Egypt's new President Mohamed Mursi poses with a gift from Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), during a ceremony where the military handed over power to Mursi at a military base in Heikstep, east of Cairo, Saturday. — ReutersCAIRO — In a day full of memorable images, none on Saturday was more powerful than that of Egypt's first Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, flanked by generals at a military parade where he was formally handed authority to govern the nation. For six decades, Mursi's seat had been filled by presidents drawn from the ranks of the military. And for half that time, it was occupied by one man, Hosni Mubarak, a former air force chief who hounded and jailed members of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood. Now the tables are turned, even if the presidential office Mursi holds has been shorn by the generals of many of powers Mubarak and his predecessors enjoyed. “We have kept the promise that we made before God and the people. Now we have an elected president who takes over the keys for ruling Egypt through a direct and free vote," said Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, addressing his guest as “Mr. President". Before that, state television showed Tantawi, Egypt's top general and Mubarak's loyal defense minister for 20 years, welcoming Mursi as he stepped out of a black sedan at the desert base with a hurried salute before shaking his hand. It was not just the military ceremony that oozed symbolism. Mursi addressed the nation from the same stage in Cairo where US President Barack Obama had in 2009 appealed to Arab leaders to open up. Egypt's new leader was sworn in at a court next to the hospital where imprisoned Mubarak is being treated. But it was the scene at Heikstep military base that captured Egypt's dramatic transformation most clearly with images unthinkable a year-and-a-half ago. “A picture for history: a civilian president in the middle of the military," wrote Dima Khatib on Twitter, one of the social networking sites that was used to galvanize the masses against Mubarak, toppling him on Feb. 11, 2011. President Mursi was given a 21-gun salute, helicopters flew past to honor him and troops stood to attention in serried ranks. Those acts of respect did not, however, signal generals were retiring to barracks to leave civilians completely in charge. As the country's first civilian president, Mursi has vowed to fulfill the goals of the Egyptian revolution by building the institutions of democracy on a foundation of Islamic principles. But he must first wrest power from the generals who have taken only a small step behind the scenes to accommodate his election. His swearing-in ceremony itself was redolent with tension. Mursi, against his wishes, took the oath before a court of Mubarak-appointed judges; he had vowed to swear in before the democratically elected and Islamist-led parliament, but the generals dissolved it on the eve of his election under the pretext of a ruling from the very same court. Seated in the curved alcove at the front of an empty courtroom, Mursi frowned and stared ahead as senior judges stood to deliver speeches as much about the importance of their own Supreme Constitutional Court as about his historic inauguration. “We welcome you in this Supreme Constitutional Court and we appreciate your presence here today in this great judiciary institution," said Farouk Sultan, the president of the court. “Your physical presence here today is a real symbol of support for constitutional legitimacy and upholding the law over everyone." Then, in inviting the new president to take the oath, Judge Sultan specifically cited the authority of the interim Constitution issued by military decree on June 17, which transferred most of the powers of the president's office to the ruling generals — a document Mursi, the Brotherhood and tens of thousands of their supporters occupying Tahrir Square have called illegitimate. But the ceremony showed the military, one of the few state institutions to survive the post-Mubarak turmoil intact, now has to accept that its erstwhile adversary, the Brotherhood, has a popular mandate to help determine Egypt's future. “The Egyptian people and the ... world are witnessing a unique model, not seen before, of how power is transferred from the Egyptian military forces by the will of the people to an elected, civilian power," Mursi said, hailing the military, but also sending a clear message to the men in uniform. Tantawi shook Mursi's hand firmly as he handed him a plaque bearing a military shield. Mursi then joined a gaggle of senior officers who lined up around him for a group photo. Mursi had earlier delivered a speech at Cairo University on the same podium from which Obama addressed the Arab and Muslim world early in his presidency, reaching out to a region angry at US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over the previous decade. “America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them," Obama told the audience at the time. Yet when protests against Mubarak erupted, many Egyptians were dismayed by how long it took Obama to ditch the president who had become a linchpin ally in the region and guardian of the US-sponsored peace treaty with Israel. In his speech Mursi pledged to serve the whole nation and secure rights for the families of those killed in the uprising. “Free revolutionaries, we will complete our journey," some in the audience chanted as he wrapped up his address. Tantawi joined guests in the university hall, applauding when Mursi lauded the armed forces, seated alongside Christian priests, Muslim preachers, veiled women and suited men. “Down with military rule," some had briefly chanted when Tantawi entered, before an official guided those present toward a more respectful: “The army and people, one hand." Mursi had pulled up in a cavalcade, but unlike in Mubarak's day, the whole capital was not brought to a grinding halt by police blocking every road to clear the president's route. Cars passed freely along the Nile-side road in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court even as Mursi swore his oath. The oath is usually held before parliament, but the location was forced on the Brotherhood man after the same constitutional court, stuffed with judges appointed in Mubarak's era, dissolved the Islamist-led parliament, a ruling the army swiftly enforced. Yet the venue carried its own mordant twist, standing next to Maadi military hospital where Mubarak, jailed for life for failing to stop the killing of protesters, is being treated. He was moved there from a prison last week. At Cairo University, Mursi thanked the military for seeing through the presidential elections but pointedly mentioned the “elected parliament" several times. “The elected institutions will return to fulfilling their roles. And the great military will devote itself to the task of protecting the country," he told his audience. He then set out some of his international and domestic objectives, saying he would be a “servant of the people" in a “democratic, modern and constitutional state". Internationally, he said Egypt would back the Palestinians and called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria. “I announce from here that Egypt, its people and presidential institution stand with the Palestinian people until they regain all their rights," he said. “We support the Syrian people. We want the bloodshed to stop," he added. He repeated that Egypt would respect its international treaties, in an allusion to its 1979 peace accord with Israel. “We carry a message of peace to the world, accompanied and preceded by a message of right and justice." — Agencies
