A Nation in Waiting

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Having ruled Egypt for 27 years, President Hosni Mubarak is now 80 years old.

Mubarak, then vice president, was the only candidate to succeed Anwar Al Sadat after the then Egyptian president was assasinated in 1981.

He became the fourth president of the Republic; a president who would remain in power for over a quarter of a century. 

But during this period in Egypt, an important question had started to be asked: What has happened to the Egyptians?

With escalating prices, record levels of unemployment and a year of unprecedented labour unrest in 2007, the government has its hands full trying to quell the public’s growing unease.

Promises of economic growth and a brighter future are no longer believed.

Political focus

And as the country’s population of more than 74 million continues to grow, the Egyptians have been turning their focus to the political system governing them which is unable to cover even their basic needs.

Mubarak has been in power for more than 25 years

An age-old pact of peace between the Egyptians and their rulers was being broken and protesters receive a heavy-handed response by security forces, an army of the president.

The 21st century saw the first multi-candidate presidential elections in Egypt.

But were these merely outward signs of democracy from a regime succumbing to external pressure for democratic reforms, or is Egypt truly experiencing a new era of freedom?

In a special hour-long programme Al Jazeera travels to Egypt and meets journalists, politicians from the government and the opposition and ordinary Egyptians.

By tracing the major events of the last 27 years the film explores why Egypt remains A Nation in Waiting.

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