Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | House cleaning

		5 - 11 September 2002 Issue No. 602 Home news	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

House cleaning
The fallout from the on-going clampdown on corruption is extending to previously untouchable state figures. But where is it leading, asks Amira Howeidy

Youssef Abdel- Rahman

Three "independent" newspapers hit the news stands Sunday with articles carrying almost identical vitriolic of the Agricultural Ministry's "second man" and president of the Agricultural Development and Credit Bank, Youssef Abdel- Rahman. Armed with a wealth of information provided by anonymous "highly informed sources", the two independent weekly newspapers, Sawt Al-Umma and Al-Osbou, as well as the mouthpiece of the opposition Nasserist Party, Al-Arabi, concluded that the "sources'" willingness to speak against Abdel-Rahman signals the imminent "fall" of Agriculture Minister and Secretary-General of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Youssef Wali.
Carrying headlines like, "The end of Youssef Wali's era", "The scandal of the age... Egypt ransacked" and "Corruption cases threaten NDP's big three", the papers suggested that the arrest two weeks ago of Abdel-Rahman -- who is accused of corruption, profiteering, embezzlement, importing harmful pesticides and damaging Egypt's agriculture sector -- is a sign that his direct boss, Minister Wali, will soon be relieved of his official positions. Al- Arabi went as far as claiming that Wali is waiting for an order from President Hosni Mubarak, who is also the chairman of the NDP, to resign.
Although corruption cases involving members of parliament and officials have been making the news for two years now, this one seems to signal a significant shift in state policy, because it relates directly to Wali -- who has held the same ministerial and NDP positions since 1985. The spate of articles is viewed by some as giving credence to speculation about a power struggle within the NDP.
The ruling party will hold its national congress on 15 September which will also witness internal elections for the general secretariat. "It is almost certain," Al-Arabi said, "that a decision will be made to remove Wali from the post of secretary-general in the coming elections." Al-Arabi's "highly informed sources" said that Wali will be replaced by one of three candidates; either Gamal Mubarak, a leading member of the NDP's general secretariat; Moufid Shehab, minister of higher education and scientific research or Hussein Kamel Bahaaeddin, minister of education, "although its more likely that [Wali] will be replaced by Gamal Mubarak".
Sawt Al-Umma, however, drew links between Abdel-Rahman's corruption case and others that preceded it. The "Egyptian street", it argued, "is contemplating a conspiracy theory. Was the arrest of Mohamed El-Wekil, [the news director of Egypt's state-owned television on 7 July] a blow to Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif? Why was he arrested at this time?" It also referred to the case of Abdallah El-Tayel, secretary general of the cabinet's economic committee "and one of El- Shazli's men", whose parliamentary immunity was lifted recently.
Although some critics seem to support the theory that the war on corruption is politically-motivated and related to restructuring the NDP's house from within, even the fiercest critics see something good in it. According to Magdi Hussein, secretary-general of the suspended Islamist-oriented Labour Party, who was arrested several times for accusing Wali of corruption in Labour's defunct mouthpiece Al-Shaab, "Wali and Abdel-Rahman were killing the Egyptian people with the carcinogenic pesticides they were importing". He told Al- Ahram Weekly, "even if Abdel-Rahman is a scapegoat and even if this whole crackdown on corruption is to set the stage within the NDP, it's still a good thing for this nation that those people leave their positions. We have the highest cancer rates in the region because of them".
Hussein warned, however, that the war on corruption could backfire if "it stops at a handful of less senior employees or scapegoats because the people will see it as a ploy".
This is a rare moment when even the most hard-line of the opposition seems to be in agreement with what the president himself has been advocating in his recent public speeches. Stressing the necessity of replacing the old guard with "new blood", Mubarak also reiterated that the state will continue with its war on corruption.
Now a catchphrase, the "war on corruption", after a series of unprecedented cases and harsh prison sentences handed down on officials ranging from MPs to former ministers, such as the Supreme State Security Court sentencing of former Finance Minister Mohieddin El-Gharib to eight years with hard labour earlier this year, might be losing its novelty, although perhaps not its appeal. "If our nation does not rise to deal a blow to institutionalised corruption," said Abdallah El-Senwai, editor of Al-Arabi, "then there is no hope and no future."

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