Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

"It is hard to do business nowadays. Although [former Egyptian leader] Hosni Mubarak is not a good man, the Mubarak era was better than now." Muhammad, who operates a restaurant along the Nile in a southern province of Egypt, told me. "There's only one yacht coming over today and less than five tourists came in."

His words represent the complicated feelings of many Egyptians toward Mubarak. As the third anniversary of the country's January 25 revolution draws near, the Egyptian public's attitude toward Mubarak has changed fundamentally. He used to be resented by the public while now he is as much praised as blamed.

If you ask Egyptians what they think of Mubarak, you will probably get three kinds of answers. The first is that the Mubarak era is past. Or, he is a good man, but in his past 10 years he failed to mobilize the appropriate people, leading to many problems within the country. The last is that he is a thief that stole the country's property.

These attitudes are the result of the ups and downs Egypt and its people have experienced during the past three years since I arrived.

Egyptian people often talk about the two revolutions they initiated: one ousted Mubarak and the other ousted the Muslim Brotherhood. However, when the revolutionary passion touches upon the reality, people have found that the result of chaos day after day is a declining economy, worsening security and hardship. Stability and development once again become the desire of Egyptian people.

In fact, the fundamental reasons for Egyptian people to resort to street protests in 2011 were social and economic. During the Mubarak era, a small number of people seized the opportunity and became industrial and business tycoons, yet most people lived under the poverty line.

This was especially so for young people. The long-term economic malaise was not able to create sufficient jobs for an ever-rising population. Therefore, "freedom, justice and bread" became the street slogan chanted in opposition to the Mubarak regime.

However, with the fall of Mubarak, what came were endless demonstrations and disturbances. The lack of social stability not only failed to create new business opportunities, but also affected the original economic scale.

After half of the voters voted for the Muslim Brotherhood in 2012, Egyptians found the government in power was not dedicated to promote tolerance and unity or improve people's livelihood. Rather, it was simply trying to expand its influence and practice autocratic dictatorship.

Consequently, people's resentment toward Mubarak turned into anger toward the Muslim Brotherhood, and people gradually realized the importance of social stability and economic development as well as democracy and freedom.

Especially after August 14 when the military forcefully cleared two protest camps of the Muslim Brotherhood, the pursuit of stability and development has obviously become the wish of most Egyptians.

Although supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood constantly initiate protests, the military and police have taken serious crackdown measures and arrested most senior leaders. The country enacted a new protest law in late November which strictly regulates demonstrations and provides a legal pretext for squashing protests. With these measures, Egypt has shown signs of stability before the constitutional referendum on January 8.

Yet such stability came from high pressure. The flames of fury within Islamic forces led by the Muslim Brotherhood have been suppressed by the government, but the strict means adopted by the government have been criticized by secular liberal democrats. The origin of Egypt's chaos is social and economic backwardness and injustice. The nostalgia of Egyptian people toward Mubarak is more about perceived stability in the past than real feeling.

The key of whether Egypt can maintain long-term stability depends on whether a newly elected government can boost the economy, create jobs and reform the income distribution system.

The author is a reporter with People's Daily who is currently stationed in Egypt. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn