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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 February 2000 Issue No. 469 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 February 2000 Issue No. 469
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Cabinet statement rapped in PA
By Gamal Essam El-Din
The People's Assembly (PA) this week began the annual round of parliamentary debates over the government's policy statement. As many as 429 majority and opposition deputies are expected -- for the first time in parliamentary history -- to take the floor. They will discuss an 82-page report prepared by a special committee responding to the policy statement delivered by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid on 18 December. The report focuses on what it calls high-priority issues, ranging from social inequalities and enlarging the scope of political participation to upgrading the local administration system.
Although the report urged deputies to renew confidence in Ebeid's cabinet, it criticised it for turning a blind eye to required political reforms, especially ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. It also blamed the government for not moving to protect limited-income brackets against the ravages of the privatisation programme.
In political terms, the report affirmed that it was high time the law on the exercise of political rights be revamped to ensure that the next general elections are marked by integrity. "The amendment of this law should impose a ceiling on the financing of election campaigns. Besides this, voter-registration lists should be revised [to remove the names of expatriates and the dead] and the judiciary's supervision over elections should be expanded to encourage voters to take part in balloting," said the report.
Kamal El-Shazli, minister of state for parliamentary affairs, has gone on record as saying that a bill amending the law on the exercise of political rights would be submitted by the government to the PA within the coming two weeks.
On social inequality, the report told the government, "The utmost priority should be given to three categories: fixed-income civil servants and retired employees; small producers; and impoverished groups. These are the under-privileged classes to whom the government should allocate additional tax exemptions and greater subsidies and pensions."
As expected, Khaled Mohieddin, leader of the leftist-oriented Tagammu Party, clashed verbally with government officials over various issues. The clash climaxed with Mohieddin rejecting the government's policy statement. He argued that it would be quite difficult for Ebeid's government to honour the social welfare promises contained in the statement, particularly the promise to create 650,000 job opportunities. He also rejected Ebeid's policy on a free market economy. Mohieddin quoted Ebeid as stating that a free market economy proved to be the most efficient system for achieving sustainable development and boosting investments. Mohieddin said: "I want to inform the prime minister that the World Bank has corrected its previous position on free market economy. The World Bank now says that a free market economy has put four million people around the globe below the poverty line and that speedy privatisation breeds private monopolies at the expense of poor classes and aggravates social disparities."
He cast doubts on the government's ability to live up to its promise of creating 650,000 job opportunities. "The former prime minister [Kamal El-Ganzouri] claimed that his government would create 535,000 new jobs. This never happened. And now we are surprised again by the announcement that the government is going to create 650,000 job opportunities, although one of its main free market policies is to trim down the size of government employees by one half. The social welfare promises announced by the policy statement require LE8 billion at least," Mohieddin said. He also wondered how the government, currently bogged down in financial squeeze problems, would be able to fund its programme of providing a LE50 monthly pension, to be raised later to LE100, to poor families.
To the surprise of many, Mohieddin made no reference to political reform.
Mohieddin's statement drew responses from three cabinet ministers. El-Shazli emphasised that most of the social welfare promises contained in Ebeid's statement reflect a true government commitment to protecting the poor against the vicissitudes of a free market economy.
Amina El-Guindi, minister of social affairs, announced that as many as one million families stand to gain from the monthly LE50 pension, which is to be called "Mubarak's pension for the poor." They should be added to the 600,000 families which benefit from what is called the "El-Sadat pension." The recipients of these pensions are families who lack a breadwinner. "This reflects the government's determination to protect the impoverished brackets," said El-Guindi.
In employment terms, Mohamed Zaki Abu-Amer, minister of state for administrative development, said the 650,000 job opportunities mentioned in Ebeid's statement will be offered by the government, the private sector and the Social Development Fund. "More than 150,000 jobs will be offered in government departments. These are real jobs because they are aimed to fill vacant positions in the education and health sectors. Graduates are now applying for as many as 111,000 full-time jobs while the remaining 40,000 jobs will be offered between now and next June. This is in addition to 7,000 jobs which will be offered to high-grade university graduates. This will not negatively affect administrative reform, and allocations to fund these jobs will be detailed in the new budget," said Abu-Amer.
