“If you look at the Tunisian uprising, it’s a youth uprising,” Emad Shahin, an Egyptian scholar now at the University of Notre Dame, told The New York Times on Thursday, January 27.
“It is the youth that knows how to use the media, Internet, Faceboo, so there are other players now” besides the traditional opposition figures, he said.
Inspired by Tunisia’s protests that ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, thousands of Egyptians, mostly young people aged between 19 to 22, took to the streets for the third day running to demand the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.
“It was the young people who took the initiative and set the date and decided to go,” Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agenc, told the NY Times in a phone interview from Vienna.
ElBaradei, who has been campaigning for reforms and uniting the opposition forces since he plunged into politics in Egypt, said he is returning home to join the anti-government demonstrations.
The roots of the Egyptian uprising stretch back to before the Tunisian revolt.
Almost three years ago, on April 6, 2008, the Egyptian government crushed a strike by a group of textile workers in the industrial city of Mahalla.
In response, a group of young activists who connected through Facebook and other social networking websites created The April 6th movement in solidarity with the strikers.
The movement engaged in several efforts to call a general strike, but to no vain.
But over time, the leaderless online network and others managed to get more support and seemed to be more coordinative, away from the eyes of the security apparatus.
The protests, which sparked Tuesday, were actually an online rallying cry by the youth against what they see as tyranny, corruption and torture.
Mini-Intifada
Seeing the leaderless youths taking the driving seat in the upheaval, analysts believe that the traditional opposition figures might seize the chance to steal the show.
“It would be criminal for any political party to claim credit for the mini-Intifada we had yesterday,” said Hossam el-Hamalawy, a blogger and activist.
Many of the moribund, registered political parties — more than 20 in total with no real popularity in the streets – are bracing to leap to embrace the new movement for change, analysts believe.
Even the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition movement, is also seen as moving to capitalize on the new youth movement, say some analysts and former members.
Although the group has not officially announced the participation in the protests, it said it will join mass anti-government demonstrations on Friday.
Dr. Mohamed Morsi, a spokesman for the group, said that the group will participate in order to "achieve popular demands."
Yet, analysts believe the group is too weak to take the driving seat in the political scene.
“The Brotherhood is no longer the most effective player in the political arena,” Shahin said.
Amr Hamzawy, research director at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, agrees.
“The Brotherhood has been very silent,” he said.
“It is not a movement that can benefit from what has been happening and get people out in the street.”
The Muslim Brotherhood tried to justify its near-total absence in the protest.
“People took part in the protests in a spontaneous way, and there is no way to tell who belonged to what,” said spokesman Gamal Nasser.
“Everyone is suffering from social problems, unemployment, inflation, corruption and oppression.
“So what everyone is calling for is real change.”
