For me, the sight of an 83-year-old, former Egyptian president and hero of the October 1973 War lying ill on a stretcher in a courtroom cage as his son bent down to kiss him was hard to watch. I'm sure that many Egyptians, even those who were glad to see him go, feel the same way. That said, provided this historic trial brings closure it is essential to the transformational process. Strangely, the accused — Hosni Mubarak, his sons Ala'a and Jamal and former interior minister Habib Al Adly — appeared more dignifie d than the attorneys milling around the courtroom to register civilian cases.

Such undisciplined scenes didn't reflect well on Egyptian justice in the eyes of billions of viewers and, unfortunately were grist to the mill of Arab critics such as former Israeli defence minister Moshe Dayan who was once quoted as saying, "If the Arabs cannot organise their shoes in front of the mosques when they go for prayer, which is the bare minimum, then they have no hope for them…"

This trial should set the standard for justice in post-revolutionary Egypt. Verdicts should be passed by impartial judges based on evidence. My fear is it will become a political show trial with judges under pressure to crowd-please or driven by their own biases. If that's so, Mubarak and others should be tried by an international tribunal.

I want to see Egypt strong, stable and able to reassert its role as a key regional player. But I fear that people's obsession with retribution and their pursuit of sectarian interests may stifle its future. If some interpret my concerns as sympathy for the old regime they are wrong.

People's mandate

My column titled An impatient minority holds Egypt hostage was one of the articles recently discussed on the BBC's ‘7 Days' programme', in particular, my assertion that unknown know-it-alls are appearing on Arabic networks falsely claiming a mandate to speak for the Egyptian people. Until parliamentary and presidential elections are held nobody has that right.

One of the BBC's guests was Abdullah Hamouda, an Egyptian journalist, who reacted to the excerpt from my column saying, "Everyone sees what is happening through their own eyes, from their point of view and through their own interests." The host sought to clarify his statement by asking, "You mean that the papers have interest? The Gulf papers you mean and the attitudes in them?"

"Yes, I mean what Al Habtoor, the businessman, said reflects the attitude and position of businessmen in the Gulf who came to Egypt in the time of the old regime and who received all the privileges and all the special treatments at the time and their ability to deal with the corrupted people who were controlling everything at that time," he replied. "Unfortunately, many of them accomplished a lot this way. I wish that a man like Khalaf Al Habtoor, who is a businessman with a lot of interests in a lot of countries, wouldn't speak in this way. Everyone should see what is happening from the Egyptian people's point of view and what the Egyptian people want, not what these people [outsiders] want."

To set the record straight, I have never met former president Mubarak, his family or any others accused. I have never received special treatment or privilege from officialdom during my visits to Egypt and I have no business interests there. It isn't so much what Egyptians want — or think they want — as what they need, which are the same needs of people everywhere. Egyptians are diametrically divided. The youth movement wants a western-style democracy run by a civilian government with no military oversight. Copts want greater political representation. Modernists want an open, secular society.

Then there is the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) which did its best to hide its true objectives during the revolution's aftermath promising not to field a presidential candidate or to target more than 30 per cent of all parliamentary seats while having launched a PR campaign to display its new moderate, all-encompassing face. Ever since, the layers have peeled off. The MB has formed a coalition with Islamist extremist groups and spawned new parties headed by staunch ‘former' MB leaders who are going after the presidency. The veil dropped off the MB on Friday July 29 when its members and other Islamists thronged Tahrir Square calling for the creation of an Islamic state.

It is only right that Islamic principles are taken into account by a predominantly Muslim state, but these fanatics want a kind of Sunni Islamic Republic of Iran resulting in Egypt's international isolation. The Egyptian leadership would then look to Tehran for political and economic support, and fall under the ayatollahs' sway as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon have done. Iranian delegations have already begun regularly visiting Egypt for discussions with political and religious entities.

Egypt urgently needs a firm captain but until then the military that ousted King Farouk in 1952 and bravely defended Egypt against foreign aggression must step up now to prevent its own ship sinking taking the rest of us down with it. If Egyptians can't see where they're heading, then it's the duty of people like me who has always loved Egypt, to help open their eyes.

 

Khalaf Al Habtoor is a businessman and chairman of Al Habtoor Group.