Gamal Mubarak

Gamal Mubarak
Personal details
Born	1963 Cairo, Egypt
Political party	National Democratic Party (Egypt)

Gamal Mubarak (Arabic: جمال مبارك), or Gamal El Deen Muhammad Hosni Sayed Mubarak (Arabic: جمال الدين محمد حسنى سيد مبارك, IPA: [ɡæˈmæːl edˈdiːn mæˈħæmːæd ˈħosni moˈbɑːɾɑk]), born 1963, is the younger of the two sons of current Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak (the First Lady). In contrast to his older brother Alaa, Gamal has pursued an active public profile and is starting to wield some influence on political life in the country.

For his early education, Gamal Mubarak attended St. George's College, Cairo before entering the American University in Cairo. He graduated with a Business Degree from the university and he claims he also earned an MBA from the school. He began his professional life working for Bank of America's Egyptian branch. He was then transferred to the London branch, ultimately becoming one of its executives . He worked primarily in the field of investment banking.

With a few colleagues, Mubarak left Bank of America to set up London-based Medinvest Associates Ltd, which manages a private equity fund, and to do some corporate finance consultancy work [1]. His role with Medinvest has since ended.

He is also the Chairman of the Future Generation Foundation (FGF), an NGO dedicated to job training, and an honorary member of the Rotary, which was awarded to him in May 2000 by then Rotary International president Frank Devlyn [2].

In May 2007, Mubarak married Khadiga El Gammal, the daughter of Egyptian businessman Mahmoud El Gammal. They have a daughter, Farida, who was born in 2010.

In the National Democratic Party

He was nominated by his father in 2002 to become the General Secretary of the Policy Committee: the third most powerful position in the party and the starting point for most of the government’s actions. The National Democratic Party (NDP) holds a majority of seats in parliament.

After the July 2004 cabinet shuffle and the appointment of Dr. Ahmed Nazif as the new Prime Minister of Egypt, the cabinet was named "Gamal's cabinet", as most of the new ministers were chosen from the policy committee of the NDP.

Inheritance of Power

The grooming of Gamal Mubarak to be his father's successor as the next president of Egypt became increasingly evident at around the year 2000. With no heir-apparent in sight, Gamal started enjoying considerable attention in the Egyptian media. Bashar al-Asad's rise to the "throne" in Syria in June 2000 just hours after Hafez al-Asad's death, sparked a heated debate in the Egyptian press regarding the prospects for a similar scenario occurring in Cairo.

Both President Mubarak and his son have denied the possibility of any inheritance of power in Egypt, although this is widely speculated. Most recently, this claim was made in early 2006, when Gamal Mubarak declared repeatedly that he has no aspiration to succeed his father, but that he will maintain his position in the NDP as deputy secretary general, a post he holds in addition to heading the party's policy committee, probably the most important organ of the NDP.

The succession issue is a pressing one in view of President Mubarak's advancing age and the importance of Egypt in the Middle East. Other prominent and powerful figures in Egypt's top echelon are Omar Suleiman Chief of Egypt's General Intelligence and Defence Minister Tantawi, both of whom are in their 70s.

In September 2004 several political groups (most are unofficial), on both the left and the right, announced their sharp opposition to the inheritance of power. They demanded political change and asked for a fair election with more than one candidate

On February 26, 2005, Mubarak ordered the constitution changed to allow multi-candidate presidential elections before September 2005 by asking parliament to amend Article 76 of the Egyptian constitution. This change in the constitution is seen by some analysts as a ploy to seamlessly allow Gamal Mubarak to inherit the top position in Egypt. According to this view, Gamal Mubarak would be one of the candidates in a presidential elections and would be supported by the ruling party and the government-controlled media. Since remaining serious candidates would be disqualified by the NDP-controlled People's Assembly leaving only the less popular candidates, the inheritance of power would be accomplished through a "democratic" process.

Despite widespread opposition to hereditary succession, some few supporters are claiming it could be the only way to give the country its first civilian president, ending more than 50 years of the army's monopoly over the country's top executive job, ever since the military coup of 1952 that overthrew the monarchy in 1953, but opposition prefers other popular civilians.

Possible presidential candidacy

Main article: Egyptian presidential election, 2011

Gamal Mubarak has so far expressed no position regarding his standing for the 2011 elections, leaving the door open to rumors.

External links

• Interview with Gamal Mubarak: "We Need Audacious Leaders", Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2009
• « Egypt: Time of the Reformers », Interview by Pascal Drouhaud, Politique internationale, n° 120, Paris, 2008
• Daniel Sobelman, "Gamal Mubarak: President of Egypt?", Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2001
• National Democratic Party
• Amnesty International's 2005 Report on Egypt
• BBC: "Mubarak son raises public profile", September 10, 2004.
• MSNBC: "Stage set for political dynasty in Egypt?", July 28, 2004.
• [3]
• Egypt Has a Right to Nuclear Energy for Peacful Purposes. Nuclear Energy - a Possible Alternative in the Future 9/20/2006