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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Focus Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Lobbying for reform
By Amira HoweidyRepresentatives of various political and ideological tendencies, syndicates and civil society organisations have drawn up a statement calling for "political and constitutional reform". The statement was signed by approximately 300 figures, representing different trends across the political spectrum and is said to be a prelude to a campaign to drum up grassroots support for the demand. The statement will be later presented to President Hosni Mubarak to coincide with a nationwide referendum on his election for a fourth term.
The rather succinct statement includes five basic demands. "The signatories of this call," it begins, "seek to free political activity from the constraints imposed on it at the turn of a new century."
The "liberation process", the statement argues, "should begin with five major procedures". First and foremost is the abrogation of the state of emergency, the release of political detainees and the declaration of a general amnesty for non-violent political prisoners.
In its second demand, the statement calls for "guarantees" that parliamentary elections will be free and fair. The statement suggests that future elections be free of "any administrative interference and that political competition on a footing of equality be guaranteed under full judicial supervision." Voters' lists must be revised to remove the names of dead people and emigrants, it adds.
The third demand is the establishment of political parties freely. Coming next is the freedom to publish newspapers and own media outlets, with the statement stressing the necessity of giving political parties and forces the "equal right to express their views in all the media channels owned by the [Egyptian] people".
The fifth and last process making for political reform, argues the statement, is that professional and workers' syndicates and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are given full independence "in order to make civil society capable of contributing to the exercise of democracy".
Implementing these "primary steps", says the statement, should mark the beginning of "a major political and constitutional reform... transforming Egypt into a parliamentary republic in which the people are the source of all authority".
The drafting committee will hold a press conference next Monday at the headquarters of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights to explain their demands.
The statement is the outcome of three months of negotiations against a background of two significant developments: parliament's approval of a controversial NGO law that was opposed by human rights groups and the approach of the 26 September nationwide referendum. The law's approval triggered an outcry from many NGOs who believe that it would impose additional restrictions on their activities and might eventually make them incapable of functioning.
The approach of the referendum coincided with calls for political reform. In a speech to university students in Alexandria last week, President Mubarak himself spoke extensively of the need for reform.
According to Baheieddin Hassan, head of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights (CIHR), which hosted the meetings that produced the appeal for political reform, "this statement was issued at a time when the NGO law was enacted, several syndicates are under judicial sequestration, [a few] journalists are in prison and political parties are marginalised... To change all this, practical and crucial measures must be taken."
Hassan took comfort in the fact that President Mubarak had in last week's speech underlined the need for reform, and emphasised the term "civil society".
The current "call for political reform" is not the first to be made by civil society organisations. In May, several NGOs issued a lengthy statement calling for major political reforms. In 1997, the coordination committee of political parties and forces issued what it called "the democratic programme for political and constitutional reform". According to Hassan, the latest call was based on those two documents, in addition to the resolutions adopted by the first international conference for the Arab Human Rights Movement which was held in Casablanca, Morocco, in April.
The committee which drafted the latest statement included 17 figures, representing the liberal Wafd, Islamist-oriented Labour, leftist Tagammu and Nasserist parties, in addition to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the Wassat Party, which so far has failed to gain a licence, and a number of independent intellectuals.
"Our objective is to clarify the view of civil society regarding the issue of political reform and its most important elements," explained Hassan.
Salah Eissa, a prominent leftist political writer and a member of the drafting committee, argued that the demands set out in the statement were not new. "However, this time there is the referendum on President Mubarak's fourth term. And to the various political forces, this is an opportunity [for the president] to introduce political reforms," Eissa told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"We decided to refrain from making numerous demands, as was the case in the past, and voice concise, specific ones, signed by the nation's elite, and then get citizens to sign them as well. We want a major consensus on these basic and crucial demands," Eissa said.
Eissa, who published a series of articles suggesting the amendment of the constitution to make Egypt a "parliamentary republic", believes that change is inevitable. "Egypt has no other choice... Other neighbouring, less advanced countries are making crucial political reforms," he argued, "so why should we be left out?"
