Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 12 - 18 October 2000 Issue No. 503
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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The rest

By Nadia Abou El-Magd

THE LIBERAL PARTY: The condition the Liberal Party presently finds itself in is typical of what can happen to a minor political force after its founders pass away. Mustafa Kamel Murad, who established the Liberal Party in 1976, died nearly two years ago, and since then 9 men have been competing for the vacant leadership post. Their supporters have thus far used knives, chains and sulphuric acid in the name of electioneering. The government-controlled Political Parties Committee, which decides if political parties should be given a license and approves their new leaders after there has been a transferal of power, has refused to recognise any of the rival leadership claims for the Liberal Party.

The power struggle began before Murad's death when, in 1996, Mustafa Bakri, a staunch Nasserist and chief editor of the party's mouthpiece, Al-Ahrar, led a failed attempt to overthrow Murad after being fired from his post. As is often the case, an internal conflict revealed much about the party's ideology. The Liberal Party had come into existence on the authority of a decree from President Anwar El-Sadat, and the Liberals were later the only opposition party that supported Sadat's 1977 peace trip to Jerusalem. They also supported Sadat's economic open-door policy.

Mustafa Kamel Murad Haj Ahmed El-Sabahi Ragab Hilal Hemeida

The Liberals had first appeared on the domestic political scene in 1975 as the right wing forum of the Arab Socialist Union (ASU), then the nation' s sole political party. They managed to win 23 parliamentary seats in the first multi-party elections of the same year, earning Murad the title of opposition leader. However, in 1978 the party renounced its opposition role and forged a coalition with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), which reduced its parliamentary representation to three seats in the 1979 elections. The coalition was afterwards disbanded, and the party failed to win any seats in the 1984 elections.

By that time, the Liberal Party had not only lost its opposition status, but also much of its credibility. In a desperate attempt at revival, the party radically overhauled its policies. The Liberals backtracked on their support for the 1979 peace treaty with Israel and advocated the establishment of an Islamic state. They also forged a coalition with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamist-oriented Labour Party during the 1987 parliamentary elections. They won five seats, but at the expense of losing many members.

Along with other opposition parties, with the exception of the leftist Tagammu, the Liberals boycotted the 1990 elections. In the last elections of 1995, the Liberals nominated 102 candidates in 75 constituencies. They won one seat only, however, for which Ragab Hilal Hemeida, the party' s secretary-general, was standing.

The Liberal Party is nominating 166 candidates in the forthcoming elections. One of them is Hemeida, 40, who is also one of the 9 vying for the post of party chairman. He is running in the Cairo constituency of Abdin.

"The Abdin neighbourhood includes intellectuals, businessmen, artisans, a middle class and the uneducated. It therefore requires a great deal of commitment and political awareness. Voters will not be taken in by superficial electioneering," Hemeida told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Hemeida was inhaling a shisha in his elegant election headquarters downtown, which are also home to his business of importing video and computer components as well as dairy products.

At the entrance of the building, a handful of posters read: "We love you, Ragab." "The citizens wrote them," Hemeida said. "I didn't pay a single piastre for any of these posters; 'we love you Ragab' is Abdin' s slogan."

Hemeida's platform is based on a series of rejections.

"No to flattering the leader at the expense of the people; no to sectarianism, racism and intellectual terrorism; no to Zionism and normalisation with Israel; no to harming the national economy; and no to privatisation and laying off of workers." The only "yes" in his election platform is "to values, principles and the sound execution of democracy."

The leaflet is signed by "Sheikh Ragab Helal Hemeida, the beloved of the popular masses."

Hemeida conceded that the Liberal Party has no identity, but he blamed Murad because he had recruited too many individuals with conflicting ideals. "Had they given me a chance during the past two years, I would have made it the strongest political party with the best programme."

Hemeida agrees with President Hosni Mubarak's foreign policy, but would like to see greater social justice.

THE UMMA (NATIONAL) PARTY: Al-Umma Party cannot be separated from the character of its founder and leader, Haj Ahmed El-Sabahi. The latter is known, not for political action, but for fortune-telling, dream interpretation and training young men in the art of hair-dressing. El-Sabahi, 85, nevertheless insists that this is "first class political action."

