The world does really end with a whimper, not a bang, as T.S. Eliot said. After 31 years in power, seventeen days of protests, more than 300 dead and a shouting match between the US administration and its one-time Egyptian ally, it looks as if Hosni Mubarak will be leaving office tonight. Twitter is atwitter with news that the Egyptian strongman will soon make a TV appearance during which he is expected to hand power to newly-anointed Vice-President Omar Suleiman. Expect Tahrir Square to erupt in a festival of freedom, as the heroic, web-enabled protesters savour their unlikely but amazing victory.
But while Egypt’s revolution has been more successful than many in the US and British believed it could be, it is not yet the time to celebrate. For Omar Suleiman, Egypt likely next ruler, is no Ion Iliescu, the Romanian ex-Communist who replaced Nicolae Ceauşescu and ushered in democracy.
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