 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 29 July - 4 August 1999 Issue No. 440 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 29 July - 4 August 1999 Issue No. 440
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Liberal life, and death
By Nadia Abou El-Magd
Almost a year after the death of its founder and leader, Mustafa Kamel Murad, news of the Liberal Party is all about infighting, assemblies and counter-assemblies led by men who are claiming to be the "legitimate" leaders of the frozen party.
Before Murad's death last August, two of his deputies began a fight for succession of the then ailing and dying leader. The two deputies are Mohamed Farid Zakariya, 50, one of the party's founders in 1976 and its representative in the Shura Council, and Ragab Helal Hemeida, 38, the party's sole deputy in the People's Assembly.
After Murad's death, the list of leadership contenders rose to nine. Talaat El-Sadat, 46, the party's legal adviser, joined the heated competition for the vacant post. Both Zakariya and Hemeida say they were "elected" by general congresses as leaders to the party. El-Sadat, on the other hand, questions the legitimacy of these "elections," saying he was asked by the general congresses to become the leader. Six other men, Mohamed Yasser Ramadan, Helmi Salem, Abdel-Salam El-Wahati, Murtada Abu Ukail, Selim Azouz and Mohamed El-Nadi also made claims to the chairman's post. El-Hamza De'bes, the former senior deputy under Murad, filed a lawsuit against the nine "claimed" leaders.
In an attempt to save the party, Murad's son, Mahmoud, who is the party's treasurer, decided recently to invite all the rival leaders to meet to choose one chairman until a new leader is elected. Nothing has materialised.
"There can be no solution to the paralysis of political life in Egypt in the absence of the freedom to establish new parties and issue newspapers," Mohamed Farid Zakariya told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The difference between Liberal leaders is ideological, not political, they will never reach an agreement or compromise. They would have joined different parties if founding new political parties was possible."
The Political Parties Committee of the Shura Council, a semi-governmental body that oversees political party affairs, has not licensed new parties for nearly two decades. Al-Wasat (Centre) Party has been trying to obtain a licence for more than three years to no avail.
"The Liberal Party is dying and is waiting to be rescued by the government," Zakariya said.
El-Sadat disagrees. "The party still exists and its membership is increasing," he told the Weekly. "Nothing will happen if its general elections do not take place for another two or three months."
Hemeida boasted about a meeting he held with his supporters three weeks ago in Kafr Al-Sheikh in which he said they issued a document saying that he is the "sole legitimate" leader of the party. He said the meeting was "a crucial turning point."
After the death of Murad, the Political Parties Committee requested the Liberal Party to convene a general congress within two months to elect a new chairman.
Several general congresses were held, but the committee remained silent and did not give legitimacy to any of the nine contenders. The committee made a passive choice: No decision.
"It's not surprising that the Political Parties' Committee did not decide [on the party's leadership], because the law does not give it this right. The committee has the right to ask the different leaderships to reach an agreement or resort to the judiciary," Zakariya explained.
So, if the Liberal example is an indication of the possible fate of other parties, it seems that unless the limitations on establishing new political parties are eased, the survival of the existing ones will depend to a great extent on the life-expectancy of their aging leaders, mostly in their 70s or 80s.
