Hosni Mubarak goes, finally

After Tunisia, it is now Egypt that has accomplished the seemingly impossible task of removing a long-serving autocrat from power. The fall of Hosni Mubarak eighteen days after Egyptians began to come together on January 25 to bring his regime down is remarkable not just for the people of Egypt but also for the region as a whole. Rare has been the instance of people rising in revolt against entrenched regimes. With both Tunisians and Egyptians now having proved the determination with which they can do away with governments that do not fulfill their expectations, it is clear that a new era of popular participation in the politics of the Middle East is at hand.
The movement against Mubarak was a spontaneous uprising against the regime. It was one more example of people rising up against a regime that had ruled with an iron fist and gone out of touch. Two specific points are to be noted about the way things have happened in Cairo. The first is that the struggle against Mubarak had no clear or definable leadership but did bring together Egyptians of all classes and religious as well as political denominations. The second is the peaceful way in which the protestors conducted their struggle with no thought or propensity to violence. A third factor is certainly the professional way in which the army conducted itself. For the soldiers, the people's demands were legitimate, an attitude that they maintained till the end.
Now that Hosni Mubarak is gone, the more difficult job of where Egypt goes from here assumes critical importance. The army knows that having respected the people's wishes and seeing Mubarak off, it will need to have all the arrangements in place for democracy to take off in a post-Mubarak era. Between now and September, or even earlier, the military must ensure that elections based on national consensus are speedily held, giving the Egyptians a real taste of democracy. Indeed, with all the deficit of democracy in the Middle East, the events in Cairo should be a harbinger of change elsewhere in the region.
We congratulate the people pf Egypt on their momentous victory.