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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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
The age of maturity
The Muslim Brotherhood is trying hard to achieve the legitimacy it needs to participate in democratic life. Diaa Rashwan believes it is succeeding
After their surprising success in the November parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood scored yet another victory, this time in the Egyptian Lawyers' Syndicate elections of 24 February. In both these experiences, the legally banned organisation proved the most skilled and proficient of all contenders in its handling of the electoral process, especially when compared to the dismal performance of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) in the November elections. In both campaigns, too, it was clear that the Brotherhood had set itself very specific objectives, foremost among them obtaining the political legitimacy it has lacked since 1954. This priority has manifested itself in the professionalism its members are showing in the political arena, both during the elections and inside the People's Assembly.
The parliamentary and syndicate elections shared a number of factors that may shed light on certain characteristics of the Brotherhood at present. Perhaps the most important was that, for the first time, both elections were subject to full and direct judicial supervision, a factor that worked to the advantage of both the Brotherhood's electoral prospects and the efficiency with which they conducted their campaign, since candidates no longer had to divert considerable energy to fending off government pressure and attempts to tamper with the voting process. Still, despite flagrant government intervention outside polling stations in November, 17 of the 75 candidates fielded by the Brotherhood won parliamentary seats, a figure considerably higher than that predicted. Moreover, in the syndicate elections, where direct government intervention had receded, all of the nine Brotherhood candidates won.
The candidates, however, would not have been able to capitalise on such supervision had other factors also not worked in their favour. Prime among these was a high calibre of political sophistication as well as organisational and administrative acumen. From the outset in the syndicate elections, they took pains to allay apprehensions and obviate potential propaganda to the effect that their organisation sought to secure full control over the syndicate board, as was the case previously. Thus, they only nominated nine lawyers as candidates for the 24-member board. Also, as in other professional syndicate elections, they put no candidate forward for the post of syndicate head. Aware that vying for a position of such symbolic and practical importance would bring them into conflict with the government, they focused their efforts on promoting the number of candidates that, together on the board, would have a decision-making power equal to, if not greater than, that of the syndicate head.
The Brotherhood organisers also proved adept campaign tacticians. Not only did they manage to parry the propaganda against them, they succeeded in turning the spotlight their adversaries had focused on them to their advantage, emerging as the most influential and effective power in the campaign. Other political forces, indeed, soon felt compelled to curry the favour of Brotherhood candidates and show support for their positions. This even applied to the NDP, if indirectly. That the Brotherhood was able to effectively project a positive image of itself as a powerful and influential force yet one with no designs on dominating the syndicate board was certainly instrumental in the victory of all its candidates. Voting preferences, particularly among the segment of the electorate that remains undecided until the last moment, generally lean towards the candidates or parties that enjoy the greatest popular support -- which is precisely what occurred during the recent Lawyers' Syndicate elections.
Moreover, the Brotherhood campaigners were able to capitalise on their combined strengths -- image and electoral expertise -- to form, in direct or indirect cooperation with other forces, the unified "national list," which was quickly nicknamed the "Muslim Brotherhood list." That all the candidates on this list won further established the Brotherhood as the determinant force in the syndicate elections. Contrary to the contentions of their adversaries, who sought to portray the unified list as a disguised bid to take over the syndicate, it is difficult to accept that it was engineered by the Brotherhood alone. It is far more likely that this list was the fruit of intense and complex negotiations between the Brotherhood and the other parties ultimately represented. The four NDP candidates on the list all arrived safely on the syndicate board, apparently underscoring the fact that it constituted a mutually beneficial coalition.
With regard to the election of the syndicate head, Brotherhood ranks were divided, with the leadership and old guard in favour of the NDP candidate Raga'i Attiya and the new generation of Brotherhood lawyers supporting the Nasserist candidate, Sameh Ashour. Nevertheless, here, too, the Brotherhood demonstrated its political adroitness. Having resisted unequivocal demonstrations of support for either camp, it kept open an avenue for smooth relations with the forthcoming syndicate head, who in this case turned out to be Ashour. To a considerable extent, the Brotherhood was able to maintain this ambivalence because the government and the ruling party appeared somewhat ambiguous, neither lending their fullest backing to their official candidate nor declaring outright opposition to the Nasserist candidate. This aside, what is important here is that the contest over the position of syndicate head highlighted the Brotherhood lawyers' commitment to their primary electoral aims and their refusal to be sidetracked by differences over non-critical issues. Thus, if their votes were divided between Attiya and Ashour, they all, regardless of age and seniority, put their full energy behind the campaign for the unified national list, which contained the nine Brotherhood candidates.
Certainly, the Brotherhood's acumen and expertise would not have yielded the fruits they did in both parliamentary and syndicate elections had it not been for the deficiency of its adversaries in precisely these areas. As the results showed, this applied to both the NDP and the opposition. It was quite telling, for example, that the opposition parties, even those that shared common ideological ground, were unable to reach a minimal level of coordination in their campaign strategies, and instead squabbled vehemently as they competed over the same parliamentary seats. We also detect a similar ineptness in the NDP's woolly support for its candidate to the syndicate leadership, and in its failure to form a unified list in opposition to the Brotherhood candidates, a factor that ultimately forced several NDP candidates to ally with the Brotherhood within the framework of the national list.
In both the parliamentary and syndicate elections the Brotherhood, as we have seen, was intent on projecting itself as a mature, responsible political force. This conforms to its ultimate objective, which is to secure political and legal legitimacy. It has thus proved itself more than able to handle the rigours of the electoral process, while steering clear of any behaviour that could be construed as provocative or radical, thereby offering the reassurance that it has no designs on exclusive power and that it will continue to abide by the strictures of the democratic process once it acquires the legitimacy it seeks. Certainly, the 17 Brotherhood parliamentary members have sustained this impression by shunning any harsh confrontational stances that would close off channels of communication and dialogue. We suspect the new Brotherhood members on the Lawyers' Syndicate board will follow this lead, although their relatively large numbers should preclude any such tendencies from the outset. Above all, one senses a determination to avert the shoals of petty wrangling in the course the Brotherhood has set for its return to the political arena as a legally recognised body.
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