The Family - Part 2

[Music] [Applause] [Music] on the 3rd of August 2011 the trial of the former president of Egypt h Mubarak for corruption and ordering the killing of protesters began in Cairo along with Mubarak in the cage were his two sons alah and Gamal his former interior Minister and six ex police commanders what was the 83-year-old former dictator thinking of in the courtroom that day was he perhaps reviewing the journey through life that had brought him to this place [Applause] [Music] New Year's Eve 2000 the world comes together to celebrate the coming of a new millennium with it comes the hope of new beginnings but not in my country just less than 3 months earlier Egypt had already celebrated something rather different and yet rather familiar the reelection of President hus Mubarak for the fourth [Music] time what a contrast from his promise 18 years [Applause] previously in his first speech when he became president for the first time he said that he wouldn't stand for more than two terms that his speeches wouldn't last longer than 20 minutes that his wife wouldn't appear in the media and unlike others buildings and public monuments wouldn't be named after the president that took office in 1981 was a totally different person from he who was in control in [Music] 1999 and what of all the promises that he made back in those early days all of them were forgotten or [Applause] vanished people around him were all saying you are leaving what will we do without you you you have to stay this pressure was not just from the Hypocrites around him but also from his family I don't mean his close relatives but more the unscrupulous people surrounding him Mr Mubarak had initially chosen to keep Mrs Mubarak in the [Music] background yet in the first years of his presidency suzan did undertake minor activities which were accepted by the General Public the Princess of Wales was accompanied by the wife of the Egyptian president Mrs buerak then as time went by she became more and more prominent she was ambitious to be Center [Applause] Stage they didn't advertise it widely but suzan thit now known as suzan Mubarak was half wsh her mother coming from the tiny coal mining Village of ponti print Lily may Palmer the daughter of a humble Welsh coal miner never lived to see this moment her daughter meeting Queen Elizabeth as Egypt's first lady could life get any better than this in 1993 just as her husband embarked on his second term Suzanne to was was emboldened to start her first major public project reading for all resulted in millions of books being distributed to the Egyptian public at below cost over the following 17 years the only catch the president's wife was on the back cover instead of the [Music] author she had a passion for art and music in particular classical Western and Arabic [Music] music she was a good reader who had obtained a masters in sociology at the American University in Cairo sociology as our president gained more and more power his wife created her own Court surrounding herself with ministers and top official [Music] she had no status within the Constitution she was just the president's wife but it was always like the first lady left the first lady is back your presence was amazing in yesterday's speech the speech was excellent Egyptians are hypocritical to whoever is in power with the result that they end up being turned into little dictators and this to you star's words is truly awesome while SU and Mubarak hogged the spotlight her eldest son alah now married and settled was a changed [Music] man with his Bachelor days behind him he was now also a father baby Muhammad named after his grandfather had arrived in 1997 to charm the president and perhaps to remind him of a happy childhood he himself never enjoyed Muhammad Al was always playing with a toy pistol if officials walked in they would have to play with Muhammad and act Dead when he shot [Music] them if they didn't fall Muhammad would get very angry this happened once when a senior official came to visit the [Music] president Muhammad took aim and fired the man looked at him and smiled he looked at his grandfather and asked why he didn't die the president looked at the man and said why didn't you die lie down you're dead while the president and his grandson were playing shoot the official the president's eldest son Al was playing his own ruthless [Music] game and the play thing the influence his name could carry throughout Egypt in the late 80s Al began expanding into Partnerships that many businessmen regarded as [Music] dubious there was no reference to his name in any of these Partnerships the acceptable form of words was to call him facilitator as he had the ability to influence ministers to facilitate the [Music] work the stories in Egypt about business conducted by mubarak's sons became a laughing matter there is in fact a famous joke an owner of a cafe had photos up on the wall of the three presidents ABD Nas Sadat and Mubarak a guy walks into the cafe and asks who these guys are the owner answers this is nasur leader of the 1952 Revolution president Sadat who led the October war and this is the father of my business [Music] partner while was accumulating wealth and influence in his home country his younger brother Gamal wasn't exactly cooling his heels in London where he had been since the mid 1980s whatever he may have been doing behind the scenes and the unsubstantiated rumors of money laundering and more were R publicly he was simply Bank of America's London Chief but it seems he was also biing his