He had a much longer staying power than Ben Ali of Tunisia, but in the end, Hosni Mubarak's rule as 4th President of Egypt since 1981 came to an end on February 11, 2011. I suspect that the military finally picked their side but also made the final nudge after that back to back P/VP speeches yesterday.
While the Egyptians celebrate their new freedom, elsewhere in the world, this news cannot be good. First Tunisia, then Egypt. If you have been in power for 10-20-40 years, surely the events in the last several weeks would give you some very serious pause. Who's next?
MUAMMAR AL-QADDAFI of Libya
Since September 1969
Years in power: 41
ALI ABDULLAH SALEH of Yemen
Assumed office as President of North Yemen in 1978
As President of Yemen from 1990–present
Years in power: 32
TEODORO OBIANG MBASOGO of Equatorial Guinea
Since August 1979
Years in power: 31
JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS of Angola
September 1979
Years in power: 31
ROBERT MUGABE of Zimbabwe
Since February 1980
Years in power: 30
HOSNI MUBARAK of EgyptSince October 1981
Years in power: 29
PAUL BIYA of Cameroon
Since November 1982
Years in power: 28
YOWERI MUSEVENI of Uganda
Since January 1986
Years in power: 25
KING MSWATI III of Swaziland
Came to the throne in April 1986
Years in power: 24
BLAISE COMPAORÉ of Burkina Faso
Since October 1987
Years in power: 23
ZINE EL ABIDINE BEN ALI of TunisiaSince bloodless coup in November 1987
Years in power: 23
OMAR HASSAN AL-BASHIR of Sudan
Since 1989
Years in power: 22
ISLAM KARIMOV of Uzbekistan
Since March 1990
Years in power: 20
IDRISS DÉBY of Chad
Since December 1990
Years in power: 20
Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea
Since May 1991
Years in power: 19
(he'll get his 20-year dictator's badge in 3 months!)
So anyway, we're kind of wondering .... imagine if we had Facebook and Twitter back in 2002 ... would we have marched into Baghdad 2,721 days ago on a freedom agenda?
I supposed we cannot ignore the other rulers in Egypt's neighborhood who must have felt the power of this quake all the way down their spines:
Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Ascended the throne on 7 February 1999
(after death of father, King Hussein who was in power for 46 years)
Years in power: 12 years
(highly educated population with chronic high unemployment rate)
Mohammed VI of Morocco
Ascended the throne on July 1999
(after death of father, Hassan II of Morocco who was in power for 38 years)
Years in power: 11 years
(second most populous Arab country after Egypt, 10% unemployment rate)
Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria
Assumed office 27 April 1999
Years in office: 11
(highly educated population, 10 % unemployment rate, under 15 years old youth bulge at 30%)
Bashar al-Assad of the Syria
Assumed office on 17 July 2000
(after death of father, Hafez al-Assad who was in power for three decades)
Years in power: 10
(emergency law since 1963, 9.2.% unemployment, and 30% of the population lives in poverty)
King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia
Ascended the throne on August 1, 2005
(after death of half-brother, King Fahd who was in power for 23 years)
Years in power: 5 years
(issues with corruption, religious extremism and 11.6% unemployment rate)
Related post:
People Power in Tunisia: A Warning for Other "Forever" Rulers | Friday, January 14, 2011
3 comments:
You forgot the ruler of the North Korea of Africa.
Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea. Came to power in 1991 and has 'postponed' national elections ever since.
rsoandrew - sorry, yes we have. Mr. Afewerki will officially reach his 20 year dictator's badge this May. But, what's a few months ... many thanks for the suggestion. We've added him to the short list above.
A blog with your expansive readership should be setting odds and taking bets. I've got $50. What's the over/under on Qadhafi?
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