Essam Sharaf
Encyclopedia
Essam Abdel-Aziz Sharaf is an Egypt
ian academic who has been Prime Minister of Egypt
since 3 March 2011. He served as Minister of Transportation
from 2004 to 2005.
in civil engineering from Cairo University
in 1975, he went to Purdue University
where he continued his studies, receiving his M.Sc. Engg
in 1980 and his Ph.D.
in 1984.
in Saudi Arabia
. He returned to the University of Cairo in 1991, becoming a professor of Highway Engineering in 1996 while working as senior advisor for the Transportation & Aviation department in Zuhair Fayez Partnership (ZFP) in Jeddah
, Saudi Arabia
. Sharaf was the senior adviser to the Egyptian Minister of Transport in 1999 and the Senior Technical Adviser to the municipality of Al Ain
in the UAE in 2003.
He served as Egyptian Minister of Transportation from July 13, 2004 to December 31, 2005. He resigned due to differences that cropped up between him and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif
. Nazif decided to put the Egypt Engineers Association under state control, a move that meant confiscation of union funds and property by the government. Sharaf later claimed that these events led to the Qalyoub rail accident in 2006.
Following his resignation, Sharaf returned to academia, accepting a post at Cairo University, where he remained a vocal critic of the Mubarak
regime, particularly with respect to its handling of Egypt's public transportation infrastructure. During this time he also served as an advisor to Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority
, and established the Egypt Scientific Society together with Mohamed ElBaradei, Ahmed Zewail
and other Egyptian scientists.
, which endeared him to the leaders of the democracy movement and led them to suggest his name to the Military Council as a possible replacement for Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik
.
He was asked by Egypt's governing military council
to form a government on 3 March 2011, following Shafik's resignation. On 4 March, he addressed crowds of pro-democracy activists at Tahrir Square shortly after Friday prayers, an unusual move for an Egyptian politician. Sharaf appeared on stage with Mohamed Beltagy
, a Muslim Brotherhood
leader. In his speech he said "I draw my legitimacy from you" and reiterated his commitment to democratic transition, but pleaded for patience. It is noted that he is the first Egyptian prime minister to give a monthly State-of-the-Union address (since Aziz Sedki 1972-1973). Following further unrest leading up to Parliamentary elections in November 2011, Sharaf resigned and ceded full power to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces on November 21, 2011.
During the first couple of months, he removed some very unpopular members of his cabinet, including Foreign Minister Ahmed Abulgheit, dissolved the unpopular and corrupt local & municipal councils, and enacted a series of decisions and policies that were met with fanfare. Even on the personal level, he was a media and street darling. He was even pictured with egyptians eating the cheap Egyptian national dish "Fuul" (fava beans) in a simple restaurant with his family, his son paid a traffic ticket rather than evading it as he could have, and other similar stories of a simple and humble demeanor flooded the social networks and street talk.
As time progressed, it became apparent that full power resides in the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). It had always been the head of state who controlled Egyptian politics, rather than the head of government. Sharaf's cabinet was laden with remnants of the Mubarak era, ministers he was still incapable of moving without SCAF support.
Sharaf's greatest problem appeared to be reforming the country's security apparatus, which appeared to be more a complex of task than can be demanded by the people.
As the transitional period appeared to expand, the demands became even more aggressive and he was accused of not doing enough and to the point of being anti-revolution. The transitional government and the SCAF were neither intended as a true wide-scale legislative body, nor was it imbued with the popular mandate to enact macroeconomic and major political "decisions" and "policy making," beyond the deconstruction of the Mubarak State, managing the country during the transition while restoring security on the streets, and working on establishing the constitution and/or government that would lead Egypt into it's Second Republic. But instead, Sharaf and SCAF engaged in debates and policy-making on far reaching matters such as the minimum wage, progressive taxation and even recently somewhat discussing the terms of Camp David Accords, not with the acceptable purpose of stimulating discussion for future governments, but for the actual sake of immediate legislating.
During violence that erupted in October 2011 near the National TV Building, known as the Maspiro Incident, he failed to deal with the demonstrations that left at least 24 dead. Prior to the incident, there were protests in Cairo against an attack on a church in Aswan province a week earlier. It was suggested to him by his advisory committee to deal with grievances put forward by egyptian copts as well as human rights activists to prevent escalation, which included sacking the Aswan governor and putting the attackers to trial.
During the incident, the National TV was blamed to incite the public against the Coptic community even to the point of imploring citizens to "assist" the security forces against the violent demonstrators. The protest which began as a unity march by largely coptic protesters and some muslims, turned into full scale riots.
