Arabs believe Mubarak’s autocratic rule would inevitably end

DAVOS - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak might have shown no sign of steeping down by appointing Omar Suleiman, the country’s intelligence chief and a close ally, as his Vice President, but a majority of Arab executives gathered in Davos are of the opinion that the massive protests across the country would inevitably end Mubarak’s authoritarian grip.

“People are saying that Gamal Mubarak doesn’t have a chance of succeeding his father. It’s a matter of when it will end, not if,” The New York Times quoted a businessman attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, as saying while referring to Mubarak’s son.

The unrest in the country has sent warnings across Egypt’s international partners like Japan, whose Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged the government in Cairo to initiate dialogue with protestors, and work towards speedy restoration of “political stability and civil life.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also raised her concerns about people protesting in the streets of Egypt, and urged Mubarak to avoid arresting them or reducing access to information, in an effort to stabilize the situation.

Meanwhile, Mustapha Kamel Nabli, the central bank governor of Tunisia, whose leader fled the country and quickly fanned the unrest in Egypt, said that ‘economic stability’ is one of the important factors that protestors are concerned about in Egypt, but added that it is a gradual process and will not come abruptly.

“It’s not just by having democracy that jobs will be created. It’s a gradual process,” he said.

Abdulla-Janahi Khalid, Chairman of Vision 3–an alliance of financial companies that is based in Bahrain, said that the ripples of change have spread across the Arab world where people want their governments to listen to their demands.

“It’s not what people want. Across the Arab world, people just want to be listened to. They simply don’t want to be subjects any more,” the paper quoted him, as saying.

He further said that Arab elites should even give up the advantages that they have long held in order to help the masses to attain their goals.

“Without a real middle class, Arab society will have problems one way or another.

Elites like me will say, ‘Oh, we’re going to lose out,’ but we may have to lose out in order to give something back to ourselves,” Khalid added. (ANI)