Al-Ahram Weekly 19 - 25 August 1999 Issue No. 443
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Round and round they go

By Fatemah Farag

Last week, a group of politicians representing various shades of the nationalist, Nasserist and Islamist rainbow announced that procedures were under way to establish a new political party. They called their brainchild the "National Salvation Party -- Under Establishment" and adopted an agenda that covers the confrontation of globalisation and the GATT. The emergence of new parties as well as splits within old ones are not novel to the Egyptian political scene, which begs the questions: who are these people and what are their relevance to contemporary Egyptian politics?

"After watching the US launch one attack after another against Iraq, we decided it was necessary to re-evaluate our political parties," said Mohamed Aql, one of the would-be founders, a current member of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party and an Arab Socialist Union and parliamentary veteran of the 1970s. "We decided to announce the establishment of the National Salvation Party in order to defend our identity," Aql said.

"The terms used by the West to identify political reality, such as globalisation, are wrapped in cellophane and are repeated by our intellectuals, despite the fact that these terms are very dangerous to us. An example of our demise is the fact that no efforts are made to preserve our language. Just look at the shops downtown -- the names are written in Arabic, but they are foreign. To sum it up, the point of the National Salvation Party is to defend our honour," Aql added emphatically.

But then the idea is not really that new. Hassan Badi', another would-be founder, a journalist and a member of the Labour Party, explained: "Actually the roots of National Salvation go back to the 1970s; they go back to the conflict between Diaa Eddin Dawoud [chairman of the Nasserist Democratic Party] and Farid Abdel-Karim." Badi', who is an Abdel-Karim follower, claims that Dawoud represented a bureaucratic trend in politics as opposed to their revolutionary one. As proof of his allegations he points out that during the 1971 Corrective Movement, in which President Anwar El-Sadat liquidated Nasserist "centres of power" to consolidate his own, Dawoud and company took sides with the government, while Abdel-Karim and followers were sent to prison.

Abdel-Karim El-Sayed Shohayeb Dawoud

Further, he claims that the move towards establishing a legal Nasserist political party in 1981 was Abdel-Karim's initiative, which Dawoud sabotaged. In fact, after the Nasserist Party won a court ruling granting it legality in 1992, a major conflict erupted between the two factions over who was the legitimate leader of the Nasserists. At the time, two party congresses were held, electing two different leaderships. Now it is common knowledge who prevailed eventually.

"There were many attempts to repair relations with Dawoud," said Badi'. "Both Arab and local Nasserists intervened, but all these efforts failed. The last one was made in July 1998. When that initiative failed, and with the expansion of new forms of Western imperialist hegemony represented in phenomena like the GATT and globalisation, it became clear we could wait no longer."

Another founder of the new party, Ahmed Shohayeb, is known as leader of the Bicycle or Heliopolis group of the 1940s, which specialised in kidnapping British soldiers and killing them. He was also a member of the Free Officers Movement that overthrew the monarchy in 1952, and is said to have been close to former President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. He was sent to jail for six years following Sadat's "corrective revolution".

The idea of independent action by the Abdel-Karim group, evolved in discussions that began as early as 1994, was to create an umbrella for what they describe as nationalist forces. "In fact, the first declaration of the party was made in December [1994] at the anti-US rally held at the Al-Azhar Mosque," said Badi'. "At the time," he recalled, "Mohamed Aql stood up and spoke in the name of the National Salvation Party."

The necessary application papers are being prepared and the would-be founders hope to complete the necessary procedures by the end of August, with approximately 150 supporters in line.

It is, however, a Nasserism with a new face, and that is Islamist. The slogan of the potential party is "Arabism, nationalism and the Islamic spirit", as opposed to the traditional "freedom, socialism and unity" raised by Nasserists. Further, many of the would-be founders are members of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party. "This is a positive phenomenon because Labour is the best [group] within the opposition, adopts genuinely nationalist positions and is very appreciative of our move," claimed Badi'.

Exponents of Salvation are keen to point out that "we are not a purely Nasserist party. National Salvation is open to all who agree with its principles." Both Labour and the Nasserist parties are keeping quiet as to their reaction to the new initiative and it remains unclear whether it represents a merger between Nasserist and Islamist factions.

The Nasserists have been plagued by what is called a generation gap between an old guard and younger people. Lack of democracy was bound to follow.

Also Labour has a few contradictions of its own. When it shifted policy towards an Islamist orientation, there was a split led by Ahmed Megahid.

But splits are not confined to the Nasserists and Islamists. Cases in point are the Social Justice Party, the Liberals and a recent fracas within the illegal Egyptian Communist Party which has cast a long shadow over the legal, left-wing, Tagammu.

Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed, professor of political science at Cairo University, explains that although party splits are a "normal phenomenon which occurs both in the West and the East, the North and the South," there is a specificity to the Egyptian experience. "Most important is the absence, in varying degrees, of internal democracy, which manifests itself in the fact that party leaders remain in their posts irrespective of their performance. In all parties, the ruling party and the opposition, leaders only change when fate intervenes."

El-Sayed added that there are no mechanisms for resolving differences regarding policy or tactics and, consequently, "those who are fed up have no option but to split and either leave politics, claim that they are the authentic leaders or try to establish new parties."

Everyone involved in party life, however, seems aware of the problem and Salvation's would-be founders are quick to point out that they have learned the lesson. "We are the first party to illustrate to other parties that we are truly democratic and that we have bridged the gap between generations," Badi' said. "Hence we have Shohayeb, who represents the older generation, and Mohamed Aql, who represents the younger one."

But then the sad state of political parties is not purely a function of internal dynamics. "The state, when it is not happy with the policies of a party leadership, plays an important role in this process by encouraging dissension," El-Sayed said. "It does this by giving publicity to the dissension or by denying access to party property or newspapers while giving such access to the group that it favours. It can also withhold recognition from a faction it opposes."

Another factor behind the sorry state of affairs is prevailing political apathy, resulting from the fact that opposition parties are not likely to win any parliamentary elections. "This has resulted in an obvious decline in party membership over the past few years and also a decline of party presence in civil society and grassroots organisations, parliament and local bodies," according to a paper prepared by the Arab Research Centre last week.

What then is everyone arguing over? It is common knowledge that there are benefits such as newspaper licences and political prestige which come along with the party package. El-Sayed went as far as to say that "the number of free pilgrimages they get from the government" is something to fight over.

However, not everyone sees today's splits as tomorrow's blind alley. "This phenomenon of many small and marginal parties has occurred in many developing countries who are re-adopting a multi-party system," explained El-Sayed. "Therefore, I think the number of parties is bound to increase because there are groups which remain unrecognised like the Islamists and communists and others who are unhappy with the current state of affairs and want to defend their causes and give them concrete expression. However, I think the lesson to be learned from history is that the rapid increase will level off only after parties have stood the test of repeated free elections. Some will remain while others will die a natural death."

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