The Umma Party was established in 1983 after Sabahi filed and won a lawsuit in an administrative court to do so. Since then, the party has not been taken seriously by anyone, except Sabahi himself.

"When they announced that we will have greater democracy, I, a young man full of enthusiasm and ambition, decided to establish a party and began a legal battle for this purpose in 1980," Sabahi told the Weekly.

Sabahi, sitting at his party's headquarters on Qasr Al-Aini Street and wearing a black tarboush, opened the drawer of his desk and produced a newspaper clipping of a cartoon showing him wearing a very high fez. The caption reads: "The Umma Party has opened a school for teaching dream interpretation."

"Look what the yellow press is writing about me," he remarked.

Why does he insist on wearing the fez? "This is an issue between me and this nation which abandoned the fez for no reason, no justification, and without having an alternative," he explained. "This nation lost its identity because it has no national attire and no national head-cover. This is a real dispute between me and the people."

As he spoke, Sabahi was surrounded in his poorly furnished office by party members, none of whom wore a fez.

Another thing that Sabahi takes seriously, and takes pride in, is teaching young men to become hairdressers.

"It is a dying profession. I conducted a study and trained 10 male hairdressers; don' t tell me this is not political action," he vaguely stated. He is also interested in training tailors, "a declining profession too. This is part of our effort to ease unemployment and take care of people in all walks of life," he added.

Sabahi opened the same drawer again to produce this time his book, Keys to Luck and Personality. He boasted of his dream- interpretation and palm-reading abilities. He takes special pride in inventing a rocket ball in 1961 by "the Egyptian intellectual Ahmed Al-Sabahi Awadallah." According to the manual, the rocket ball is distinguished from handball and basketball by "passing fast and aiming far."

All of Sabahi's inventions are to be found on El-Sabahi Effendi International Center Internet site.

"As a political party, we are free to work in all areas: political, economic and social," Sabahi affirmed. The party's platform is entitled "We all are for Egypt. We serve and don't wait."

The platform's title reads: "We are always with the people, calling for reform and not self-serving." A subtitle reads: "Serving the nation, people and the state is a form of worshipping God."

The party's political demands include lifting the state of emergency and giving opposition parties the opportunity to reach the real seats of power.

The party recommends an "Islamic economy." "An Islamic economy is no doubt the salvation from the chronic problems which are the legacy of socialism and the open-door policy of the millionaires."

Among their social demands: closing breweries, banning gambling and developing the education curriculum to emphasise the Islamic identity of the country.

Sabahi is not contesting the upcoming elections because he has been a member of the Shura Council since 1986. However, 10 of his party members are running.

In 1995, the party fielded 70 candidates, but none of them made it to the People's Assembly.

AL-WIFAQ AL-QAWMI (NATIONAL CONCILIATION) PARTY: This is the newest addition to the domestic political scene. Its establishment was approved by the Political Parties Committee last March, raising to 15 the number of legal political parties. The Political Parties Committee had not licensed any new party for the previous 20 years.

According to party chairman, Ahmed Abdel-Latif Shoheib, 75, his party was approved because its platform differs from the platforms of all other existing parties. The platform demands that Egypt acquire weapons of mass destruction. "And we are against globalisation in its American form. And we are nationalists in the sense that we believe that the Arab world is actually one entity."

From a balcony in his Heliopolis home, which he also uses as his election headquarters, hangs his campaign slogan: "Elect Ahmed Shoheib for real job opportunities for young people. He is also against Israeli arrogance and American hegemony." Shoheib says he was a member of the Free Officers Movement, led by Gamal Abdel-Nasser, that overthrew the monarchy in 1952 and was one of the fida'eyin (guerrilla fighters) leaders before and after 1952. Shoheib said he was never a member of the Nasserist Party although he is committed to the 1952 revolution's principles.

Six of the party's candidates are running in the upcoming elections.

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Related stories:
Small fry by the half dozen 23 - 29 November 1995
See Elections 2000, The 1995 Elections

 

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