The Cousin Chimes In On Egypt

I’m extremely excited about my cousin “UniBrow” being in town, for numerous reasons. Its his first time here, he’s my favorite cousin and his insights on Egyptian politics are ones of rational well informed thought, I know with him I’m not going to get any wild opinions on either far end of the spectrum. Another reason why I look forward to his analysis is that he generally offers an opinion which is contrary to those by most activist bloggers who write about Egypt. Alright lets get to the Q & A, obviously questions will be from me, answers will be from UniBrow.

Q: What do you think will happen when Hosni Mubarak dies and he tries to give power to his son Gamal?

A: If the law is changed so that Gamal can take power “legally” the majority of people will accept it. If Hosni dies suddenly without changing the law it will get messy because their will be a scramble for power, Generals, Muslim Brotherhood, Judges and other extremist groups will all make claims for power.

Q: If the people had a free election and they could elect whoever they want, who would win?

A: There is no question that Gamal would win.

I must admit I found that surprising only because it’s the opposite of what Egyptians living abroad and Egyptians in the blogosphere have said.

Q: What about the Muslim Brotherhood, don’t you think a lot of people would vote for them like they did in the last election?

A: No, the government is very capable of controlling the election results, with that being said, they didn’t have to let the MB win any seats, they gave them a few seats in order to pacify them and pacify the people who think that the MB is the answer to their problems.

Q: What do you think about all these blogs popping up in Egypt?

A: Ah yes blogs, they have become very popular in Egypt and more and more people are turning to them as a way of corresponding information concerning the will of the people instead of listening to state run media.

Slightly varying insight then what many of us have heard, maybe it’s the opinion of just one man, maybe it reflects the thoughts of many living in Egypt.