Lebanese Ministry of Information
Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who reigned over Egypt for 30 years before he was ousted in the Arab Spring uprisings, died on Tuesday, state television reported.
He had been taken to an intensive care unit the day before, according to reports, following complications from a previous surgery. He was 91.
Mubarak, who served as president from 1981 to 2011, played a major role in Egypt’s recent history, ushering in an era of relative prosperity and close political and military relations with the United States, but also a time of corruption and economic polarisation.
Last year, he spoke about the October War in a video interview that was his first in years.
“The first airstrike was launched in the first few minutes of the war and it hit the intended targets,” he said. “When the planes came back, I called the president in the main operations room to tell him the mission was a success and the losses were minimal.”
He entered politics as a leading member of Egypt’s dominant National Democratic Party, using his stature as a war hero to consolidate his rule over 30 years.
His reign became one characterised by uneven and even frenetic economic growth that enriched some, including his own family members, but kept millions of Egyptians mired in poverty. Educational and health infrastructure lagged while state enterprises were ignored in favour of the rising private sector.
Mubarak also became adept at using the secret police to hunt down and suppress dissidents, including Islamists and leftists. Elections were a sham, with police sometimes physically blocking voters in opposition districts from reaching the polls.
Despite the political repression under his rule, he was considered far more tolerant than Egypt’s current ruler, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, and allowed opposition political parties and news outlets.
Scattered protests against Mubarak gelled into a movement in 2005, fuelled by rising discontent among labour activists and civil society figures who declared “kafia”, or enough, which became a slogan of a reform movement.
The Independent
