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When I was a young
man in Cairo, we voiced our political views in whispers, if at all, and
only to friends we could trust. We lived in an atmosphere of fear and
repression. As far back as I can remember, I felt outrage as I
witnessed the misery of Egyptians struggling to put food on the table,
keep a roof over their heads and get medical care.

Half a century
later, the freedoms of the Egyptian people remain largely denied.
Egypt, the land of the Library of Alexandria, of a culture that
contributed groundbreaking advances in mathematics, medicine and
science, has fallen far behind. More than 40 percent of our people live
on less than $2 per day. Nearly 30 percent are illiterate, and Egypt is
on the list of failed states.

Under the three
decades of Hosni Mubarak’s rule, Egyptian society has lived under a
draconian “emergency law” that strips people of their most basic
rights, including freedom of association and of assembly, and has
imprisoned tens of thousands of political dissidents. While this
Orwellian regime has been valued by some of Egypt’s Western allies as
“stable,” providing, among other assets, a convenient location for
rendition, it has been in reality a ticking bomb and a vehicle for
radicalism.

But one aspect of
Egyptian society has changed in recent years. Young Egyptians, gazing
through the windows of the Internet, have gained a keener sense than
many of their elders of the freedoms and opportunities they lack. They
have found in social media a way to interact and share ideas,
bypassing, in virtual space, the restrictions placed on physical
freedom of assembly.

The world has
witnessed their courage and determination in recent weeks, but
democracy is not a cause that first occurred to them on January 25.
Propelled by a passionate belief in democratic ideals and the yearning
for a better future, they have long been mobilising and laying the
groundwork for change that they view as inevitable.

The tipping point
came with the Tunisian revolution, which sent a powerful psychological
message: “Yes, we can.” These young leaders are the future of Egypt.
They are too intelligent, too aware of what is at stake, too weary of
promises long unfulfilled, to settle for anything less than the
departure of the old regime. I am humbled by their bravery and resolve.

Many, particularly
in the West, have bought the Mubarak regime’s fiction that a democratic
Egypt will turn into chaos or a religious state, abrogate the fragile
peace with Israel and become hostile to the West. But the people of
Egypt – the grandmothers in veils who have dared to share Tahrir Square
with army tanks, the jubilant young people who have risked their lives
for their first taste of these new freedoms – are not so easily fooled.

The United States
and its allies have spent the better part of the last decade, at a cost
of hundreds of billions of dollars and countless lives, fighting wars
to establish democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that the youth of
Cairo, armed with nothing but Facebook and the power of their
convictions, have drawn millions into the street to demand a true
Egyptian democracy, it would be absurd to continue to tacitly endorse
the rule of a regime that has lost its own people’s trust.

What needs to
happen instead is a peaceful and orderly transition of power, to
channel the revolutionary fervour into concrete steps for a new Egypt
based on freedom and social justice. The new leaders will have to
guarantee the rights of all Egyptians. They will need to dissolve the
current parliament, no longer remotely representative of the people.
They will also need to abolish the constitution, which has become an
instrument of repression, and replace it with a provisional
Constitution, a three-person presidential council and a transitional
government of national unity.

The presidential
council should include a representative of the military, embodying the
sharing of power needed to ensure continuity and stability during this
critical transition. The job of the presidential council and the
interim government during this period should be to set in motion the
process that will turn Egypt into a free and democratic society. This
includes drafting a democratic constitution to be put to a referendum,
and preparing for free and fair presidential and parliamentary
elections within one year.

We are at the dawn
of a new Egypt. A free and democratic society, at peace with itself and
with its neighbours, will be a bulwark of stability in the Middle East
and a worthy partner in the international community. The rebirth of
Egypt represents the hope of a new era in which Arab society, Muslim
culture and the Middle East are no longer viewed through the lens of
war and radicalism, but as contributors to the forward march of
humanity, modernised by advanced science and technology, enriched by
our diversity of art and culture and united by shared universal values.

We have nothing to fear but the shadow of a repressive past.

Mohamed El Baradei is a Nobel Peace laureate and former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency

© 2011 The New York Times