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Al-Ahram Weekly 7 - 13 October 1999 Issue No. 450 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 7 - 13 October 1999 Issue No. 450
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Interview Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters In quest of social reform
By Mariz TadrosA new social contract is the talk of the town. Government policymakers, politicians, academics and social workers are busy discussing what the new social reform agenda should include.
President Hosni Mubarak's has announced that a national conference on social reform would be held on 18-20 October. The conference promises to be one of the biggest ever, organised by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Insurance and attended by representatives from all sectors of society. At a recent press conference, Minister of Social Affairs and Insurance Mervat Tellawi said the aim of the conference was to come up with a strategy to address a plethora of social issues. It will also seek to coordinate the social activities of various ministries.
According to Tellawi, there are three partners to the contract -- the government, the private sector and NGOs. This triangle, asserted the minister in a recent interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, should promote the cause of social development. Tellawi also spoke about "the third way" -- a system between socialism and capitalism that acknowledges "capital's social responsibility", or the necessity of businessmen contributing to social causes.
Azza Korayem, a sociologist at the National Centre for Sociology and Criminology Studies, welcomed the government's growing interest in social reform, "especially since the emphasis in the past had been on economic reform only". But, she wondered: "Do we have a clear idea of what our social problems are, their underlying causes and ways of addressing them?"
"Look outside," she sighed. "There is escalating frustration that leads to increased acts of violence, thuggery, fraud and perjury... But, it is when the interests of a certain wealthy group are jeopardised, because of the growing manifestations of social antagonism, that we start to pay attention to our growing social malaise."
Most perturbing, suggested Korayem, is the fact that this social malaise, the escalating violence, is not coming just from its traditional source, namely the under-privileged classes. "The fact that crimes are being committed now by members of the educated middle class, is a sign of danger, because it is this class that has traditionally been responsible for preserving equilibrium in society," she explained.
Although crisis point has not been reached yet, argued Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed, head of Cairo University's Centre for the Study of Developing Countries, some of the social indicators, such as the level of education, are truly alarming. There is no doubt, he pointed out, that there is a need to replace the old social contract dating back to the days of the late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, a contract that had relied on the government offering free social services in return for the people's support of the government.
Under the current forces of globalisation, structural adjustment and the enforcement of IMF and donors' prescriptions, contended El-Sayed, it is no longer possible to retain this type of social contract. "Therefore, in order to pre-empt deterioration of the living standard of the Egyptian people, a new social contract is needed. Egypt's Human Development Report has indicated that close to one half, of Egyptians are living under conditions of poverty," he added.
If social stability is to be maintained, argued El-Sayed, it is important to alleviate poverty, provide productive employment opportunities to young people and offer Egyptians the promise of a decent life. The quality of social services has definitely deteriorated, he said, adding that the real bone of contention is over who should take the responsibility for improving them.
"It is difficult for the government to assume full responsibility, but the giant financial conglomerates are not willing to pay their share in the cost of such a contract. One does not expect them to sacrifice much of their capital, but, as they continue to rely on soft loans from banks and pay no taxes, they will have to pay up," he said.
El-Sayed cautioned that the will to make the taxation system work is lacking on the part of both the government and businessmen. On the one hand, he said, the government, fearing that businessmen may be scared away, has no intention of introducing progressive taxation. On the other hand, businessmen, who keep their capital in foreign banks rather than paying taxes, do not seem to be aware of their social responsibility.
