When the Egyptian presidency and the military eulogized Mubarak on Tuesday, they largely focused on his career in the military, particularly his time as the commander of the air force during the 1973 war with Israel.

It is not yet clear if he will be given a military funeral, but already, the official response is in stark contrast to the reaction to the death of his successor, former President Mohamed Morsy.

Morsy, who became Egypt’s first democratically elected leader in 2012, dropped dead in court last June. He was ousted by the military after one year as president and spent his last six years in prison with restricted access to medical care, family and lawyers.

Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy pictured in Berlin, Germany, in January 2013. Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

He was buried without a funeral late at night with only close family members in attendance.

In contrast, Mubarak spent most of his jail time in a military hospital and walked free to spend his last days with family.

The government of current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi sees the legacies of both men as a threat. Morsi was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that opposed Mubarak and was, in recent years, brutally crushed by Sisi.

Mubarak-era ministers and officials who tried to challenge Sisi’s rule have been sidelined or imprisoned, including the late president’s former military chief of staff. Mubarak’s sons, one of whom was groomed to succeed his father, were seen as potential threats, especially after their acquittals from most corruption charges.

Yet the current government, which has conducted a brutal crackdown on dissent that critics say is far worse than Mubarak’s, has declared three days of mourning.

Mubarak, after all, is one of their own. In his last days as president, he gave Egyptians the choice between himself or chaos. This is exactly how Sisi describes the uprising and the ensuing upheaval. Dissent became synonymous with chaos.

So even though Sisi was part of the military council that sided with protesters to remove Mubarak from office in 2011, this regime will continue to honor him because he is the antithesis of the uprising.