What does the future hold for Egypt?

Protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square 4 February 2011

What does the richest man in the world and the poorest people in the Arab legion have in common?

1. They fear and loath each other
2. They wait for every opportunity to pounce (or plunder) at another
3. They come from Egypt

Asian News International (ANI) news report yesterday claimed that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is likely the richest man in the world with an estimated fortune worth about 70 billion dollars. 

All this wealth made by the President while he was in power for three decades, while the people of Egypt suffer in poverty and fear of being harassed or arrested.

The 70 billion dollars would put the 82-year-old comfortably ahead of Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim Helu, who is worth about 53.5 billion dollars, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the richest American with 53 billion dollars.

According to the Guardian, Mubarak had access to investment deals that have generated hundreds of millions of pounds in profits, most of which have been taken offshore and deposited in secret bank accounts or invested in upmarket homes and hotels.

Gamal and Hosni Mubarak

As reported last year in the Arabic newspaper El Khabar, Mubarak has money stashed in several Swiss and other foreign bank accounts, and has shadowy real-estate holdings in Manhattan, London and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

His sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also billionaires. A protest outside Gamal's ostentatious home at 28 Wilton Place in Belgravia, central London, highlighted the family's appetite for western trophy assets.

Compare that to what the ordinary people in Egypt has.

According to news report here, President Hosni Mubarak's track record with regard to empowering his subjects is abysmal :

Egypt's landless have no love for Mubarak

Small farmers were forced into becoming sharecroppers. 

More than half (57%) of Egyptians who live in the countryside are poor farmers.

Under Mubarak's watch, one in ten Egyptians lost their farms. Almost two decades ago, families who had been self-sustaining farmers became landless sharecroppers or migrant labourers with a stroke of Mubarak's pen.

Between 1992 and 1997, about 1 million heads of tenant households (about 6 million people, or close to one in ten Egyptians) went from being secure, moderately prosperous farmers, who enjoyed owner-like status and paid a low fixed rent, to being traditional insecure sharecroppers.

Subsequent research by Professor Ray Bush (2002) Counter-revolution in Egypt's countryside: land and farmers in the era of economic reform, found that this policy reversal caused widespread eviction of former registered tenants, increased rural poverty and indebtedness, and spurred an increase in urban migration by the young. Average rents eventually quadrupled.

Like their city cousins, Egypt's rural landless see no way to improve their lives, save for one – bring down the man who took their land and their livelihood.

Even in Malaysia, where many Egyptians reside, their account on how underprivileged and deprived the people are in their own land attest to all the grievances made.

On the right is a screen capture of today's theSun report entitled: Egyptians in M'sia have their say. Click on the pic for a bigger view.

So what does the future holds for Egypt and its people if Mubarak is still around?

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