

I feel Gamal Mubarak needs to be liberated. I think it would do him
well. I sense a guy who wants to question, debate, bring new ideas,
who wants to raise the bar. But he will never achieve this
excellence so long as he does not liberate himself and become a
'nobody' like everybody else! Deep down, I think Gamal knows it too.

Update

A long report describing the conditions of present-day Egypt, and
likening the entire situation to an abstract painting.