Mubarak's Egypt - part two

President Mubarak's greatest achievement is arguably that Egypt is stable, even predictable.

But to achieve this stability, many of his decisions have involved careful compromises. While on the international stage he has been praised for these, choosing the middle path has had the effect of not really pleasing anyone.

His choice between stability over democracy, for example, or between the needs of Palestinians and peace with Israel, have been widely questioned but not utterly condemned.

At home there's a buoyant economy and there is money to be made thanks to his reforms. But while shopping malls spring up everywhere, it is still common to find districts of Egypt without a sewage system and with poor infrastructure.

Is this stable, undemocratic but functioning Egypt a good enough legacy?

First broadcast Friday 29th of June 2009