Egyptian Activist Watches Change Take His Country

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LIANE HANSEN, host:

Novelist and political activist, Dr. Alaa al-Aswany is a fixture in the Egyptian opposition movement. We spoke with him earlier today while he was on the streets of downtown Cairo.

Thank you so much for making taking our call.

Dr. ALAA AL-ASWANY (Dentist, Writer/Founding Member, Kefaya): Oh, thank you very much.

HANSEN: Many of the neighborhoods in Cairo and the suburbs have been attacked by gangs and looters. And your office - I know you're on the street - but your office is in a relatively affluent neighborhood called Garden City - I remind people you're also a dentist - it's near the U.S. Embassy.

What are you seeing now where you are in downtown Cairo?

Dr. AL-ASWANY: Well, I see now the place, things is much more organized than yesterday for tourism. The first reason is that the army had a real authority, which didnt have yesterday. So now you cannot pass from one road to another without the army checkpoints - which is very positive. And what is something I feel is even more positive, that you have hundreds or thousands of volunteers who are organizing everything. beginning from the traffic to the investigation. They are helping the army officers. So you feel that you are really with the Egyptian people.

I must tell you that it has become now evident that what happened yesterday by some people who attacked the civilians, and the robbery and all this, was an organized plan by the regime which was through all the police officers and police soldiers from the whole country, just to make the people scared.

HANSEN: Where do you think this is going now?

Dr. AL-ASWANY: I think now everything is clear. We have one major problem: that Mr. Mubarak has not been convinced yet to resign. I spent two days and even more with the protestors. And I even made some speeches to the protestors. And nobody wants to hear anything except that Mubarak must go.

And all what the last decisions by Mr. Mubarak were irrelevant because the problem of Egyptians was never with the government. But the problem with Egyptians was the regime. And the regime in Egypt is one single person - Mr. Mubarak, who has total, absolute authority as the president on every domain in Egypt.

So it seems to me that all dictators in the last minute try to calm the injured by decisions, which are not really what is demanded. What is demanded is that Mr. Mubarak must resign.

HANSEN: Dr. Alaa, do you think this can be resolved peacefully?

Dr. AL-ASWANY: Well, I hope so. I hope so. But you're talking about revolution. I dont think that this is no more a protest. I have been there from the very first minute, and I tell you what happened in Egypt is a revolution by definition. There are millions of Egyptians who cannot tolerate anymore the old system.

When I say the system, it means more than the political regime. The whole system is no more functioning and it's a burden on millions of Egyptians, especially, young generation. I would say that what happened in Egypt is very similar to the revolution in 1968 in France, where millions of young French people wanted really to change the whole trend to get a new republic. And I think this is the moment in Egypt.

HANSEN: Dr. Alaa al-Aswany is a dentist, an Egyptian novelist and a political activist. He joined us by the phone from the streets of Cairo.

Thank you again, Dr. Alaa.

Dr. AL-ASWANY: Thank you.

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