Bukra fi al-mish mish - بكره فى المشمش

The year 2005 was a good vintage for Egypt's reformers.

The president amended the constitution, acting like a real candidate in elections. Opposition groups were allowed to campaign relatively freely and the press was full of the kind of comment and criticism that would have been previously unthinkable.

Things are different in 2006.
Despite promising to replace the loathed and feared Emergency Law, the government has just extended it yet again under the banner of "fighting terrorism". The Egyptians have a saying - "Bokra fi mish-mish". Bokra means "tomorrow". The mish-mish are like miniature apricots - a prized fruit whose season is long-awaited and only a few days long.

"Bokra fi mish-mish" is the promise of something sweet that rarely comes. Perhaps Egypt's democratic spring is little like this prized fruit. The government promises more changes are on the way.

But reformers across the Middle East are watching developments in Egypt wondering whether, like the mish-mish, the country's democratic spring will turn out to have been all too "short and sweet".

Source: BBC from Our Own Correspondent