Speculations about the memoirs of late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have grown to new heights with some relying on their revelation based on repeated statements made by the former director of the Department of Moral Affairs, Major General Samir Faraj.
Faraj had said that he recorded 54 hours over 18 episodes documenting Mubarak’s biography between 1993 and 2000.
Those awaiting the memoirs are eager to go behind closed doors with a man who ruled Egypt for three decades which witnessed important Arab, regional and international changes, and especially the 2011 Arab uprising.
It is rare for a president to write his memoirs in Egypt. The country’s first president, Mohamed Naguib, had an attempt which focused primarily on the period of his removal from power, and his dispute with the leadership council of the “July 23 Revolution (1952).”
Late president Anwar Sadat wrote a book called “In Search of Identity,” but it focused mainly on his pre-presidency days.
The late president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, did not write his memoirs at all.
As for Mubarak's memoir, controversy has spurred over the last three years. In a response to what Faraj claimed, Egyptian senior journalist Makram Mohamed Ahmed, quoting Mubarak, denied that the latter had written his memoirs.
Mubarak’s bio will be fraught with obstacles, especially if it addressed his role in the army, as there are controls related to the publication of military memos in Egypt.
Egypt’s former Army Chief of Staff Saad el-Shazly received a jail term for publishing a memoir which Sadat accused of revealing confidential military information.
