15 - 21 November 2001
Issue No.560
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 15 - 21 November 2001 Issue No.560 |
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Asserting the will of the people
In a keynote speech to a joint session of parliament and the Shura Council, President Mubarak announced that there are no plans to dissolve the People's Assembly. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
President Hosni Mubarak hopes that the People's Assembly will continue effectively to supervise the government's performance and pass legislation that serves the people's interests and safeguards their rights.
Addressing a joint session of the People's Assembly and Shura Council on Saturday, Mubarak said that strengthening democracy should be given top priority. He recalled that he had previously urged the Council and the Assembly to make a comprehensive study for a new electoral system. "This system should ensure that parliamentary elections will be marked with integrity and near perfection. It should also serve as a mirror that truly reflects the people's wishes and free will by eliminating the power of money and the use of violence in elections," Mubarak said.
To attain this objective, Mubarak said that the Assembly, the Council, the government, and legal experts should make a concerted effort. "Eventually, these efforts should lead to future parliamentary elections that are marked with integrity and that are free from irregularities," Mubarak said.
But he indicated that amending the electoral system does not mean that plans are under way to dissolve the People's Assembly. "Devising a new electoral system should not lead some to think that I'm in the process of dissolving the People's Assembly. The Assembly is stable and no plans are under way to dissolve it," Mubarak observed.
Mustafa Kamal Helmi, chairman of the Shura Council, said a committee has been formed of MPs from all political parties as well as independents to draft a new electoral bill. Reports suggest the proposed bill will scrap the individual candidate system currently in use, replacing it with a system mixing individual candidacy and proportional representation slate systems.
In his speech, Mubarak, moving to the international situation, said the economic and political consequences of the 11 September terrorist attacks against America will be painful to all countries. "This is why we should move quickly to rearrange our priorities with the objective of devising new policies aimed at countering the effects of this crisis on the national economy in both the short and long terms," President Mubarak said. He added that these policies should protect people of limited income from the ravages of a global economic crisis by generating new employment opportunities and attracting investors to labour-intensive medium-and small-scale projects."
Mubarak, in his speech, said that Egypt, with its many economic achievements, stands on solid ground. "This makes me fully confident that we will be able to surmount the damaging effects of the crisis," he remarked.
Mubarak pointed out that Egypt, during the past 20 years, has spent over LE353 billion upgrading infrastructure, LE313 billion on lifting commodity productivity and LE76 billion improving public services. "This has raised the growth rate of the gross domestic product to an annual average of five per cent over the past 20 years and catapulted Egypt from a low-income economy to a medium- income economy," Mubarak said. He added that the private sector's participation in the total volume of national investments has climbed from 20 per cent 20 years ago to more than 67 per cent today. "This shows that, in spite of some negative examples of businessmen who defaulted [on their banking debts], the private sector has become a major partner in our national development plans," he said.
According to Mubarak, priority should continue to be given in the near future to controlling the birth rate, boosting exports, strengthening democracy and honouring the state's social responsibilities.
He explained that Egypt's population had increased by more than 23 million in the past 20 years. "This runaway population growth stands in the way of all efforts aimed at raising the people's living standard and capping the spiralling rise in the imports bill. A case in point is that the wheat import bill climbed from LE500 million in 1980 to LE2.5 billion at present," President Mubarak said.
As for exports, Mubarak said they have registered an annual increase of 12 per cent. "This value is very low in light of the permanent deficit in our trade balance. This deficit grew from LE3.9 billion in 1981 to a staggering LE32 billion last year. And this is a colossal burden on our limited reserves of foreign exchange," he said. Mubarak insisted that boosting exports is the most essential and guaranteed way of raising the nation's reserves of foreign exchange.
Mubarak, on his return from visits to the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait on Sunday, told journalists that plans are also under way to dismantle the Economy Ministry and replace it with a Ministry of Foreign Trade. He said the new ministry will be charged with boosting exports and drawing up import policies.
Mubarak added that the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will be granted greater powers and freedom. "This means that the CBE will be completely independent in drawing up monetary and credit policies," he said.
On the government's social responsibility, Mubarak, in his speech, was proud that social insurance now covers 17.6 million citizens. "To this should be added the government commitment to supporting limited-income brackets and alleviating the poverty of the under-privileged. The number of poor families receiving a monthly pension of between LE50 and LE70 will increase from 700,000 to one million," he said. Mubarak also urged the government to invest pension funds in productive and employment-generating projects.
In terms of foreign policy, President Mubarak strongly criticised Israel for its policies and actions which "cannot bring any good to anybody, including the Israeli people themselves." He emphasised that the Palestinian people will never stop struggling to regain their rights. "The Palestinian people will continue adamantly to reject Israel's attempts to impose its sovereignty over Arab [East] Jerusalem," Mubarak said.
He reaffirmed Egypt's backing for the United States in its war against terror. "The atrocities committed in Washington and New York underline the pressing need for concerted international efforts to crack down on terrorism. This, in my opinion, requires world leaders as well as experts to meet under the umbrella of the United Nations to reach an international agreement on fighting all forms of terrorism," Mubarak said.
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