time for greater things back homeon I've been to London a few times and he invited me to dinner at a restaurant behind Herod he was very keen on internal Egyptian politics and would ask or comment on a number of issues I really felt this is where his interest in public affairs started June 2000 the death of a president and the birth of the first Republican Dynasty in the history of the Arab world Syria's half Assad had died after after three decades in [Music] [Music] [Applause] power within days of the funeral the Syrian Constitution had been amended to allow his 34-year-old son Bashar the opthalmologist to become president where Syria LED others were inspired to [Music] follow president Bashar Al Assad took power after his late father Ali abdah Was preparing his son Ahmed sadd Hussein Was preparing his sons Ori Was preparing his son sa so it became a trend of succession in the region this motivated suzan as a wife and mother for suzan Mubarak it was like a light had been switched on the chosen one would be her youngest son Gamal who by now had returned from London not only should he be thrust forward to succeed his father in due course but the Brilliance of the scheme would mean that a new president Gamal Mubarak would have no interest in Prosecuting the mistakes of the old president hos Mubarak it could all be kept in the family suzan mubarak's insistence on the Triumph of the succession project wasn't just political it was as much about her maintaining her social status shifting from the president's wife to becoming the president's mother similar to The Queen Mother and there was an important psychological Factor here too in so much as suzan saw herself is the woman who made Mubarak a success and she was now preparing another Mubarak her son the first step in gal's eventual elevation to the presidency was for him to join the ruling National Democratic party which if nothing else was neither Democratic nor National from the outset Gamal began to maneuver his way to power in the party in less than 2 years the ex London Banker was head of the ndp's poce bureau a powerful committee especially created for [Music] him his father respected his his intelligence claiming that he had finished his exams in a shorter time than normal which meant he saved a whole year his father really thought he was clever and generally respected his opinions having taken over The Party The Genius son also assumed responsibility for his father's office the only way now to get to the president was to go via gal but there was still a problem the president himself was showing no signs of wanting to step aside in favor of his boy initially he was against his son succeeding him not so much out of concern for the country but more because he was generally selfish and wanted to remain in power to the extent that he once said what would I do if I left presidency chop onions November 2003 disaster as the president spoke in Parliament he collapsed live on air Egyptian television obligingly cut away from the moment but the Act was quite literally falling apart then just over 6 months later he fell ill again this time he traveled to Munich in Germany for back surgery I think it was in June and it was raining it was terrible weather they brought him in a wheelchair because he was in such a severe pain he couldn't walk anymore he was really really suffering and and and his situation was like the weather outside his 1 and a half hour surgery was completely uneventful and the president was on the road to recovery but as he recuperated in his German Hospital rumors circulated in Egypt that he had died on the operating table it was simple enough for Mubarak to put PID to the stories by making a television appearance but he was also anxious to get back home this was always my impression that he wanted to go back to Egypt as quick as possible to show that he's okay and then I remember the first thing in in the days after the operation um his goal was to walk as much as possible and to walk stairs I remember this because he said I want to leave as quick as possible but I will not leave if I'm not able to walk down the gang way from the airplane to show that I'm really back again and fit within days of his return Mubarak was appearing to act the strong man again he shuffled his cabinet introducing new faces most of them businessmen and members of gal's NDP poit Bureau in the streets of Cairo we called it gal mubarak's cabinet the new generation came on the scene his son his son's friends and a small group of businessmen everything began to change it was like an old man passing the steering wheel to his son leaving us all to crash gal's ambitious agenda for seizing power from his aging father was getting more obvious as the time approached for another presidential election in 2005 some said it was the moment for gal to make his move but the old man was not going to go without a fight it's my honor to welcome president RAR to the White House again and you theal the kind of subtle messages from his father to us were that Gamal wasn't really ready and that he needed to stay the collective punishment if I go back if there was one kind of constant threat with Mubarak there was this kind of sense that he was Irreplaceable today only he understood Egypt only he could manage Egypt and I think that even these kind of subtle messages about the sun were kind of part and parcel of his indispensability to to ruling Egypt should [Applause] stop September 2005 and the president who had once promised to stay for only one term was campaigning