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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 June 2000 Issue No. 486 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 June 2000 Issue No. 486
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters New turn in the battle over Labour
By Mona El-NahhasIn an attempt to end a freeze on the activities of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party, party Chairman Ibrahim Shukri reached a settlement last week with his rival Hamdi Ahmed, a claimant to the party's leadership. Under the agreement, Shukri will remain the party's leader while Ahmed is to assume another prominent post yet to be decided. A 21-member committee will manage party affairs until a new executive committee is elected. But Adel Hussein, the party's pro-Islamist secretary-general, was excluded because Ahmed strongly objected to his presence. In fact, Hussein was said to be the main obstacle in the way of reaching a compromise with the state in order to resolve the party's crisis.
Shukri also pledged to appoint a new chief editor for the party's mouthpiece, Al-Shaab, while keeping on the staff chief editor Magdi Hussein, currently in prison for libelling Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali. The agreement stressed Labour's opposition to what were described as "illegitimate forces" -- an apparent allusion to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood which has been in alliance with Labour for several years.
The agreement, concluded in secrecy, was received angrily by the party's political bureau, the majority of whose members are Adel Hussein supporters. In a statement issued last Thursday, the bureau denounced the agreement as part of a conspiracy to silence party Islamists. The bureau said that Shukri had no right to conclude agreements in the name of the party without consulting its top officials. Some members angrily called for Shukri's dismissal unless he backtracked.
Adel Hussein insisted that the agreement signed by Shukri was null and void and had no implications for the party leadership. Hussein said he did not believe the agreement would resolve the party crisis, adding that the core of the problem lay in the relationship between the party and the government, not between party members. Hussein said the party would continue efforts to cancel the decree by the Political Parties Committee that suspended the publication of Al-Shaab and slapped a practical freeze on Labour's activities.
Shukri briefed Hussein and his Islamist supporters on the reasons behind the signing of the agreement. According to Shukri, the deal was "necessary to save the party and the newspaper."
The Political Parties Committee, a government body in charge of licensing parties and overseeing their activities, issued its decision on 20 May. It followed two separate party congresses that elected Hamdi Ahmed and Ahmed Idris to succeed Shukri whom they accused of replacing the party's socialist platform with an Islamist one.
Ahmed and Idris also accused Adel Hussein of taking arbitrary decisions, joining hands with extremist groups who gained control of the party's activities, and rigging the elections for the party's executive committee. The accusations were submitted to the socialist prosecutor-general who is currently conducting an investigation.
Hussein was a target of criticism by hundreds of party members who preferred to quit in protest against the Islamists' hegemony.
Hamdi Ahmed hailed his agreement with Shukri, viewing it as a positive step towards reviving the party's socialist platform while maintaining Islam's "moderate" principles. Ahmed said Hussein's opposition to the agreement was of no consequence because he did not occupy a party post any longer. "Our agreement is final and cannot be undermined," Ahmed said. "It is in compliance with the decision of the Political Parties Committee which recommended that the dispute between the three leaders be settled." Asked about the choice of a new chief editor for Al-Shaab, Ahmed said, "This is left to the interim committee to decide."
Idris was reportedly satisfied with the agreement because it would bring to an end the domination of extremists over the party.
Nagui El-Shehabi, a Labour dissident who plans to form a new party called "The Democratic Generation," welcomed the agreement. He told Al-Ahram Weekly that he was thinking of re-joining the ranks of Labour under the leadership of Ibrahim Shukri, "who has a distinguished role on the political scene." According to El-Shehabi, the agreement will end the freeze of the party's activities and the suspension of its mouthpiece. He expected a complete change in the party's dealings with government circles once its alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood ends.
