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Yet with relative ease he has been able to bring about a tangible if subtle change in the country's mood. He not only released many of the prominent intellectuals and opposition politicians whom Sadat had arrested last September, but invited a number of them to his office to talk. It is expected that, in time, most of the 4,000 dissidents now being held will be released. Some Egyptians have observed that the country seems freer now than it has in years, though it is still under a state of emergency. Cairo newspapers, tightly controlled during the Sadat era, have begun cautiously printing articles about government corruption and other once taboo subjects.
Mubarak has dealt firmly with the country's Moslem militants without seeming to be vengeful. Like Sadat, he says he will not permit religious-based political parties. But Sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim of the American University in Cairo observes, "He is not doing things that antagonize the militants. He gives an image of being clean, firm and fair." The fundamentalists, in fact, approve of Mubarak's campaign against corruption, his proposal to curb luxury imports, and his studiously private family life. "Some of the militants think he is redeemable and that they can establish a dialogue with him," says Ibrahim. Explains Mohammed Heikal, the influential former editor of the daily al Ahram, who was among those Mubarak freed: "No self-respecting Egyptian can deny Mubarak his support when he says, 'Let us turn a new page,' and when he tells all forces that he is ready to accept their participation and hear their views."
Mubarak is mindful, as was Sadat, that Egypt's economy was ruined by its wars with Israel. Without repudiating peace, he is expected to repair relations with the Arab states that broke with Sadat because of his overtures to Israel. One reason: Mubarak wants Arab investment in Egypt to help with his development plans. In similar fashion, he has tightened Cairo's military pact with the neighboring Sudan, begun diversifying Egypt's sources of weaponry with a new $1 billion contract with France for 20 Mirage 2000 fighters, and reasserted the country's fundamental commitment to the nonaligned movement. He has also taken a small step toward renewing ties with Moscow, which were all but severed last fall when Sadat expelled the Soviet ambassador, six diplomats and 1,000 technicians on charges of fomenting religious strife. Mubarak last week invited 66 Soviet technicians to return to fulfill their contracts on the Aswan High Dam and other projects, and added that an exchange of ambassadors with the U.S.S.R. was probably "inevitable."