Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 23 - 29 November 2000 Issue No.509
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Dreaming of better times

By Omayma Abdel-Latif

Nothing so clearly illustrates the sorry state of affairs which the legalised opposition is in than the results of this year's parliamentary elections. Almost a quarter of a century after the multi-party system was adopted by late President Anwar El-Sadat in 1977, opposition parties remain, as one observer put it, "parties without followers for people without parties."

The meagre opposition achievements came as little surprise to many observers because several parties were plagued by internal turmoil. In-fighting and dissension reigned supreme in some and, although the liberal Wafd managed a smooth transition from Fouad Serageddin to Noaaman Goma'a, other parties failed to make any real impact.

In the words of Salah Eissa, head of the opposition parties' coordination committee, the main reason that made voters turn away from opposition parties is closely associated with the relationship between them and the powers that be.

"The fact that the electorate chose to vote for individuals and not parties reflects a lack of trust in all political parties. This, I believe, is due to the appalling performance of the opposition in the outgoing parliament, where it seemed to have been tamed by the government," Eissa told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Some opposition figures conceded that their parties failed to reach out to the vast numbers of unengaged voters. The Wafd's Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, who emerged from the elections a winner and was chosen to be the party's spokesman in the People's Assembly, admits that the ballot proved the inability of opposition parties, including the Wafd, to make serious inroads at the expense of the ruling party.

"All political parties are weak. They need to put their houses in order and revise their platforms so as to be a political force to be reckoned with," Abdel-Nour told the Weekly.

Other figures, however, do not share Abdel-Nour's sentiment. Rifaat El-Said of the leftist Tagammu and Ibrahim Abaza, the Wafd's secretary-general, believe the reason behind the apparent demise of party politics is the fact that political parties have ceased to be channels for articulating views on political values, rules and policies. Abaza blamed this on the government and what he described as "the suffocating arms of the ruling party." To corroborate his argument, he said that almost 90 per cent out of 200 opposition party offices are closed down and parties are not allowed to organise public rallies or in other ways interact with the masses, whom they are meant to represent.

"The constraints imposed on political activity in this country are immeasurable. The files of political parties have become the speciality of security, rather than political, authorities," Abaza said. This is perhaps the reason why political parties, in the view of many voters, are not recognised as fundamental agents of political change and modernisation, he added.

In the past 10 years, the judiciary has emerged as the champion of democratisation and political liberalisation. In fact, many of the existing political parties gained legality only by means of court orders.

"During the past decade, the judiciary has replaced the opposition in many of the tasks it should have undertaken to raise the standards of democratisation and political participation," lawyer Nour Farahat told the Weekly.

Farahat referred to the historic court ruling which forced the government to place the elections under full judicial supervision to guarantee integrity, whereas the opposition's struggle for the same objective yielded no such results.

"The issue of political liberalisation and democratisation has never moved from the realm of discussion within the walls of party headquarters and in dozens of seminars to the stage of implementation," Farahat argued.

Some observers believe that the real problem is that it was actually the opposition which shot itself in the foot by accepting the political formula and framework put forward by the state and made no serious attempt to challenge the status quo of a one-party monopoly.

It is precisely this issue that Abdel-Nour and other opposition figures are working on, mainly to develop a new political formula envisaging a larger role for the opposition. Striking alliances between the various opposition forces is one feature of this formula, as Abdel-Nour sees it; although he is vague on the details. Nevertheless, he flatly dismissed a report published by the London-based Al-Hayat that an alliance between Muslim Brotherhood and Wafd MPs is in the offing.

"This is completely out of the question," responded Abdel-Nour. There will be coordination, he insisted, with all opposition forces, and not only the Brotherhood, on the issue of political liberalisation.

Many observers are pessimistic, arguing that they cannot envisage any new formula for more active party politics within the existing political system. The reason is that there seems to be no willingness on the part of the state to give opposition forces a share in the decision-making process. For this to happen, according to Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed, a professor of political science, the Political Parties Law of 1977 should be modified. The new law should be based on the principle of freedom of association, so that there will be no restrictions on political parties except that they should not resort to violence or incite hatred among different social groups, he said. El-Sayed believes that political parties should transcend their current discourse, which is not directly relevant to people's concerns, and they should also redefine the social groups they are associated with and, therefore, seek to represent.

At a seminar held in Cairo University earlier this week, the floor posed this question to Abdel-Nour: What is the first item on the Wafd's agenda for the new Assembly? Abdel-Nour responded: "To change the constitution" -- a difficult undertaking, it seems, but one that Abdel-Nour believes "is not impossible."

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Related stories:
Watch this space
Rank-and-file dissenters
The new equation 16 - 22 November 2000
Rough riding in round three 16 - 22 November 2000
Legal nuances 16 - 22 November 2000
See Elections 2000

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