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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 April 1999 Issue No. 426 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 April 1999 Issue No. 426
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Special Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Husseins'
By Gamal Essam El-Din
'battalion' sweeps LabourIbrahim Shukri's Labour Party concluded its seventh general congress on Friday, drawing over 1,000 delegates representing the party's branches in 24 governorates. An expanded executive committee, whose membership was raised from 45 to 55, was elected to a four-year term. In turn, the committee will elect the party's top officials, including the chairman, deputy chairman, secretary-general and five assistants to the secretary-general. Shukri's re-election to the chairmanship is a foregone conclusion.
The executive committee elections, which were contested by 107 party members, resulted in the Hussein Group -- an allusion to Secretary-General Adel Hussein and his nephew Magdi Hussein, chief editor of the party's mouthpiece Al-Shaab -- tightening its control on party activities. The elections were swept by supporters of the group's current press war against the alleged advocates of normalisation with Israel. Eleven Al-Shaab journalists spearheading the war were elected to the committee's membership. They were hailed by Hussein as the "party's battalion against the Zionist network in Egypt".
As a result of the press war, Al-Shaab is facing two libel complaints filed by Youssef Wali, deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture, and business tycoon Hussein Sabbour.
Analysts agree that the success of the Hussein Group in the leadership elections means that the party will maintain its hard-line Islamist policy. No liberal changes are expected in the party's platform and ideology.
What took observers by surprise, however, was the election of three Copts to the committee's membership: Gamal Asaad Abdel-Malak, George Ishaq and Hani Labib Tadros. The party's outgoing executive committee included one Copt.
Another surprise saw Shukri's daughter, Asmahan, winning the highest number of votes -- 966. Two other women, Nagalaa El-Qalioubi, wife of Magdi Hussein, and Eman Gaafar were also elected to the committee's membership.
A large number of university professors, writers on Islamic affairs and former army and police officers also won executive committee seats. Some of them, including Talaat Mussallam, Rifaat Sayed Ahmed, Khaled El-Zaafarani and Hamdi Ahmed, belong to the anti-Hussein camp.
Four candidates who failed in the elections filed a complaint with Prosecutor-General Ragaa El-Arabi, charging that the elections were rigged in favour of the Hussein Group. They claimed that the group resorted to acts of thuggery, the use of weapons and rigging and fraud to influence the results of the elections in its favour.
To tighten its hold on the party's ideology, the Hussein Group was actively involved in the debates held by the congress's political committee. Magdi Hussein said the party's ideology "combines politics with Islam". He also claimed that agriculture has deteriorated "in the era of the normalisation minister, Youssef Wali", adding that the press campaign launched by Al-Shaab targeted "the American-Zionist alliance".
Hussein also revived allegations that Wali's normalisation policies amounted to "high treason". One of his supporters argued that "striking at the normalisation network marks the beginning of freeing Egypt from the Camp David agreements".
Four Al-Shaab journalists were summoned by El-Arabi to testify in connection with the libel complaints filed by Wali and Sabbour. The prosecutor decided on Tuesday to put the four -- Magdi Hussein, Adel Hussein, Salah Bedeiwi and cartoonist Essam Hanafi -- on trial before a criminal court.
Some national newspapers and magazines have rallied to the defence of Wali, who also serves as secretary-general of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). One magazine said Al-Shaab's campaign was sponsored by a handful of business importers against whom Wali had taken action to end what was reported to be monopolistic and corrupt practices on the domestic meat and seed market.
Sabbour also received support from various publications. Sabbour, who serves as chairman of the Mohandes Bank, said a series of articles published by Al-Shaab between November 1998 and April 1999 "were deliberately aimed at defaming and slandering me".
Al-Shaab alleged that Sabbour was a member of a network involved in normalising relations with Israel. The newspaper also alleged that he had a personal bank account of $200 million in Israel and that many experts working on his construction projects were Israeli nationals.
Further, the newspaper claimed that Sabbour, who also serves as chairman of the Shooting Club in the posh district of Dokki, cooperated with Wali in using a number of sporting clubs for normalising relations with Israel and exchanging delegations between the two countries.
In a recent press interview, Sabbour said that he, upon the advice of a high-level government official, had initially decided to ignore Al-Shaab's campaign against him. But he said he reversed the decision and filed the complaint with the prosecutor-general after the newspaper went as far as to accuse him of high treason.
Sabbour insisted that he opposes normalising relations with Israel. "In fact, I have turned down an offer by the Israeli commercial attaché to import greenhouses from Israel. I explained to him that my company, Sabbour Consultancy Office, is on top of the list of Egyptian companies which oppose any kind of economic cooperation with Israel," Sabbour said.
