Egypt all set to restore its former glory as El Sisi takes the helm

The former general has a lot to do and deserves support from the world and the region, Arabic language commentators say.

With the excitement over Field Marshal Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s election slowly abating in Egypt, one can’t help but sympathise with him over the sheer volume of responsibilities he has to shoulder, said the columnist Elias Sahab in the Sharjah-based daily Al Khaleej.

The recent popular revolutions have outlined the shape of the transition that is supposed to catapult Egypt into a new and significant role, distinguishing it from previous governments.

When Anwar Sadat came to power in 1970, he demolished many of the concepts of social equity that his predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser, had established following Egypt’s first revolution in 1952, also known as the 23 July Revolution. The revolt abolished the constitutional monarchy, established the republic and transformed Egypt into a centrally-planned economy.

Hosni Mubarak’s reign served to entrench corruption. This long process of deviation from the aim of the initial revolution was eventually brought to an end by millions of Egyptians.

Despite a brief setback caused by the Muslim Brotherhood when it came to power and threatened to drag the country into the dark ages, the revolution prevailed, so did democracy.

The big question now is, how the new president will tackle the cumulative economic breakdown that is threatening to bring down the state, asked the Saudi columnist Abdul Rahman Al Rashed in the London-based daily Asharq Al Awsat.

“Economy, ‘brothers’, is the main issue. It was never about political slogans that the defunct Morsi administration raised, creating internal political rifts among Egyptian citizens to divert attention away from economic issues that were the main drivers for the people’s outrage to begin with,” he noted. Egypt is to be empowered and enabled to rise and once again be an economic power in the Arab world.

“But for this to happen, Egypt’s well-wishers – the moderate Gulf countries and the West that understands its crucial role in the region’s stability – are required to support the Egyptian people, not only financially, but by adopting a genuine renaissance plan that would enable this fatigued state and its ever-poor population to stand on their feet,” Al Rashed said.

“Saudi and the UAE want Egypt to succeed, not out of spite towards the Muslim Brotherhood, but because it is in the interest of all ­Arabs,” he added. “It is a daunting task, but the moment is opportune.”

In the same vein, the columnist George Samaan wrote in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat that the Arab official attendance at the inauguration of Mr El Sisi on Sunday was significant.

“The Gulf, Jordanian and Palestinian representations at the ceremony indicate the beginning of a new regional alliance that hints at new political equations in the region,” he observed. “Arab countries would no longer have to choose between Turkey and Iran, the two poles that dominated Middle East politics in the past few years.”

The economic format of the new alliance is clear. In the coming days, political and military formats will be made clear. Many observers hope that it would be the start of a new phase that allows these Arab countries to fill the void left by the American withdrawal from regional affairs. It would allow for a recalibration of the balance of powers to face the challenges of the Iranian expansion.

“The sooner Gulf states are able to help Egypt to get over the security, economic and social ailments, the sooner the scale of powers in the region would be adjusted,” he suggested.

In the meantime, Iran and the GCC countries would have to wait and see what Cairo’s comeback to the regional scene brings.

Translated by Racha Makarem