The Final Thoughts on Mubarak?

The pundits weigh in on the Egyptian uprising as the revolution appears to be nearing its crest.

Some thoughts on the Egyptian uprising, possibly rounded up within the final moments of Hosni Mubarak’s regime …

(UPDATE: We got punk'd! Mubarak has announced he is going nowhere.)

The National Post’s Father Raymond J. de Souza issues a refreshing declaration of ignorance: “What exactly is happening in Egypt? I don’t know. What should be done in Egypt? I don’t know.” And according to de Souza, none of the other pundits are much better. “[T]he past two weeks have made it a excruciatingly clear that the legion of Arabists and Egyptologists … employed by foreign-office chancelleries the world over know very little about what is going on either,” he writes. “Cable news serves up a parade of pundits, many of whom are so apparently omni-competent that they can opine on the Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday, and the Jonas Brothers on Wednesday.” We in The Newsroom couldn’t agree more. We’re glued to news footage asserting that Mubarak is about to step down, and we still have no idea what is happening, or what it means. It’s pretty exciting, however.

The Toronto Star’s Haroon Siddiqui rearticulates his belief that Stephen Harper is standing squarely on the wrong side of history. “While the world is cheering on the Egyptian uprising, Harper is siding with the despotic regime,” he writes. While even the U.S. has changed its tone in the past week to send Mubarak a message that he must go, Harper has backed the president at the request of Egypt’s long-time ally Israel and is “squandering a historic opportunity” to promote democracy in the Middle East. With all due respect to Canada’s influence on the international stage, at best Harper is squandering an opportunity for a good sound bite. If Mubarak steps down today, look for Harper to congratulate the Egyptian people tomorrow.

In the Globe and Mail, Don Tapscott asks “Could the first revolution born through peer collaboration lead to a new kind of collaborative government that engages its citizens in co-creating public value, democracy and social justice?” He predicts Egyptians could continue to participate in post-Mubarak Egyptian government the same way they participated in the uprising, shaping society through social media. Not sure how that would work, but again, exciting.