Bumpy start

A new political party that seeks to break the monopoly over political life of the NDP and Muslim Brotherhood is already the subject of a smear campaign, reports Omayma Abdel-Latif

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Osama El-Ghazali Harb

Google the Freedom and Justice Party and the results are confusing. One link dating from March 2005 refers to a campaign to launch a party of that name by lawyer Amir Salem. Another cites the party as being recently founded by a group of Egyptian intellectuals headed by "a former member of the National Democratic Party", Osama El-Ghazali Harb, the editor-in-chief of Al-Siyasa Al-Dawliya.

Harb announced the launch of the Freedom and Justice Party last Wednesday, during an event organised at a five-star Cairo hotel and attended by 60 founding members. The gathering discussed a draft submitted by Harb setting out the guiding principles of the would-be party. Law professor and former minister Yehia Al-Gamal, actor Salah Al-Saadani and businessman Mohamed Mansour Hassan are among the founders.

The event could easily have passed with little fanfare had it not triggered a battle over the ownership of the party's name. Salem immediately came forward to claim that the name was his, going so far as accusing Harb of plagiarising his own party's documents.

"I spent six hours with Harb, explaining to him what our party was about and handed him leaflets describing the party's platform," Salem said in press statements. Salem explained that his party included among its 250 members the poet Ahmed Fouad Negm, artist Adel Al-Siwi, as well as prominent leaders of the 1970s student movement.

Harb dismissed Salem's accusations, saying that though he had met Salem briefly weeks ago, he "received no documents and turned down an offer to join the party ranks".

The conflict seems to reflect the malaise plaguing Egypt's political life, as intellectuals battle over side issues at the expense of more crucial questions.

Members of Harb's nascent party see in the battle a continuation of the smear campaign launched by the NDP's media machine after Harb resigned from the party's Policies Committee. He was the first person to do so, and his departure triggered a wave of resignations, including that of Hala Mustafa, editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal Democracy.

In explaining the reasons behind his resignation Harb criticised the NDP, saying that it resembled the communist party, and accused the regime of not being serious over implementing political reforms.

The daily Rose El-Youssef, viewed as the mouthpiece of the committee, spearheaded a campaign to tarnish Harb's public image which this week Harb denounced as "cheap and vile".

Al-Gamal claimed Salem's allegations were an attempt to undermine the party's public image and cast doubts on its future abilities to function. He pointed out that the party's name had been the subject of lengthy discussions among members and that Harb had suggested it be called the Democratic People's Party.

But the battle, in some ways, is less about the name of the party than over its political identity. During the press conference Harb referred to a 17-page document which he said was only a draft proposal since the platform "was still being finalised".

Harb's Freedom and Justice Party is the latest effort by Egypt's liberals to break what they describe as the monopolising of political life by the Muslim Brotherhood and the NDP. In the wake of last year's parliamentary elections, in which the NDP won the vast majority of seats, and the Muslim Brotherhood emerged as by far the largest opposition group, calls for the founding of a new party capable of staking out the middle ground between the NDP and the Brotherhood were increasingly heard.

When Harb submitted his resignation to the NDP he emerged a champion of efforts to form a new party, the purpose of which, he says, is to "fill the great void" that has opened in a political landscaped hi-jacked by the Muslim Brotherhood and the NDP.

The party will adopt a liberal line, explains Harb, but not a liberal ideology, and seeks to embrace members from across the political spectrum.

"They will be working under one guiding principle -- a strong commitment to freedom, democracy and dialogue." The aim of the party, says Harb, will be to accelerate the process of democratic transformation which is the only possible exit from the current crisis.

Though Harb intends to submit a request to the Political Parties Committee for a licence, it is far from clear what the impact of his strained relations with the ruling NDP will have on its reception.

Whether the party is approved or not, many observers are sceptical of its ability to mobilise a silent majority that has for decades been alienated from the political process: "There is political capital out there and there is resentment and the big challenge is for the party to engage with its real constituency by offering them new ideas and solutions to Egypt's chronic problems," says El-Gamal.