A deafening silence

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Constitutional change

Regardless of how you interpret President Hosni Mubarak's decision to amend Article 76 of the Constitution and initiate multiple-candidate elections the dialogue it provoked imparted new life to Egypt's hitherto stagnant political scene.

Yet despite the ink spilled in government and opposition papers, and meetings held by political forces and non-governmental organisations, the public has remained strangely silent. There have been no mass demonstrations to demand safeguards for these newly acquired rights, to insist they benefit the whole population and not just a tiny section.

The handful of people who have let their opinions be known -- voicing either approval, or reservation -- are the same groups who had earlier called for a constitutional overhaul and wide-ranging political reform, and who had opposed the bequest of power. And yet the general public has remained silent, and this at a time when in Lebanon people have demonstrated in their thousands for and against Syrian withdrawal.

One explanation for this seeming apathy when compared with other nations in the region is the ubiquity of Egypt's state media. The official media in this country is hardly supportive of public action, a sad by-product of years of emergency laws.

But then the general public is itself media savvy. It learned, as long ago as the defeat of 1967, a lesson that became the mainstay of our political culture. Egypt suffers from an internal credibility gap. The public simply does not believe the propaganda, gives no credence to sudden and reckless moves, vague slogans and big announcements, not when they seem to be leading towards confrontation with the West, or with the central authority in Egypt.

The Egyptian public will remain sceptical until it sees concrete results. The public is hyper-realist, and it is this realism that gives the impression of a moderation that verges on passivity.

The announcement that the Constitution will be changed remains a historic decision. It implores us all to register our responses. The public must accept its share of responsibility, stand up for its rights and defend the nation against those in whose interest it is to fashion constitutional articles that will allow them to retain their privileges at the expense of the rest of the population.