"After 18 days of mass protest, it took just over 30 seconds for Egypt's vice-president, Omar Suleiman, to announce that President Hosni Mubarak was standing down and handing power to the military." Today, Egyptian protesters celebrate the victory of their almost 3 week campaign for revolution. Only four days ago Mubarak announced a 15% rise in salaries and pensions in a desperate attempt to satisfy demonstrators. Despite this obvious attempt to improve income distribution and make peasants and other lower class workers happy enough to stop rebelling against the Mubarak regime, it did not work as today's events have proven. As the ruling National Democratic party lost power today, after it had won more "83% of the 518 seats in the 2010 parliamentary elections", it seemed uncertain when the military council led by the defense minister, Field Marshal Mohammad Hussein Tantawi, would hand over power to an elected party. "But the military council said it would not act as a substitute for a 'legitimate' government. A spokesman said on TV that the armed forces would be announcing steps and arrangements to introduce the changes Egyptians wanted." It is clear that Egyptians have indeed deserved this success and the toppling of the old regime which has now unlocked them a path to fair elections and eventually improved lives. Up to 300 lives have been claimed by violent protests but Karim Medhat Ennarah, a protester is optimistic: "For 18 days we have withstood teargas, rubber bullets, live ammunition, Molotov cocktails, thugs on horseback, the scepticism and fear of our loved ones, and the worst sort of ambivalence from an international community that claims to care about democracy. But we held our ground. We did it." Wael Ghonim, a Google-executive who had recently been released by police after being arrested for several days, also helped carry the demonstrations into the final stages. Hailed by fellow Egyptians as a hero, Ghonim was the one who had set up the Facebook page "We are all Khaled Said" (named after an Egyptian businessman whose death in June at the hands of the police set of many demonstrations). This Facebook page and the overall help of social media in the revolution helped bypass state controlled media censorship and was therefore "one of the main tools for organizing the demonstrations that started the revolt in earnest". The final push that led to the fall of the regime was also provided by the United States and the rest of the world as they sided with the protesters. Only a day before Mubarak stepped down, Obama issued the following statement: "The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity." Obama also praised the protesters by saying: "Those who have exercised their right to peaceful assembly represent the greatness of the Egyptian people, and are broadly representative of Egyptian society." After the turbulent day before Mubarak's resignation "Switzerland immediately froze the assets of the former President" and he left Cairo, to go to Sharm el-Sheikh where Mubarak has his government villas. For now, protesters are celebrating their victory from Alexandria and Suez to Cairo. Still, Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent opposition leader called the change a 'liberation of the Egyptian people' but also said: "We have a lot of daunting tasks ahead of us. Our priority to make sure the country is restored; socially cohesive, economically vibrant, politically democratic," he said. "My message to the Egyptian people is, you have gained your liberty, the right to catch up with the rest of the world. Make the best use of it." Indeed, it seems the future will be brighter than the past but Egyptians will still need the energy and motivation they had in their large demonstrations to tackle the issues Egypt still faces - some left-over from Mubarak's disturbing dictatorship. Economic issues like debt and inflation and social issues like poverty, a new constitution and new rights will need to be solved by the new government that will be elected in the upcoming elections. Today, however, protesters will celebrate the dawn of a new and hopefully better Egypt- one that their revolution has made possible.
