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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Labour dissenters opt for new party
By Mona El-NahhasThe one-year-long power struggle between Adel Hussein, the Labour Party's secretary-general, and Nagi El-Shehabi, assistant secretary-general, has reached a climax, with the latter deciding to bolt party ranks and establish his own political group under the name of "The Democratic Generation." The would-be founders of the new party applied for a licence from the Political Parties Committee, an affiliate of the Shura Council, on 9 April.
Six members of Labour's Supreme Committee are among the 111 would-be founders. Moreover, according to El-Shehabi, "more than 70 per cent of Labour Party members, who have struggled for a long time to revive Labour's original platform, will join The Democratic Generation."
El-Shehabi said the would-be founders made the move after it became clear that their attempts to rectify Labour's policies had not borne fruit. The dissenters accused Hussein of rigging last April's elections for the party's Supreme Committee, taking arbitrary decisions, jeopardising the party's unity and marginalising party chairman Ibrahim Shukri. They also blamed Shukri for reacting passively to the split in party ranks. "We urged Shukri repeatedly to organise new elections and dismiss Adel Hussein and his supporters, but he turned a deaf ear to our fair demands," El-Shehabi said. "The Labour Party has abandoned its platform and principles, becoming a front for illegal groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood," he added.
Another reason which made El-Shehabi and his group apply for a party licence was "the failure of all the existing parties to play an active role on the domestic political scene."
El-Shehabi said he expects to gain the approval of the Political Parties Committee next week. "The Democratic Generation has a platform which is very different from the platforms of the other parties. In addition, we have met all the conditions stipulated by the constitution regarding the establishment of parties. So, there is no reason why the committee would object to the founding of our party," he argued.
Explaining his platform, El-Shehabi said: "We are mainly interested in strengthening relations with the Nile Basin countries, establishing the golden triangle state of Egypt-Sudan-Libya and stressing the importance of national unity between Muslims and Copts."
Shukri said that El-Shehabi and his group have every right to form whatever party they like. But he contended that the move will not have an impact on Labour's unity or activities, adding that the dissidents are a small minority.
Ahmed Shukri, son of Labour's chairman and an opponent of Hussein's policies, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the action of the dissenters should have been expected from the very beginning. "El-Shehabi and his group acted in this way after all their attempts to reform the party proved to be in vain. Their demands for new elections and the dismissal of Adel Hussein's group were ignored," he said.
Ahmed Shukri added that he does not intend to quit, but will maintain his efforts to remedy conditions inside the Labour Party. He expects that the new party will carry weight because a large number of Labour members in the governorates of Kafr Al-Sheikh, Sharqiya, Beheira and Minya have taken El-Shehabi's side.
