Analysis: Egyptians will resist any army bid to keep power

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

CAIRO | Fri Feb 11, 2011 2:51pm EST

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians who toppled Hosni Mubarak Friday may still have more to do to ensure a military council now in charge transfers power to civilian hands.
The army has not spelled out any transition plans it might have. The best deterrent to any attempt to maintain military rule could be the street power of protesters who showed Mubarak they could render Egypt ungovernable without their consent.
Egypt is plunging into new territory after Mubarak's 30-year rule, with its legacy of corruption, bureaucracy and immobility.
Any government will face huge social and economic problems, but one freely chosen by the people could also look to harness the vast creative energy and patriotic pride so evident on the streets jammed by demonstrators for the past 18 days.
"Egyptians have to be careful that their revolution does not get hijacked," said Hassan Nafaa, professor of politics at Cairo University, referring to the former military-backed system.
"It is now in the hands of the military council, and it is supposed to carry out the demands of the revolution, and therefore the people have to carefully follow how these demands will be applied," he said.
The military could send a good signal by sacking a cabinet hastily appointed by Mubarak as a sop to protesters and replacing it with "one that represents the people, the opposition forces and the forces that sparked the revolution," Nafaa said.
"NEW ERA OF FREEDOM"
Egyptian analyst Diaa Rashwan anticipated martial law measures to freeze the constitution and dissolve the parliament elected in November in a poll that was blatantly rigged by Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
But he voiced confidence that Egypt's newly empowered citizens would ensure that a "new era of freedom" would survive. "No one can fear for the fate of Egyptians any more," he said.
Egypt's interim leader is a pillar of the old guard: Defense Minister and armed forces commander Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, 75, long derided by critics as Mubarak's loyal "poodle."
He leads the Higher Military Council, which Vice-President Omar Suleiman said would run Egypt until a presidential poll, that had been set for September. The army vows it will be fair.
The future of Suleiman himself, once Mubarak's intelligence chief mocked as an "agent" by demonstrators, is now unclear.
"There must be serious questions over how acceptable Suleiman will be, given his support for Mubarak," said Julien Barnes-Dacey, Middle East analyst at Control Risks. "He has to come up with sessions very quickly for comprehensive reform."
For now, hopes of Egypt's pro-democracy camp are high.