Gamal Mubarak

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Gamal Mubarak (Arabic: جمال مبارك‎), or Gamal El Deen Muhammad Hosni Sayed Mubarak (Arabic: جمال الدين محمد حسنى سيد مبارك‎), 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.

Contents

[edit] Bio

Gamal Mubarak


Name Gamal El Deen Muhammad Hosni Sayed Mubarak
Job The General Secretary of the Policy Committee of National Democratic Party (NDP)
Wife Khadiga El Gammal
Place and date of birth Cairo،  Egypt 1963

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[citation needed] from the school[citation needed] . 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[citation needed]. 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 Rotary clubs, which was awarded to him in May 2000 by Rotary International president Frank Devlyn [2].

In May 2007, Mubarak married to Khadiga El Gammal, the daughter of Egyptian businessman Mahmoud El Gammal.

[edit] 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 sweeping 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.

[edit] 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 June 2000 just hours after Hafez al-Asad's death, sparked a heated debate in the Egyptian press regarding the prospects for the same scenario taking place in Cairo. [3]

Both Mubarak and his son have denied the possibility of any inheritance of power in Egypt, although this is widely speculated. Latest this was made clear in early 2006, where Gamal Mubarak declared repeatedly that he has no aspiration to succeed his father, but will maintain his position in the NDP as deputy secretary general, a post he holds in addition to heading the party's policies committee, probably the most important organ within the NDP [4].

The elder Mubarak's advancing age has made the question of succession more pertinent, but this problem appears to have been postponed until 2011 with Hosni Mubarak's September 2005 election win. That said, the succession issue continues to remain a pressing one given the importance of Egypt in the Arab world and President Mubarak's advancing age. Other prominent and powerful figures in Egypt's top echelon are Omar Suleiman Chief of General Intelligence and Defence Minister Tantawi, both of whom in their 70's.

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 [5].

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. The view is that Gamal Mubarak would be one of the candidates in a coming presidential elections and would enjoy full backing from the ruling party and the government-controlled media. The other serious candidates would be disqualified by the NDP-controlled People's Assembly leaving the less popular candidates. Thus, the inheritance of power would be done in a "democratic" way.

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.

[edit] Possible presidential candidacy

Main article: Egyptian presidential election, 2011

Gamal Mubarak did not specify the position so far from the elections, in 2011, leaving the door open to the rumors and many find this attitude unethical from him and his father.

On the other hand, a number of forces, and national popular movements and opposition political parties in Egypt is sharply critical of the regime, accusing him of seeking "to pass Gamal Mubarak, President of the Republic" to replace his father, and many of those parties and opposition parties opposed to what it describes as "the inheritance scheme ".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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