A historic but uncertain day

Now Egypt has a democratically elected president for the first time in 6,000 years!

The Egyptian people, whether rich or poor, strong or weak, laborers or villagers,  businessmen or unemployed youths, Muslim Brotherhood affiliates and Salafis or liberalists and Marxists, politicized or non-politicized, have all experienced days of tension, concern, fear and anticipation before the result of the presidential election.

The Freedom and Justice Party’s chosen candidate Dr. Mohamed Mursi became President of Egypt and its people, with a slim majority over his rival Lieutenant General Ahmed Shafik.

Because the new president will rule the country with a slim majority, not a vast or overwhelming support base, he will have to work to reassure those who supported his opponent before he focuses on his own adherers.

The upcoming president is not in a fortunate position; he is not a “winner” in the true sense of the word. Rather, he has been sentenced by fate and the ballot box to rule a country in extremely difficult, complicated and tense circumstances, and he will have a high ceiling of demands and social expectations to deal with amidst the worst economic conditions Egypt has ever seen.

The new president of Egypt has a suicidal task ahead. He will have to undertake the impossible mission of satisfying all currents.

Will the new president behave like a statesman who considers himself the president of all the Egyptians? Or will he behave like the leader of a specific current, team, category or era, coming to enact revenge upon those who opposed him?

The more the new president is open to the majority of currents, and the more he tries to alleviate their apprehensions, fears, and their political, social and religious obsessions, the more Egypt will enjoy stability.

The greatest fear is that the political street is heating up with the aim of forcing through a different political arrangement, the price of which the patient Egyptian people will have to pay.