16 - 22 August 2001
Issue No.547
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 August 2001 Issue No.547 |
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Politics in a vacuum
The Arab Strategic Report 2000, published by the Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, noted that the absence of an active role by Egyptian political parties in last year's parliamentary elections had several ramifications. These included a comeback of the banned Muslim Brotherhood as a political organisation, albeit lacking legality, and the predominance of independent candidates -- at the expense of even the ruling party.
Reviewing these partisan developments, the report said that the death last August of Fouad Serageddin, leader of the liberal Wafd Party, dropped the curtain on what was considered to be the party's "historic leadership."
"The election of a new Wafd chairman took place in an atmosphere of integrity and transparency which won the admiration of political observers and analysts," noted the report. The report failed, however, to mention the splits and internal fights that followed the election of Noaman Gomaa as the new chairman.
The freezing of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party last May also brought to an end a series of party actions which appeared to be a quest for confrontation with the government. The party's last battle began with a fierce campaign launched by its mouthpiece, Al- Shaab, against an Egyptian publication by the Ministry of Culture of A Banquet for Seaweed, a novel by Syrian writer Haydar Haydar. Scores of Al-Azhar University students demonstrated and clashed with police after the newspaper drew their attention to the book.
The report considers the Labour Party's handling of this crisis as evidence of an "apolitical mentality" -- similar to the way in which it handled political battles with a former minister of the interior and the incumbent minister for agriculture.
According to the report, the leftist Nasserist and Tagammu parties continued to suffer from "stagnation."
The vacuum resulting from the absence of so many political parties from the election battle was filled by Brotherhood and independent candidates, the latter winning more seats than the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
The independents won 232 seats as against the NDP's 172. The Muslim Brothers won 17 seats, and were it not for security harassment they would easily, according to the report, have won double that number. The Wafd, who pledged to win 100 seats, ended up with seven, while the Tagammu won six and the Nasserists only two.
Some 216 independents joined the NDP following the elections, raising its number of seats to 388 out of parliament's total of 444.
The Brotherhood, in previous elections, raised the slogan "Islam is the solution." However this time, the report noted, they called for "the application of the text and spirit of the Egyptian constitution."
The report attributed the change to security reasons as well as a clear development of their discourse, which made them more open to, and in greater harmony with, society.
"The new discourse went beyond the dichotomy of chaos and not belonging, dogma and stagnation which dominated the domestic political scene," the report said. "The irony is that the Muslim Brothers, who suffer greater restrictions than opposition parties, succeeded in reaching out to people and convincing them to vote without holding any public rallies." By putting their platform on the Internet and sending regular messages to their supporters via mobile phones, the Muslim Brothers managed to remain in touch with the people without provoking the government by swamping the streets with ideological banners, the report added.
The report notes that the parliamentary elections of 2000, despite coming under full judicial supervision for the first time, had limited impact on political interactions, the increase in the number of women and Coptic candidates and the comeback of the Brotherhood. According to Interior Ministry statistics, the turnout of voters was 25.21 per cent, the lowest since the multi-party system was introduced in 1976.
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