Egypt Snap Analysis: Yesterday Celebration, Today Hard Work

In the midst of the ecstasy that followed the news of former President Mubarak's departure from power, an Egyptian contact wrote EA, "Today celebration. Tomorrow hard work."

That may seem an unusual statement, given the magnitude of what has occurred in Egypt. For the first time in its modern history, a leader has left office because of the will of the people. The scenes of joy, relief, and hope may not be matched --- anywhere --- for a long time.

However, Mubarak was only the head of a system which had controlled Egyptian affairs for almost 60 years. The body remains. 

The military is there. Its decision yesterday --- to let the protesters advance in thousands on the State TV building and on the Presidential Palace --- was instrumental in pushing the President onto the plane to Sharm al-Sheikh, only hours after he had defied them as well as the demonstrators in his speech insisting he would stay until September. Now it is formally in charge of Egypt, with a Supreme Military Council chaired by Minister of Defense Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

At one level, the political demand is straightforward. The arrangement must lead to genuine, free, fair elections in September. Egyptians must have the opportunity to be represented by a Government which they have chosen.

But that is only one level. The body of Egypt for six decades has also been an elite which ran, and profited from, economic and social as well as political matters. Eventually this found its form in the one-party grip of the National Democratic Party. Politics and business were linked together through the NDP, supported by the military and police. Several key MPs and prominent figures have left the party during this crisis, but others remain.

So as in Tunisia, where the people eventually moved against the Rally for Constitutional Democracy, which had held power since the country's independence, the challenge for protest and change advances. Will Egypt's spirit of liberation continue against the structure that has underpinned the country for so long? Can it?