Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

United States President Barack Obama said that on Friday he had urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to take “concrete steps” to deliver on his promise to create “better democracy and greater economic opportunity,” and also refrain from using violence in the context of the ongoing protests in Egypt.

“Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people,” Mr. Obama said on a phone call to the Egyptian President, adding, “And suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.”

In comments made in the White House State Dining Room, Mr. Obama further said that concrete steps were required to advance the rights of the Egyptian people through a meaningful dialogue between the government and its citizens.

In particular, he called upon the Egyptian government to reverse the actions that it had taken to “interfere with access to the Internet, to cell phone service and to social networks that do so much to connect people in the 21st century.”

Reports have emerged that most of the Egyptian population had been cut off from the Internet and mobile telephone access since the protests began more than five days ago.

At a media briefing earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had similarly pressed the case for reform in Egypt, arguing that reform was “something that I think everyone knows must be on the agenda of the government as they not just respond to the protest, but as they look beyond as to what needs to be done economically, socially, politically.”

Ms. Clinton added that numerous “well informed, active civil society leaders in Egypt… have put forward specific ideas for reform, and we are encouraging and urging the Egyptian Government to be responsive to that.”