CAIRO — President Bush on Wednesday ended a Middle East tour that political activists saw as lacking the strong calls for democratization made earlier in his administration, disappointing those once encouraged by the statements of American leaders. In Egypt and elsewhere, people are growing more concerned with food than with rights.
“Where is democracy now?” demanded Hibba Hanaty, a 42-year-old homemaker, at a political rally early this week in Cairo that drew only dozens of demonstrators. “Everything is so expensive.”
On Wednesday, after discussions with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Bush commended him for progress. “You have taken steps toward economic openness . . . and political reforms,” Bush said.
But Hisham Kassem, an Egyptian political activist who last year received a U.S. National Endowment for Democracy award, was dispirited by Bush’s tour.
“2005 was the best year in my life, politically. Our hopes were way up there,” Kassem said. “But, it was just another story.”
As hopes for democratic change fade in the Middle East, demands for economic improvements have grown stronger. Inflation, caused in part by rising oil prices, is making life harder for the poor in much of the region.
Egyptian workers launched more than 300 strikes over the past year to demand higher wages or lower prices. Unlike the political protests now, the wage strikes have drawn thousands of people, sometimes tens of thousands.
In 2005, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice helped create as much of a democratic fervor as the Middle East had ever seen, democracy activists said. Rice vowed support for “the democratic aspirations of all people.”
Arab governments and peoples took notice. Egypt, where Mubarak has held power for 2 1/2 decades, allowed other candidates to challenge him in the 2005 presidential election. Observers regarded the first rounds of parliamentary elections that year as fair.
But Islamic parties shocked many with strong showings in 2005 and 2006 elections in the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Lebanon.
Angered at U.S. policy toward Iraq and the Palestinians, Arab activists never gave Bush much credit for his democratization pressure, but they noticed when it slackened.
Middle East democracy activists these days say they wonder whether the United States has returned to the formula that Rice renounced in 2005: valuing stability of autocratic Arab governments over the uncertainty of elected ones.
On Wednesday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Bush made no public mention of Ayman Nour, the politician jailed by Egypt after he challenged Mubarak in the 2005 election.
Bush also made no public mention of human rights in Egypt, a country where complaints of police torture remain widespread.
