The last word.

You watch a third of the running time before discovering that the characters of the movie Matrix exist only in a futuristic virtual reality. Humans physically exist, in an induced coma. Their brains feel pain, taste the food, engage in fights, experience all bodily functions, and even die, according to a complex computer programme. Their bodies provide energy to run the machines that have taken over the world, controlled by a giant self-programming computer, in a 'perfect' totalitarian dictatorship.

A political battle in Egypt has been running in a 'Matrix' on cyber space, the latest phase of a wave of political unrest staged over many months. A collage of opposition parties, groups and activists, from the far left to the centre right, used thousands ofwebsites, blogs and other platforms of communication on the Internet, leaving the security agencies of President Hosni Mubarak's regime powerless to deal with a slowly but steadily simmering 'Facebook revolution'.

Tens of thousands of educated, middle class liberals are using Internet services like Facebook to dissimilate information, and organise protests. These actions culminated in a successful day of action and a semi-general strike in April bringing the country to a standstill. The nationwide protest developed into ugly clashes in AI Mahalla, the heart of the country's textile industry 80 miles north of Cairo, when striking workers, joined by protestors, smashed gigantic portraits of President Mubarak. Captured on digital video cameras and mobile phones the humiliating footage was later watched by millions on You-tube, Facebook and My-space, thanks to the ingenuity of Egyptian bloggers bypassing the public information highway 'checkpoints' imposed by the authorities in Cairo.

Numerous examples of police heavy handedness became visible to millions on cyberspace, eroding the popularity of President Mubarak who, in 2005, was the first head of state to be directly elected in Egypt's 7,000-year history thanks to the proletariat's admiration for him. Back then the president took notice of another collage of different political shades that gave birth--during peaceful vigils on the streets--to the Kefaiyah (Egyptian for enough) movement, which called for an end to the autocratic rule that had existed in Egypt (since Colonel Nasser's illegal military coup) established 52 years earlier.

The security services took their revenge on Isra'a abdel Fattah, a gentle young female analyst with the opposition Al-Ghad (tomorrow) liberal Party (whose leader Ayman Nour is serving a prison sentence for allegedly forging membership applications to swell his party's size. He maintains his innocence).

Miss Fattah, nicknamed the Goddess of Facebook, was 'ambushed' while enjoying her daily cup of cappuccino by heavily armed police and charged under the Public Order Act after 70,000 visitors wrote messages about the April day of action on her Facebook 'wall'. She was released after the Public Prosecutor found no evidence to support the charge, but then 'kidnapped' minutes later in an unmarked van outside the police station. Investigative journalists discovered she was being held in a jail north of Cairo. Meanwhile, various independent media gave her mother a platform to launch attacks on the regime.

Egyptian human rights organisations recorded similar cases of kidnapping 'cyber protestors', all liberals, or of their arrest without warrant, to be interrogated by police seeking their Facebook password.

Western diplomats are puzzled. Mr Mubarak's regime has resisted western pressure for democratic reform fearing that violent and hardline fundamentalists like Muslim Brothers would succeed in any free election process. In which case why did it panic at the sight of peaceful protest by liberals who could easily defeat the Islamists' logic if given equal airtime.

Policemen and their paid informers have bombarded liberal blogs and Facebook walls with pro-regime propaganda to counter opposition criticism and claims of corruption. However, as far as hearts and minds are concerned, the opposition is still way ahead on You-tube, thanks to videos showing police brutality.

In the film Matrix, the virtual system eventually collapses after being programmed for a possible defeat of the dictatorship at the hands of the hero using virtual reality kung-fu style kicks. One wonders whether President Mubarak's Matrix has been programmed for such a possibility.