Reform and hereditary succession

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The NDP's second annual conference ended last week with decisions and recommendations, of which 21 were new laws, 10 of them economy laws. The NDP also promised to acknowledge 19 new civil rights and proposed reforms in education, health and the status of women.

Other promises such as extending the health insurance net have triggered scepticism. Such a project entails a sizeable budget superseding the Ministry of Health's current total budget. The same is true of the paper presented on women's issues, where we are faced with a situation in which women remain effectively barred from certain vital positions such as that of general prosecutor. Women's rights will thus remain compromised as long as such positions are closed to them.

The bright promises and assertions on the importance of the individual in "building the national Egyptian project" appeared tailored for foreign consumption. There is nothing wrong with that. What is manifestly wrong is that all of this is promulgated alongside the continued presence of emergency laws. It is true that people have learnt to co-exist with this fetter on public life. The persistence of emergency laws remains reprehensible nevertheless, a political flaw that could be done away with at a minimal security and political cost.

It is not easy to understand how the NDP did not absorb how detrimental this internationally disreputable law is to Egyptian citizens. It could easily be replaced with anti- terrorism laws following the lines of those recently issued in Europe and the United States. The Egyptian people would thus be rescued from the perennial "emergency" state in which they have lived for so many years.

Talk of reform, freedom of expression and public participation could remain the stuff of dreams. All this cannot be fully discussed in one day or one year for that matter; at least not before the NDP's third annual conference next year. The ordinary citizen will at best feel the effect of any promises only after a long time. Meantime the NDP's proposed plans could enter a complicated and arduous legislative cycle, ostensibly taking a course not in favour of the ordinary citizen. Still fresh in mind is the stalling on issuing the competition and anti-trust law. Everyone knows that vested interests have stood in the way of its passage, with the ultimate objective of killing the law.

The real test of the NDP's credibility then will be in its choice of candidates during the upcoming parliamentary elections. Its credibility will be reinstated when there is not amongst the candidates a drug dealer, draft-dodger or dozer-off during sessions discussing the vital matters affecting the nation.

Most important is the assertion during the NDP conference by Head of its Policies Committee Gamal Mubarak that he rejects the principle of hereditary succession. We must therefore strongly confront those who are advocating this principle against the very will of the president and his son. The proponents of hereditary rule might be fuelled by aspirations for their own political ascendancy among the Egyptian people. The latter, however, appreciate and support the affirmation by President Mubarak and his son that they will never sanction the principle of hereditary succession.