for his fifth term in office and he also had a further surprise for the [Music] electorate this time thanks to a constitutional change they were allowed to vote for other people the trouble was that the rules were so narrow that only non entities could stand against the man who had ruled our country for a quarter of a [Music] century no one was surprised when hus Mubarak won a landslide victory for the first lady her plans for a smooth succession for her son so that she could progress to first mother may have been temporarily [Music] frustrated but the reality was that she still dominated the project that was the Mubarak presidency you're doing a very your name then she settled on another audacious plan her obsession with winning the Nobel Peace Prize grew to the extent that she supported Faruk H's appointment to unisco so as to help get her the prize then it was the women and peace movement so she could get The Nobel Prize she traveled the world making speeches receiving whatever prizes she could she created reading for all she visited children I mean she did everything but none of it was spontaneous it was all done for the purpose of furthering her personal [Music] Glory who knows what delusions of Granda must have inspired suzan Mubarak to believe that she could possibly be a candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize but what was certain by 2008 was that her husband now approaching his 80th birthday was increasingly isolated as his wife and his son protected him from uncomfortable truths the president didn't always receive all the information that he should have he just got told stuff that wouldn't upset him if it was something that may disturb him we were usually told not to tell him just to make sure he was always in a good mood I couldn't believe it when the film The President's Chef came to the movie theaters of Egypt it was a huge hit and the talk of the [Music] streets everyone knew that although the producers said it was a fiction this was really the true story of an isolated president whose only reliable informant about what was going on in the country was an unimportant functionary and it in the film he was a chef in reality he was Muhammad Ashu the president's personal makeup artist when that man woke up he was like a master no one could laugh talk or say anything to him everyone was serious it was as if we were at War so I was the one who would speak to him tell him a few jokes make him laugh until he would then start talking constantly about politics state affairs or just generally [Music] socializing in the movie The fictional presid president's henchmen fire his Chef because of his relationship with the [Music] president real life then mirrored art when a year after the film was released ASU was removed by mubarak's Inner Circle they realized that I began talking to him about several issues including his son's succession to them I appeared to be [Music] dangerous then I received a call from the minister of information saying asub you will no longer see the [Music] president Mubarak continued as if nothing had changed over the years he was still the country's loyal servant [Applause] it was more a message to suzan and gal rather than to the Egyptian Street conflict over the presidency had reached its peak isolated and exhausted yet still fighting on the 18th of May 2009 the old man was hit by a family [Music] [Music] tragedy as we Egyptians lived through president hus mubarak's fifth term we were confronted with a charm offensive orchestrated on behalf of his son gal both the people and the president were the targets of the conspiracy my view is that there were pressuring him to create a new status quo whether they were working in the r of Journalism or politics they were saying we are on the scene and we will make the succession of Gamal Mubarak real a public and political reality backed by Anonymous benefactors with apparently bottomless Pockets gal was portrayed as the only choice to guide the country to a new Sunny future Not only was he the great Economist equipped with Solutions he was youthful verile and a mean striker of the ball there was just one problem Egyptians simply didn't like him gel was arrogant very similar in character to his mother he's a very conservative person who wasn't open to conversation lacked social skills and to an extent had little or no Charisma his communication skills were very limited he didn't have these skills and perhaps he never believed how important training is or of possibly acquiring the skills unfortunately the guy felt that he was good enough already and sadly the people around him were treating him as a Victorious pharaoh of Egypt gal's personality was not the only obstacle a trusted Egyptian leader must certainly have a first lady and gal at 44 was still single his mother's main concern was to get him married she told me at a wedding party that she wished gal would go on over to a group of beautiful girls who were dancing and just pick one 23y old mm G was massively younger than the aspiring president but who knows exactly why or how she caught gal's eye there are men his age who prefer younger women why not it is what he wanted and there are also girls that like older men the ones with power and prestige so I couldn't tell whether she completed the picture or he liked the blonde model look she didn't look like an Egyptian her figure wasn't really Egyptian it was more like a model a bit like Claudia Schiffer she was all pretense the private wedding ceremony was held at the president's favorite Resort