22 - 28 March 2001
Issue No.526
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 22 - 28 March 2001 Issue No.526 |
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War at the Wafd
The Wafd leadership has backed party chairman, No'man Goma'a's decision to expel two leading MPs from party ranks. But, as Shaden Shehab reports, the battle is far from being over
A hastily convened meeting of the Wafd's Supreme Authority (WSA) on Sunday sealed the fates of long-time Wafdist politico Ayman Nour and his new colleague and fellow MP Mohamed Farid Hassanein -- or so Wafd Party Chairman Noaman Goma'a would like to believe. But when the party's top authority voted to officially expel the two high-profile Wafdists from party ranks, the decision spelled turmoil for the fractured party. Nour and Hassanein will not go quietly.
Goma'a
Nour
Of the 60 members on the Supreme Authority, 47 made their way to the party headquarters in Doqqi to attend the meeting at 7.00pm on Sunday. Conspicuously absent was Hassanein, who sent a letter stating that he had to leave to Switzerland for medical treatment. Members, including Nour, took turns speaking, dragging the proceeding late into the night, and four elderly members, overcome by fatigue, left before the vote took place shortly after midnight. After six hours of deliberation, only three members voted against the expulsion of Nour and Hassanein. Another 10 wanted their membership frozen, but the final vote, at 30 to 13, was overwhelmingly against the two.
Members backing the dismissal agreed that Nour and Hassanein were guilty of the charges levelled against them: inciting rebellious actions; intentionally provoking verbal and physical attacks on the party's chairman; and harming the credibility and well being of the party.
The accusations centre on an incident during a press conference at the party's headquarters on 10 March following an alleged assassination attempt on Hassanein. Hassanein had been attacked in the aftermath of a four-day sit-in staged at parliament calling for the release of some suspects in the Nile Delta town of Toukh. Although the protest was successful and the men were released, Goma'a had been against what he called an "improper strike" and was angered by Hassanein's refusal to end it. The party's mouthpiece Al-Wafd newspaper did not carry the story.
Hassanein's supporters used the opportunity of the press conference to demand an explanation from Goma'a, but the chairman refused to appear and left the building. The meeting devolved into angry protest, with people calling for Goma'a's removal -- naturally a state of affairs unacceptable to the party leader. The next day Hassanein was expelled from the party, and Goma'a used the chance to get rid of Nour as well, who had only attended the conference. The dismissals were carried on Al-Wafd's front page on 12 March.
Nour became a Wafdist five years after the new Wafd Party was established by the late leader Fouad Serageddin in 1978. He quickly rose within party ranks to become a member of the Supreme Authority in 1996. He has been one of the most active Wafdist MPs and his ambitions to become one of the top Wafd leaders is no secret. Hassanein, a former Nasserist and, briefly, a member of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party, only joined the Wafd two months before last October's parliamentary elections. The two argue that Goma'a violated the party's statutes by declaring the dismissals without referring to the Wafd's Supreme Authority -- which triggered Sunday's meeting.
"Nour and Hassanein did not just attend the press conference, they stood by, watching their supporters use inciteful language rather than urge them to calm down. Silence, in this case, means encouragement," a close associate of Goma'a told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The people shouted slogans in favour of Nour, demanding that he take on the post of deputy chief editor of Al-Wafd. It was certainly a planned act," he insisted, noting that Nour had not set foot in the Wafd headquarters since Goma'a became chairman. "Showing up on that day was not a coincidence."
In a joint statement, Nour and Hassanein denied the accusations of a planned attack on Goma'a. "It [the expulsion] is an act with political motives, which we will expose later," the statement said. "This has become a war," Nour told the Weekly. "Goma'a won the battle, but he did not win the war that he himself started," he said. Nour did not mince words: "To keep it short, I will cause the downfall of Goma'a, but not the Wafd Party."
In a statement written from his hospital bed, Hassanein denounced the expulsions as revealing "the true face" of Goma'a. "The party has taken off its mask of democracy and is no different than other parties which exercise dictatorship." Among the retaliatory tactics Nour has initiated is to bring the matter to court, claiming that the party's voting procedures were illegal. "It was not a secret ballot, but the votes were counted publicly, so as to embarrass the members [who wanted to vote against the expulsions]. Witnesses were denied, and an investigation was refused," he explained. In addition, he said, "Hassanein had requested a postponement of the meeting since he would not be able to attend, but that was also overlooked."
Nour has said that he intends to travel to governorates with Wafd offices to listen to the Wafd members' complaints and meet with former members "who backed off as a result of Goma'a's dictatorship." He has designated every Tuesday for meetings with Wafdists who have problems with Goma'a and has even said he intends to write a pamphlet (for party member only) detailing Goma'a's "transgressions" since he became chairman.
"This is very unfortunate," commented Ibrahim Dessouqi Abaza, assistant secretary-general and a member of the Supreme Authority. "Matters should have been taken in a more rational way, rather than blowing them out of proportion."
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