During the final outburst of violence in November 2011, he again failed to address the problem directly and instead turned to protesters on National TV asking them to leave the square to allow normality without addressing grievances that excessive force was used in breaking up the sit-in. His failure to stop the violence by the police or convince the protesters to calm, was the final nail in his premiership's coffin.
. He considers the resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
to be a prerequisite to cooperation between the two states.
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian academic who has been Prime Minister of Egypt
Prime Minister of Egypt
The Prime Minister of Egypt is the head of the Egyptian government. According to the constitution, the prime minister is the leader of the largest political party in the Egyptian Parliament....
since 3 March 2011. He served as Minister of Transportation
Ministry of Transportation (Egypt)
The Ministry of Transportation of Egypt is part of the Cabinet of Egypt. It is responsible for meeting the needs of demand for transport by rail, road and water in line with Egyptian national development plans. The current Minister is Atef Abdel Hamid...
from 2004 to 2005.
Early life and education
Sharaf was born in the Egyptian city of Giza in 1952. After receiving his B.Sc.Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
in civil engineering from Cairo University
Cairo University
Cairo University is a public university located in Giza, Egypt.The university was founded on December 21, 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for educational thought...
in 1975, he went to Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
where he continued his studies, receiving his M.Sc. Engg
Master of Engineering
A Master of Engineering or Master of Technology or Master of Science in Engineering A Master of Engineering (Magister in Ingeniaria) (abbreviated M.Eng., ME or MEng) or Master of Technology (abbreviated M.Tech. or MTech) or Master of Science in Engineering A Master of Engineering (Magister in...
in 1980 and his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in 1984.
Political and academic career
Sharaf took a post as a visiting assistant professor at Purdue in 1984 before becoming assistant professor of Highway and Traffic Engineering at the University of Cairo the following year. In 1990, he was an assistant professor in Civil Engineering at King Saud UniversityKing Saud University
King Saud University is a public university located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was founded in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdul Aziz as Riyadh University, as the first university in the kingdom not dedicated to religious subjects. The university was created to meet the shortage of skilled workers in...
in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. He returned to the University of Cairo in 1991, becoming a professor of Highway Engineering in 1996 while working as senior advisor for the Transportation & Aviation department in Zuhair Fayez Partnership (ZFP) in Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. Sharaf was the senior adviser to the Egyptian Minister of Transport in 1999 and the Senior Technical Adviser to the municipality of Al Ain
Al Ain
Al Ain |Spring]]), also known as the Garden City due to its greenery, is the second largest city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the fourth largest city in the United Arab Emirates. With a population of 374,000 , it is located approximately 160 km east of the capital Abu Dhabi and about...
in the UAE in 2003.
He served as Egyptian Minister of Transportation from July 13, 2004 to December 31, 2005. He resigned due to differences that cropped up between him and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif
Ahmed Nazif
Ahmed Nazif served as the Prime Minister of Egypt from 14 July 2004 to 29 January 2011, when his cabinet was dismissed by President Hosni Mubarak in light of a popular uprising that led to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011...
. Nazif decided to put the Egypt Engineers Association under state control, a move that meant confiscation of union funds and property by the government. Sharaf later claimed that these events led to the Qalyoub rail accident in 2006.
Following his resignation, Sharaf returned to academia, accepting a post at Cairo University, where he remained a vocal critic of the Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
regime, particularly with respect to its handling of Egypt's public transportation infrastructure. During this time he also served as an advisor to Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority
Transportation in Dubai
Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority regulates transportation within the city of Dubai, U.A.E..Its mission is to remain a municipal Traffic solution provider....
, and established the Egypt Scientific Society together with Mohamed ElBaradei, Ahmed Zewail
Ahmed Zewail
Ahmed Hassan Zewail is an Egyptian-American scientist who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. He is the Linus Pauling Chair Professor Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology.- Birth and education :Ahmed Zewail was born on...
and other Egyptian scientists.
2011 events
Sharaf was present and active at the Tahrir square protests during the 2011 Revolution2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...
, which endeared him to the leaders of the democracy movement and led them to suggest his name to the Military Council as a possible replacement for Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik
Ahmed Shafik
Ahmed Mohamed Shafik is a former senior commander in the Egyptian Air Force and politician who served as Prime Minister of Egypt from January 2011 to March 2011....
.
He was asked by Egypt's governing military council
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces consists of a body of 20 senior officers in the Egyptian military. As a consequence of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Council took the power to govern Egypt from its departing President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.The junta meets regularly, as...
to form a government on 3 March 2011, following Shafik's resignation. On 4 March, he addressed crowds of pro-democracy activists at Tahrir Square shortly after Friday prayers, an unusual move for an Egyptian politician. Sharaf appeared on stage with Mohamed Beltagy
Mohamed Beltagy
Mohamed Beltagy is an Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarian.He was on board the Mavi Marmara during the Gaza flotilla raid.- External links :*...
