Egypt’s ruling military council answered a longstanding demand of the protest movement by forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq on Thursday, but the fitful pace of change has left all sides more anxious than ever about the rocky transition ahead.
Borrowing a tactic from the youth movement that toppled President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces first announced the resignation by posting three terse lines on its Facebook page.
The generals were evidently trying to head off another huge weekly demonstration Friday on Tahrir Square by naming a new prime minister the day before.
“The military understands it is not business as usual — but the question is on the range of change and the extent of change,” said Samer Soliman, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo. “The major challenge for the military now is to convince the population to wait.”
The new prime minister is Essam A. Sharaf, a highway engineering professor with a Ph.D. from Purdue University who served as minister of transportation in 2004. The fact that he lasted only one year as minister and that he came to Tahrir Square with a group of Cairo University professors to chant against Mr. Mubarak endeared him to the protesters.
But the reputation the military won for supporting the demonstrators is beginning to tarnish.
“I always trusted them, but today it is not a question of trust,” said Hossam Eissa, a law professor at Ain Shams University. “You cannot appoint a prime minister by asking a few groups of five or six people who come say, ‘We are from Tahrir Square and we think these names are O.K.’ There is too much ad lib.”
This nation of more than 80 million people is groping its way ahead partly because it has no real laws to cope with the change. The generals suspended the Constitution, but they still refer to it as Egyptians try to rebuild a civil society decimated by 60 years of authoritarian rule. Tunisia, the only other Arab country where the rebellion has succeeded in overthrowing a dictator, faces similar problems.
“The military chose to rule in the Mubarak style,” said one senior Egyptian political figure, speaking anonymously so as not to harm his own interaction with the generals. “They are micro-managing. We say it is time for new parties, and they say we cannot have them because there is no committee to approve them.”
Political activists give the military high marks for edging away from its previously closed ways. Three Supreme Council generals broke precedent by appearing on a popular talk show. One, Gen. Mohamed al-Assar, the deputy defense minister, even called Mr. Mubarak’s overthrow “the greatest revolution in the history of Egypt.”
Aside from their Facebook announcements — the change of government on Thursday was Message No. 26 — the council sends frequent text messages to cellphones. “The military is aware of the demands of the people, but wants to underline the need for the return of normal life to Egypt,” read one on Thursday.
When the army promised transparency, it meant it would announce decisions after it made them rather than not at all, observed one Western diplomat.
But it has made some missteps. Soldiers beat protesters and burned down the suddenly reconstituted tent camp in Tahrir Square last Friday, the backlash prompting the Supreme Council to issue an apology (Message No. 24). Soldiers were photographed destroying some walls in the vicinity of a Coptic monastery, again prompting a sheepish explanation about illegal structures (Message No. 13). Finally it has come under harsh criticism for using the military courts to try protesters — with some sentenced after 10 minutes, human rights groups said.
Bit by bit, the once-hidden military is being dragged into Egyptian daily life to a degree that makes them uncomfortable, many analysts said.
“What they are finding out is that this period of transition requires much more of them than perhaps they initially thought,” said one Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The opposition had demanded Mr. Shafiq’s resignation from the moment Mr. Mubarak appointed him in January. He apparently sealed his fate with an arrogant outburst on a television talk show Wednesday night, saying, among other things, that the secret police could be renamed rather than disbanded.
The demonstrators camping again in Tahrir Square said that they would stay until the new government guaranteed some timetable to meet their demands.
“They cut off the head, but the body is still moving,” said Dr. Mohamed Abdel Gaffar, 26, who runs – the medical tent.
Mr. Sharaf was one of two names protest leaders said they put forward, and they planned to call off the demonstration next Friday to thank the military.
“We have to let them breathe so they can work,” said Nasser Abdel Hamid, a 28-year-old engineer who was among a small group of those who met with the generals last Sunday.
Lacking the legal tools needed to build a democracy, some political groups want the military to delay new parliamentary elections scheduled for June. Those elections are to be followed by a presidential election in August.
The fear is that the two organizations with previous experience, the Muslim Brotherhood and elements of the disbanded National Democratic Party, Mr. Mubarak’s political machine, will win large shares of the vote.
One proposal, designed to prevent the military from becoming entrenched while extending the stability it provides, is to appoint a presidential committee of two civilians and a general who would run the country for six months to a year until all parties are ready for elections.
Other parties are divided; a group of leftist, secular Egyptians cannot decide whether to form one party or two — one socialist, one free-market. Seasoned figures are telling them two parties would dilute the secular vote. The Muslim Brotherhood wants early elections because it expects to do well. But it is showing signs of cracking along generational lines, with the young active in Tahrir demanding a greater voice.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 4, 2011
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Egyptian protesters had endorsed the Egyptian military’s choice for prime minister the day before he was named. The protesters did not endorse Mr. Sharaf.