[OPE] Aussie perspective: Egyptian pushmi-pullyu

Hosni and Omar lap up American comedy
Paul McGeough
Sydney Morning Herald, February 9, 2011

As they compare notes at the end of each day, Hosni Mubarak and his crony
the Vice-President, Omar Suleiman, must chortle at Washington's re-imagining
of Dr Dolittle's pushmi-pullyu as a viable policy process by which to oust a
dictator who stands between his 80 million subjects and a new democracy.

The fictional animal had a head at each end of its body, so that one was
always trying to pull in the opposite direction to the other. But Hosni and
Omar will be splitting their sides over the Obama administration's efforts
to graft heads to their Egyptian pushmi-pullyu.

When the protests began, Hillary Clinton pleaded ''stability''. As the
street crowds showed more fervour, Barack Obama decided that Mubarak must
go - ''orderly transition . must begin now''.

At the weekend, Frank Wisner, the go-between sent to Cairo by Obama to
personally deliver his ''game's over'' message to the dictator, became
Mubarak's ventriloquist's doll, telling a security conference in Munich that
''President Mubarak's continued leadership is critical - it's his
opportunity to write his own legacy''.

But if the Wisner wisecrack had them chuckling, then it has to be assumed
that the Egyptian President and his consigliere were rolling on the floor as
they digested Clinton's warning on Sunday of the dangers of rushing to a new
election without a cumbersome rewriting of the Egyptian constitution.

Imagine the scene. ''The what?'' Mubarak asks in disbelief. ''The
constitution,'' Suleiman replies.

''You mean,'' Mubarak snorts, ''that after 30 years of us ignoring the
constitution, she now wants to abide by it, and to leave us in charge of the
process?''

Complete article here:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/hosni-and-omar-lap-up-american-comedy-20110208-1aln9.html#comments

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Received on Tue Feb 8 18:37:47 2011