CAIRO - Found itself responsible for governing and policing a country of 80 million people, Egypt’s military has been pushed to politics, a domain where the army's role has diminished over decades.
“The military understands it is not business as usual," Samer Soliman, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo, told The New York Times on Friday, March 4.
"But the question is on the range of change and the extent of change.”
The military rulers took over Egypt after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down last month following 18 days of protests against his regime, putting a dramatic end to his 30-year rule.
Since then, the military has been under pressure to look after internal affairs in the country after the fall of Mubarak, whose regime single-handedly ruled the country for three decades.
Having committed to constitutional changes and handing over power to a democratically elected president, the military rulers are still pressured by mounting demands of protestors who want a clean break from Mubarak's era.
“The major challenge for the military now is to convince the population to wait,” Soliman said. Nasser Abdel Hamid, a 28-year-old engineer, agrees.
“We have to let them breathe so they can work,” said Abdel Hamid, who was among a small group of young protestors who met with the generals last Sunday.
The generals were evidently trying to head off another huge weekly demonstration Friday on Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the Egyptian revolution, by naming a new prime minister the day before.
The new prime minister is Essam Sharaf, a highway engineering professor with a Ph.D. from Purdue University who served as minister of transportation in 2004.
The fact that he came to Tahrir Square with a group of Cairo University professors to chant against Mubarak endeared him to the protesters.
Political activists also give the military high marks for edging away from its previously closed ways. Three army generals broke precedent by appearing on a popular talk show.
One, Gen. Mohamed al-Assar, the deputy defense minister, even called Mr. Mubarak’s overthrow “the greatest revolution in the history of Egypt.”
The junta even barrowed a tactic from the youth, using its Facebook page to announce the resignation of Premier Ahmed Shafiq, who was appointed by Mubarak in his last days of rule.
Aside from their Facebook announcements, the military rulers send frequent text messages to cellphones.
“The military is aware of the demands of the people, but wants to underline the need for the return of normal life to Egypt,” read one on Thursday.
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Yet, some observers criticize the military for pandering to young, inexperienced demonstrators.
“I always trusted them, but today it is not a question of trust,” said Hossam Eissa, a law professor at Ain Shams University.
“You cannot appoint a prime minister by asking a few groups of five or six people who come say, ‘We are from Tahrir Square and we think these names are O.K.’ There is too much ad lib.”
Others believe that the army is still sticking to Mubarak's school of rule.
“The military chose to rule in the Mubarak style,” one senior Egyptian political figure said on condition of anonymity.
“They are micro-managing. We say it is time for new parties, and they say we cannot have them because there is no committee to approve them.”
When the army promised transparency, it meant it would announce decisions after it made them rather than not at all, one Western diplomat said.
The army also had its missteps.
Soldiers beat protesters and burned down the suddenly reconstituted tent camp in Tahrir Square last Friday, the backlash prompting the Supreme Council to issue an apology.
Now, the once-hidden military is being dragged into Egyptian daily life to a degree that makes many uncomfortable.
“What they are finding out is that this period of transition requires much more of them than perhaps they initially thought,” said one Western diplomat.
The demonstrators camping again in the square said that they would stay until the new government guaranteed some timetable to meet their other demands, including the disbanding of secret police.
“They cut off the head," said Dr. Mohamed Abdel Gaffar, 26, who runs the medical tent.
"But the body is still moving.”
