Democracy from below
In this week's press, a prominent intellectual argues for democracy, crisis threatens the pharmaceuticals industry, and Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya's volte-face continues to provoke commentary, writes Aziza Sami
Click to view caption |
Mustafa Hussein in Al-Akhbar drew Iraqi women whispering that "they say that if you let American soldiers smell oil, they revive instantly !"; Al-Wafd's Amr Okasha showed the Egyptian citizen crying out that it is not he that is responsible for the ignition (of prices), but the cabinet
|
The issue of "democracy" and how it is to be instilled in Egyptian society continued to take centre-stage in the media this week. On 18 August in the independent weekly Sout El-Umma prominent intellectual Milad Hanna wrote an article entitled, "A letter to the National Democratic Party: the road to democracy starts with abolishing the state of emergency", in which he argued strongly against the continued enforcement of the emergency laws over the past 22 years, saying that the time had come for an "incremental", but also immediate, implementation of democracy.
"I realise that the issue of the rotation of power is not an easy one to digest for the country's decision-makers, who believe that if it happens the result will be chaos and instability. But this manner of thinking is a pretext that is not convincing to me or to anyone else. I would therefore like to propose a 'democratic solution', which, while not touch those in power, will still enable them to experience 'democracy by stages'."
Hanna suggested that a first step in the direction of democratic practice would be to have officials in the "lower echelons" of the executive, such as the heads of municipal councils, cities and the governors of provinces, acquire their positions through elections and not appointment, as is currently the case.
"Let us practice democracy from below," Hanna argued, "all the way up to electing the president himself from amongst a number of candidates [representing various strains of opinion]. Give the people a chance, and you will find their choice to be rational and wise. Let the ordinary citizen practice his right to choose, and make mistakes, even if he is disappointed. It will not have been the first time."
This "feet-on-the-ground" approach to the exercise of democracy expressed by Hanna, a Copt who refuses any title other than that of Egyptian intellectual, appeared to close the door on arguments saying that free elections, undertaken prematurely without complete "liberal reform", might lead to the ascendancy of "non-democratic" forces like the "Islamists", or that lesser bogey, the "Nasserists".
This last argument, voiced in articles in the Egyptian press following the recent Press Syndicate elections, continued to elicit comments from writers with leanings as diverse as those of "Nasserist" Galal Aref to "Islamist" Fahmy Howeidy. In the 16 August issue of the national weekly newspaper Akhbar Al-Yom, Galal Aref, the new head of the Syndicate and also one of the paper's columnists, wrote of "those little fascists", attacking what he termed "the terrorism of those who think they have obtained proxy rights from Washington to set up a democracy approved by America, even if the price is to silence all opposition [to America's policies]. It is a new form of intellectual terrorism, evoking the McCarthy era in the US!"
On a less emotive note, Al-Ahram's columnist Fahmy Howeidy on 12 August wrote of what he described as the "blatant American infiltration of the Arab media, which aims at reshaping Arab awareness".
"I read a commentary demanding that elections not be undertaken before 'liberal reform' is complete," Howeidy wrote, "so that the votes will not go to pan-Arabists and Islamists, forces which the commentator unequivocally considered to be anti-democratic. Why can't the two courses -- of free elections and liberal reform -- proceed hand-in-hand in a parallel manner," he asked. Howeidy also warned against "a media that aims at creating a split between secularists and Islamists, Sunnis and Shi'ites, fuelling doctrinal strife and aborting national dialogue on questions like democracy and the occupation of Palestine and Iraq".
A debilitating crisis threatening Egyptian pharmaceuticals companies with collapse also began to make itself felt in this week's newspapers. On 11 August, Al-Ahram's front page reported that a cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid had aimed at formulating "a plan to export Egyptian pharmaceuticals". The newspaper wrote that "the Ministry of Health will provide commercial offices abroad with medical attachés, who will promote Egyptian pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Production lines will also be set up devoted to export."
However, this news item, given what was announced by the pharmaceuticals companies themselves this week, appeared to have missed the mark. On 13 August, in every national and opposition newspaper, a full-page advertisement directed to President Hosni Mubarak appeared posted by 15 private pharmaceuticals companies. "Urgent call for help to President Hosni Mubarak", said the appeal, in which it was written that workers in Egypt's 60-year-old pharmaceuticals industry were calling upon the president to "protect us from unemployment and homelessness, with our companies near collapse after their conditions have seriously deteriorated".
The companies asked the president for "a re-appraisal" of their production costs, complaining of the government's enforcement of "unfair prices" for over 10 years in a manner that was "beyond reason". Now that they were threatened with "extinction", read the advertisement, the industry "has no recourse but to appeal" to the president himself.
In Al-Ahram on 17 August, the first part of an investigative report shed light on the predicament of the pharmaceuticals sector, "where private investments have not increased over the past three years". Under the title, "Egyptians are paying the price of ignoring the crisis of pharmaceuticals pricing", Sout El-Umma also published a letter it had received from the Egyptian Company for Pharmaceuticals Research and Manufacturing.
According to this letter, the crux of the problem lay in the fact that "the industry has been undergoing a crucial turning point over the past two years because of the continuing devaluation of the Egyptian pound, which, since the liberalisation of the exchange rate, has gone down by 80 per cent against foreign currencies like the dollar and the euro".
While the letter lauded the "decision to float the pound, which has been positive in many respects", it said that this had "intensified the problems of the industry because of the price-fixing of pharmaceuticals carried out by the Ministry of Health for several years. The last review of prices was undertaken in 1994". The letter demanded "a fair re-appraisal of the prices of medicines, if the pharmaceuticals sector is to continue in its national role".
For its part the newspaper recommended that "it is time that the government cooperates with the pharmaceuticals companies for the sake of its citizens who will not be able to find a substitute [for local medicines] that responds to their needs for basic treatment."
On the political front, the book written by the imprisoned Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya leaders in which they renounced their previous thoughts on divine governance and militant action against "infidel" (kafir) societies, continued to elicit commentary. Following the extensive review given to the book and to the letter sent to the national weekly magazine Al-Musawwar's Editor-in-Chief Makram Mohamed Ahmed on 8 August from one of the group's "historic leaders", Karam Zohdi (see Al-Ahram Weekly Press Review, August 14-20), Al-Ahram published a review of the book, the first part in a series, by Ahmed Moussa, the newspaper's correspondent at the Ministry of the Interior.
Al-Ahram's coverage gave prominence in its banner to "the fall of the principle of divine governance, an old excuse for terrorist acts". In the concluding paragraph, Moussa underscored the fact that "the book distinguishes between divine and human governance, and that every Muslim must first refer to specialists in interpreting the Qur'an before adopting thoughts [not in the Qur'an] formulated under extreme [historic and political] circumstances and resulting in extremist acts".
The independent weekly Al-Osbou' on 18 August for its part wrote that "Zohdi plants a bomb within the Islamist movement". The writer of the article, Ahmed Rif'at, opted to "believe the sincerity of the Al-Gama'a leaders in renouncing their previous militant thought". Rif'at wrote that "had this been just a tactical move, it would have been sufficient to issue statements to the media" instead of arduously writing four books, "with three more on the way".
In a side-piece, Al-Osbou' devoted an article to Al-Musawwar's Editor Makram Mohamed Ahmed, who had taken the initiative in conducting dialogue with the imprisoned Al-Gama'a leaders. "We ask others not to be prejudiced and not to judge in advance the new stance announced by Al-Gama'a", wrote Al-Osbou', "but to be like Ahmed, who gave them the benefit of the doubt ... dealing with the matter despite his position and prestige like the true journalist that he is".
