The final arbiter
Two long drawn out controversies on the political and economic fronts appeared nearing settlement, as reported in the press this week, writes Aziza Sami
"I want you to make the People's Assembly implement court rulings." "Can't you find a wish I can make come true?" Amr Okasha in Al-Wafd
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On 8 January, the banner of the national daily Al-Ahram reported that President Hosni Mubarak had instructed the prime minister to seek the opinion of the Supreme Constitutional Court on previous rulings issued by the Administrative Court and the Court of Cassations on the status of MP draft- dodgers and whether they were eligible to run for parliament. For commentators, this meant the end of months of meandering by parliamentary officials and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and the ignoring of 13 rulings previously issued by the Administrative Court as well as the Court of Cassations decreeing that MPs who had failed to serve in the military were ineligible to run for by-elections. It also showed, said the pundits, that the government is serious when it says it is bent on political reform.
The opposition daily Al-Wafd, issued by the Wafd Party, lauded in its front- page editorial by the party's chief, Noman Gomaa, "President Mubarak's decisive stance on the side of legitimacy." A separate report which gauged the opinion of law and constitutional experts quoted them as saying that this step was significant, not only in settling the status of the MPs but in determining the very legitimacy of the current parliament itself and, consequently, the laws passed by it. The president, the experts said, has the prerogative of either annulling the parliament, once proof is afforded of its lack of legitimacy, or ordering that it comply with the rulings issued by the courts which unequivocally state that draft-dodging MPs could not, and should not, have entered into by-elections.
This is necessary, wrote Al-Wafd in a commentary, "after evil advisers put the whole regime in a situation which bred public discontent and in a state of absolute dysfunction between the legislative, executive and administrative branches of the law."
This step was also much needed, wrote Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama on 8 January with typical forthrightness, in order to dispel the growing public perception that "ignoring court rulings has become a staple of the state's policy".
Another issue which had raised public concern and was reflected in the press over the past weeks, in addition to inducing an extensive parliamentary interrogation this week, was that of the alleged monopoly exercised by Ahmed Ezz, a leading steel producer and NDP member, over the domestic steel market.
Starting 5 January, and followed on 6 and 9 January by two more articles, Al-Akhbar's Editor-in-Chief Galal Dowidar waged a campaign in his column against what he termed "the people paying the price of monopoly". Dowidar claimed that the current exercise of monopoly by one producer over the steel market, and which had forced the government to impose unjustified anti- dumping fees on steel imports, in addition to granting him control of the Alexandria Iron and Steel Company, was an issue affecting the lives of millions because of the slump it had caused in the construction and labour markets. On 9 January Al-Akhbar published Ezz's response to Dowidar's allegations, saying that the high price of steel imports was not due to any increase in tariffs, which had remained constant over the past 10 years, but because of an international increase in production costs. Ezz warned of "the historic experience which showed that government intervention in prices which did not take into account the realities of production had led to the destruction of Egypt's national steel industry in the socialist 1960s."
On Monday 12, however, following a parliamentary interrogation presented the day before by 21 MPs on the matter, the headline of two national dailies heralded news of a drastic reduction of tariffs on steel imports, from 20 per cent to five per cent. Al-Akhbar announced triumphantly, "In response to the article by Al-Akhbar's editor-in-chief on steel prices: an increase in exports and a three per cent tariff on raw iron imports. Tariffs on construction steel drop to five per cent instead of 20 per cent".
Al-Ahram reported the same figures in its banner, quoting Prime Minister Atef Ebeid as saying that this was part of "decisive measures to counter the unjustified increase in prices". On 12 January Al-Wafd reported the news as "parliamentarians accuse the government of facilitating the monopoly of the steel market and demand that the door be opened to imports."
The sensationalist independent weekly Al-Osbou', auguring what could become a personalised media campaign directed against Ezz, ran a story on 12 January called, "Ezz: journey from bank loans to monopoly". The article chronicled Ezz's rise from the son of a steel producer to holding key positions in parliamentary committees, the Planning and Budget Committee and the NDP. It epitomised him as a classic case -- one of many in the Egyptian scene -- of the "marriage of business and political interests". Al-Osbou' wrote that Ezz and other businessmen such as Naguib Sawiris had played no small role in stalling the long-awaited competition and anti-dumping law, "which in all cases even after it is issued" the newspaper wrote, "will have no bearing on past monopolies exercised by Ezz, including his control of 65 per cent of the Egyptian steel market."
The crash of the Flash Airlines charter passenger jet which took the lives of 133 French tourists and 13 Egyptians also continued to make headlines. On 9 January Al-Ahram's banner highlighted the service given in memory of the victims at the crash site in Sharm El-Sheikh. The newspaper reported that President Mubarak had offered his condolences to the French government and that Mrs Mubarak had joined French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin in placing wreaths at the memorial set up to commemorate the victims. But the paper also reported the statement made by Minister of Aviation Ahmed Shafiq at a press conference held that day in which he alleged that the claims made in the Swiss press, that Flash Airlines had been prohibited from flying over Swiss airspace due to safety concerns, stemmed from a financial dispute between the carrier and a Swiss ground services company which was "activating these rumours against the airliner". Added to this, Shafiq said he had in his possession a letter from the Swiss ground services company which threatened to launch a fierce campaign against Flash if the airliner did not pay an unspecified sum of money which the company alleged it was owed. "This explains the reason for the rampant campaign it is waging against the Egyptian airliner and Egyptian aviation," Shafiq said.
Shafiq was reported as saying that Swiss authorities had sent him a laudatory letter indicating that there were no fundamental observations, on their part, regarding Flash Airlines and that "any matter which had raised observations had been dealt with".
On 11 January, and according to the weekly Al-Arabi, issued by the Nasserist Party, it was not only the Swiss press which was waging a campaign against the airline but the French as well. Reporting on its front page what French tourists had allegedly said: "the airplane was a trash dump", Al-Arabi wrote, "French media has been waging a campaign against Flash Airlines, quoting a French passenger who boarded the airliner on a trip from Lyon to Luxor in October. According to the passenger, the plane was in pitiable shape with seat belts which would not fasten, broken chairs and a rancid smell emitting from the lavatory. When the plane took off, the head-rest of her seat fell off. Al-Arabi added, "Data acquired by the French indicate that there were serious flaws in the two Boeing carriers which were used by Flash, especially as regards to maintenance of the cockpit." Al-Arabi also reported the Egyptian minister of aviation as saying that "the instruments of the aircraft had malfunctioned after take-off and that a few minutes after take-off it veered off course for no apparent reason." Al-Arabi said that "aviation experts say that the disappearance of the plane from the radar screen can only be explained by the fact that the malfunction which the pilot experienced had occurred in the cockpit. When he tried to turn back to the airport he could not and the airplane, said international peace-keepers stationed in Sharm El-Sheikh who witnessed the incident, crashed. It did not explode."
Al-Arabi also reported the tragic death of Tawfik Rizk Naguib, an employee at the American University in Cairo, who committed suicide before Christmas by throwing himself from the upper storeys of Cairo Mall which faces the parliament building. Rizk Naguib decided to end his life, the newspaper wrote, because he was unable to cope with the material demands of the Christmas and New Year festivities.
