Gamal Mubarak
 |
Gamal Mubarak جمال مبارك | |
|---|---|
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| Personal details | |
| Born | December 27, 1963 Cairo, Egypt |
| Nationality | Egyptian, British [1] |
| Political party | National Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | [[]] |
Gamal Al Din Mohammed Hosni Sayed Mubarak (Arabic: جمال الدين محمد حسنى سيد مبارك, IPA: [ɡæˈmæːl edˈdiːn muˈħæmed ˈħosni muˈbɑːɾɑk]), (born 27 December 1963), is the younger of the two sons of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and former First Lady Suzanne Mubarak. In contrast to his older brother Alaa, Gamal has pursued an active public profile and was starting to wield some influence on political life in the country before the political unrest of early 2011.
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.[citation needed] He began his professional life working for Bank of America. 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.[2] His role with Medinvest has since ended.
Mubarak 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.[3]
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.
During the first week of the 2011 Egyptian protests there were unconfirmed reports and speculation that Gamal may have left Egypt during the protests. However, on February 3, 2011, Gamal was present for an ABC News interview of his father in Cairo.[4]
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.[5] With no vice-president, and with no heir-apparent in sight, Gamal started enjoying considerable attention in the Egyptian media.[6] Bashar al-Asad's rise to power 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.[7]
Both President Mubarak and his son denied the possibility of any inheritance of power in Egypt, although this was 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.[8]
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.[9]
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.
Following the commencement of the 2011 Egyptian protests, Omar Suleiman was appointed the vice-president of Egypt on January 29, 2011.[10] Suleiman announced on 3 February 2011 that Gamal Mubarak would not seek election.
Role in the ouster of his father, Hosni Mubarak
Many[who?] speculate that the detoriorating state of the Egyptian economy in the last days of Hosni Mubarak's rule was caused by Gamal and his friends taking over as a political advisors to Mubarak. He isolated his father from the people, and pushed his own agenda, and his ailing father didn't listen to anyone but him. He is also pushed to have his businessmen friends take governmental positions and ministries, placing policies that benefit him and his friends. [11]
Reuters Africa reports of a fight taking place between him and his older brother, Alaa Mubarak. Alaa accused him of ruining his father last days, and humiliating him.[12]
References
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKWGOXMnTRk
- ^ http://www.winne.com/topinterviews/gamal.htm
- ^ http://www.frankdevlyn.org/galleries/Egypt/egypt6.jpg
- ^ Feb. 3 interview with Christine Amanpour
- ^ Aziz, Muhammad Abdul and Hussein, Youssef (2002) "The President, the Son, and the Military: Succession in Egypt" Arab Studies Journal 9/10: pp. 73–88
- ^ Brownlee, Jason (2008) "The Heir Apparency of Gamal Mubarak" Arab Studies Journal pp. 36–56
- ^ Sobelman, Daniel (2001) "Gamal Mubarak, President of Egypt?" Middle East Quarterly 8(2): pp. 31–40
- ^ http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/egypt/?id=16096 deadlink, 9 November 2010
- ^ http://mengos.net/events/04newsevents/egypt/september/9september04.htmdeadlink, 9 November 2010
- ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/29/uk-egypt-suleiman-idUKTRE70S2JL20110129 Omar Suleiman, new Egyptian vice-president
- ^ http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/13/108650/egypt-insider-mubaraks-fall-was.html
- ^ http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE71C0HQ20110213
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.
- Foreign Policy: [1]
- Egypt Has a Right to Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes. Nuclear Energy - a Possible Alternative in the Future 9/20/2006