Sharm on the 4th of May 200 7 the president's birthday the new Mr and Mrs Mubarak were then able to throw themselves into the key matter in hand staying in the spotlight so gal could be portrayed as the president in Waiting meanwhile the actual president stubbornly refused to leave the stage [Applause] but that was soon to change on the 16th of May 2009 the president's favorite grandson 12-year-old Muhammad son of Allah was struck down by a mystery illness 2 Days Later he was [Music] dead what really made H Mubarak collapse was the death of his grandson Muhammad I was aware of the relationship between him and his [Music] grandson H muak Muhammad's death was literally M barak's death after that he constantly wore black tie and refused to remove it the president was a broken man he didn't even attend the funeral of his beloved grandson as he locked himself away in his home I think losing his grandchild represented a huge blow to him if only he had resigned at that time he had every reason to go but but he missed the opportunity his honorable one till the very last [Music] moment it may not have been obvious to the Egyptian people but the old man had in fact given up as he greeted President Obama in Cairo 2 weeks later he made little effort to disguise his grief he was ready to step down but to the plotters in his household the timing was not right better he stay on until such time as he could gracefully Make Way for Gamal to go through the motions of standing in the democratic election scheduled for 2011 the president was shocked by this loss and wanted to retire suzan Mubarak Gamal and the few others were resistant and insisted on him staying in office on condition that power would be transferred to Gamal when the time was [Music] right but the best laid plans have a way of going wrong in March 2010 Mubarak fell sick again the president and his Entourage flew to Heidelberg in Germany the official line was that he needed his gold bladder removed and apparently no egyptian surgeon could be trusted to perform the operation it was not an emergency operation such as when you have a lifethreatening disease and you need an operation within some days or even within hours it was not an emergency it was an operation that was needed as the patient was made comfortable in this room at the Heidelberg University Hospital his wife and son were anxious to know that he would survive and not die an untimely death certainly they asked me whether uh Mr Mubarak will be able to go back to his work his work as the presidency and the answer was yes we will do whatever is necessary to get him back to his regular work I am accordingly happy to announce this morning that the president has fully recovered from the effects of the successful surgical intervention conducted on him exactly 3 weeks ago Sha of his makeup the president looked his age as he left Heidelberg after 3 weeks recuperation this time there would be no celebratory descent from his plane on his own steam as there had been with his previous return from hospital would this now be the end of his presidency it was decided that on the 4th of May 2011 the president's birthday he would give a speech and announce his resignation so that gal could contest free and fair elections there certainly would be formidable competition it would have been Fair of course and gal Mubarak would certainly win even by 50% plus one before he could emerge triumphant from the presidential elections of 2011 gal needed to secure his power Base by uring that Parliament was filled with his political stoes the Parliamentary elections of December 2010 were so blatantly corrupt that no egyptian believed the results when gal's NDP cronies took almost every seat Gamal with his direct interference wanted to build a different country not based on institutions so he sought to create a parliament matching his vision a parliament with no opposition until he inherited power entirely confident that no one in Parliament would oppose him by the end of 2010 gal Mubarak controlled Parliament the cabinet and the party but one crucial piece was missing Egypt's Armed Forces number half fam milon and are a state within a state the generals the Air Marshals and the Admirals accepted Mubarak senior as one of their own but Mubarak junor was loed with a Vengeance of course not the armed forces were not happy with Gamal Mubarak because they did not see him as sufficiently qualified to lead the country and Gamal Mubarak never approached the Armed Forces there was a barrier between the armed forces and gal Mubarak so there was no basis for acceptance or compromise whether Egypt's Army would ever have accepted a president gal Mubarak or would have staged the military CP will now never be known history was to take a stranger route in December 2010 when an unknown food seller in Tunisia set fire to himself he sparked a revolution that would spread throughout the Arab world no dictator would be safe in his bed though not every one of them could see what was coming coming down the road we had conversations with Mubarak and the people around him after Tunisia saying look you need to you need to recognize that this could happen in Egypt too this is this is the time for you to open up but again he was quite dismissive of this after the success of the Tunisian Revolution the three of them gal Al and suzan were on sedatives and as soon as they ran out of them a private plane was sent to collect more except Mubarak who refused to take any as he never believed that anyone would dare to do the same to him as