, a Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
leader. In his speech he said "I draw my legitimacy from you" and reiterated his commitment to democratic transition, but pleaded for patience. It is noted that he is the first Egyptian prime minister to give a monthly State-of-the-Union address (since Aziz Sedki 1972-1973). Following further unrest leading up to Parliamentary elections in November 2011, Sharaf resigned and ceded full power to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces on November 21, 2011.
Premiership
Although, Dr. Essam Sharaf was suggested for the premiership by the crowds in Tahrir square, by the end of his term it was largely viewed as anti-revolutionary. He was blamed for failure to properly address a number of incidents that are crucial to national security such as the worsening security issues, reforming the security apparatus, sectarian violence, solving workers' pay grievances or reforming corrupt national media. His government had mandated a number of laws that were controversial, such as an anti-assembly and anti-strike laws.During the first couple of months, he removed some very unpopular members of his cabinet, including Foreign Minister Ahmed Abulgheit, dissolved the unpopular and corrupt local & municipal councils, and enacted a series of decisions and policies that were met with fanfare. Even on the personal level, he was a media and street darling. He was even pictured with egyptians eating the cheap Egyptian national dish "Fuul" (fava beans) in a simple restaurant with his family, his son paid a traffic ticket rather than evading it as he could have, and other similar stories of a simple and humble demeanor flooded the social networks and street talk.
As time progressed, it became apparent that full power resides in the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). It had always been the head of state who controlled Egyptian politics, rather than the head of government. Sharaf's cabinet was laden with remnants of the Mubarak era, ministers he was still incapable of moving without SCAF support.
Sharaf's greatest problem appeared to be reforming the country's security apparatus, which appeared to be more a complex of task than can be demanded by the people.
As the transitional period appeared to expand, the demands became even more aggressive and he was accused of not doing enough and to the point of being anti-revolution. The transitional government and the SCAF were neither intended as a true wide-scale legislative body, nor was it imbued with the popular mandate to enact macroeconomic and major political "decisions" and "policy making," beyond the deconstruction of the Mubarak State, managing the country during the transition while restoring security on the streets, and working on establishing the constitution and/or government that would lead Egypt into it's Second Republic. But instead, Sharaf and SCAF engaged in debates and policy-making on far reaching matters such as the minimum wage, progressive taxation and even recently somewhat discussing the terms of Camp David Accords, not with the acceptable purpose of stimulating discussion for future governments, but for the actual sake of immediate legislating.
During violence that erupted in October 2011 near the National TV Building, known as the Maspiro Incident, he failed to deal with the demonstrations that left at least 24 dead. Prior to the incident, there were protests in Cairo against an attack on a church in Aswan province a week earlier. It was suggested to him by his advisory committee to deal with grievances put forward by egyptian copts as well as human rights activists to prevent escalation, which included sacking the Aswan governor and putting the attackers to trial.
During the incident, the National TV was blamed to incite the public against the Coptic community even to the point of imploring citizens to "assist" the security forces against the violent demonstrators. The protest which began as a unity march by largely coptic protesters and some muslims, turned into full scale riots.
During the final outburst of violence in November 2011, he again failed to address the problem directly and instead turned to protesters on National TV asking them to leave the square to allow normality without addressing grievances that excessive force was used in breaking up the sit-in. His failure to stop the violence by the police or convince the protesters to calm, was the final nail in his premiership's coffin.
Political views
Sharaf is noted for strongly opposing normalization of ties with IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He considers the resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
to be a prerequisite to cooperation between the two states.
Awards
- The State Encouragemental Prize in Engineering Sciences from the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology in 1987 and 1997
- First Class Medal of Excellence from the President of Egypt Hosni MubarakHosni MubarakMuhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
in 1995 - Cairo University Incentive Award for Scientific Excellence in Engineering in 1997
- Egyptian State Prize in Engineering Sciences, 1997
- Excellence Award in Engineering from Purdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPurdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
, America in 2005 - Man of the Year Award (Rafiq Hariri Award), Beirut in 2006
- Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the UK in 2007
- Certificate of Merit from the Cairo UniversityCairo UniversityCairo University is a public university located in Giza, Egypt.The university was founded on December 21, 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for educational thought...
in the Celebration of Scientists Day in 1988 and 1998
External links
- Meet Essam Sharaf: Egypt's first post-revolution Prime Minister, Ahmed Elieba and Marwa Hussein, 3 March 2011
- Profile: Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 7 March 2011 - Sharaf - the post revolution Minister, Ikhwanweb, 4 March 2011
- Essam Sharaf, Egypt's new prime minister, rouses Tahrir Square crowds, Mark Tran, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 4 March 2011