Gamal Mubarak

Gamal Mubarak (Arabic: جمال مبارك ), or Gamal-u-dinn Muhammad Hosni Said Mubarak ([[Arabic and he is language|Arabic]]: جمال الدين محمد حسنى سيد مبارك born 1963) , is the younger of the two sons of current Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak (the First Lady). In contrast to his elder brother Alaa, Gamal has pursued an active public profile and is starting to wield some influence on political life in the country.

Early Experiences

Gamal Mubarak graduated from the American University in Cairo with a Business Degree. He currently holds an MBA from the American University in Cairo as well. He started working for the Bank of America at its branch in Egypt. He was then transferred to the London branch ultimately becoming one of its executives. He worked mainly in the field of investment banking.

Gamal Mubarak branched out with a few colleagues to set up Medinvest Associates Ltd., which manages a private equity fund, and to do some corporate finance consultancy work [1]. He is also the Chairman of the Future Generation Foundation (FGF), an NGO dedicated to job training.

He is also an honorary member of Rotary clubs, which was awarded to him in May 2000 by Rotary International president Frank Devlyn [2].

He is engaged to an American University (in Cairo) graduate, Khadiga El Gammal, the daughter of Egyptian businessman Mahmoud El Gammal.

In the National Democratic Party

He was nominated by his father in 2002 to become the General Secretary of the Policy Committee: the third most powerful position in the party and the kitchen for most of the government’s actions. The National Democratic Party (NDP) holds a sweeping majority of seats in parliament.

After the July 2004 cabinet shuffle and the appointment of Dr. Ahmed Nazif as the new Prime Minister of Egypt, the cabinet was named "Gamal's cabinet", as most of the new ministers were chosen from the policy committee of the NDP.

Inheritance of Power

Both Mubarak and his son have denied the possibility of any inheritance of power in Egypt, although this is widely speculated. Latest this was made clear in early 2006, where Gamal Mubarak declared repeatedly that he has no aspiration to succeed his father, but will maintain his position in the NDP as deputy secretary general, a post he holds in addition to heading the party's policies committee, probably the most important organ within the NDP [3].

The elder Mubarak's advancing age has made the question of succession more pertinent, but this problem is likely to be postponed till 2011 with Hosni Mubarak's recent September 2005 election win.

In September 2004 several political groups (most are unofficial), on both the left and the right, announced their sharp opposition to the inheritance of power. They demanded political change and asked for a fair election with more than one candidate [4].

On February 26, 2005, Mubarak ordered the constitution changed to allow multi-candidate presidential elections before September 2005 by asking parliament to amend Article 76 of the Egyptian constitution. This change in the constitution is seen by some analysts as a ploy to seamlessly allow Gamal Mubarak to inherit the top position in Egypt. The view is that Gamal Mubarak would be one of the candidates in a coming presidential elections and would enjoy full backing from the ruling party and the government-controlled media. The other serious candidates would be disqualified by the NDP-controlled People's Assembly leaving the less popular candidates. Thus, the inheritance of power would be done in a "democratic" way. The public image of Gamal is characterized by nonsmiling photos. It is uncertain whether this is related to advice from his counsellor to promote a sense of maturity. Whether Egypt is better off with the Mubarak option merely for fear of the upheavel associated with other choices is a debatable question.

External links

• Future Generation Foundation
• National Democratic Party
• Amnesty International's 2005 Report on Egypt
• BBC: "Mubarak son raises public profile", September 10, 2004.
• MSNBC: "Stage set for political dynasty in Egypt?", July 28, 2004.Despite widespread opposition to hereditary succession, some Egyptians are beginning to believe it could be the only way to give the country its first civilian president, ending more than 50 years of the army's monopoly over the country's top executive job. All Egyptian presidents have been officers, ever since the military coup that overthrew the monarchy in 1952.

On the other side many Egyptian are afraid that Gamal Mubarak being a president is a part of a conspiracy to put a Jewish president for Egypt (Gamal is consider by many Egyptian as Jewish as his grand mother was Jewish; Jews consider a man is Jewish only if his mother is Jewish) Which can affect the relationship between Israel and Egypt.