had happened in Tunisia on the 25th of January 20 the Flames of Revolt that had been so successfully lit in Tunisia reached Egypt's Shores within days the call to Freedom had become an Unstoppable force not even the protesters who took to the streets of our nation cities could believe what they started but even mubarak's former Secretary of Information could see that the end game was being played out I appeared on state TV the next day of the Revolution and told him that he needed to maintain his legacy dismissed the cabinet that day purged the parliament of skeptical politicians start the reforms and that it should all begin before Friday prayers he just didn't listen people were surprised by what I was saying but I could foresee the future I could see the people in t Square were fed up and weren't going to stop Mubarak did not listen to his former advisor as Friday prayers ended on the 28th of January 2011 Egypt [Applause] exploded Mubarak simply did not understand that this was something [Applause] [Music] [Applause] new [Applause] Mubarak marked the country with his habits through three decades he was an accommodating man he found the safest way to solve any problem is patience patience till it dissolves when the momentum Fades away by the end of that day of prayer and anger under pressure from the protesters the police withdrew to be replaced by the Army and a curfew was imposed throughout the [Music] country this was the president's first response then he offered up a token to the protesters very late that Friday night he appeared appeared on [Music] [Music] [Music] television as far as Mubarak was concerned he had done his bit and the people should be satisfied so as his country continued to burn he turned his mind to other matters I received a call from him on the day the government resigned he called while I was in the cabinet meeting I was rather cautious and was wondering what was going on he asked about the book fair and what our plans were I replied that we had canceled it since your Excellency did not attend so he asked me to open it tomorrow I said tomorrow I won't be a minister and all the Publishers have left [Music] already he was convinced everything will be fine and President Obama was saying to him given everything that's going on there's a possibility that you're not reading it correctly uh and Mubarak just wouldn't hear of it muar was you know I think in a complete state of denial after his speech tonight I spoke directly to president Mubarak he recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable and that a change must take place he couldn't understand why why the Americans behave with him such in such a way and you know you see I serve the Western World for the last 31 years as the president of the I guaranteed the the the stability in the Middle East I have done a lot and order to see that the relation between us and the United States will will keep and continue and be strong he couldn't understood why suddenly he gets an order just to evacuate his [Music] chair the president it seems was living in his own parallel universe oblivious to the fact that his days were numbered there were fights between and Gamal particularly on Wednesday the 9th of February the situation in the country escalated the streets were getting angrier and people threatened to march on the presidential Palace Al grabbed his brother Gamal threw him to the floor and said you ruined your father's Legacy you destroyed the family and made us fall to where we are today Suzanne sat there lamenting in front of everyone amidst these scenes of chaos and family fist fights and with an Angry Crowd advancing on the presidential Palace on the 11th of February the president finally realized the game was up he would leave Cairo for his country house at the Red Sea Resort of Sharm there was a real family crisis when the president decided to travel to Sharm as suzan and gal both refused to travel with him the Armed Forces issued an ultimatum to both Gamal and his mother gal was keen on traveling and tried convincing his mother but she refused and said this is our house they have already taken everything and we are not leaving gaml had to physically drag her to the plane and push her inside muhamed h [Music] muak 6:00 p.m. on Friday the 11th of February 2011 will prove to be as important a moment in future history books studied by Young Egyptians as any in the many thousands of years of our [Music] [Applause] country at this hour almost 30 years of dictatorship came to an end [Music] suzan and Gamal were to miss it all as by the time the Mubarak dynasty was forly laid to rest they were Airborne on their way to shash to meet up with the former president unlike the mood in the streets it was not a happy reunion when she arrived in sh she wasn't aware that the president had stepped down when she was told she was outraged and shouted out we are all going to be destroyed and we shall have to pay the price for this with [Music] [Music] you [Music] from president to president the man who once had absolute power was now simply a convicted enemy [Music] in a military Hospital on the outskirts of Cairo he lies a Broken Man faced only with his inevitable death and the certainty that there will be no Mubarak family Dy [Music]

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 647,268

Keywords: Egypt, politics, thefamily, corruption, revolution, youtube, featureddocumentary, hosni mubarak, aljazeera

Id: 00mmxMILbm8

Length: 48min 9sec (2889 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 29 2012