Blaming the opposition

By Salama A Salama

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What is it that makes outsiders criticise the course of democratisation in Egypt? What is it that makes Egypt feel defensive about it? Is Washington really destabilising us through its democracy-training institutes? Such things are being published everyday in this country. Obviously, some people want to smear the opposition. They want to portray opposition members as opportunists lured by foreign funding, all of which is nonsense.

It's no secret that Egypt coordinates its foreign and domestic policies with the US. Hardly a week passes by without a senior official from Congress or the State Department visiting. Gamal Mubarak's trip to the US was but one example of the ongoing coordination. Cairo and Washington have a lot to talk about: Iraq, Iran, Palestine and even Darfur. Often, the Egyptian government does what the Americans want. Yet, Egyptian-US relations are growing steadily in various commercial, economic and military fields. Egypt and the US cooperate on education, development programmes, democratisation, human rights and gender. Delegations travel back and forth between the two countries, signing agreements and arranging for loans and funding.

Egyptian-US cooperation is extensive. This doesn't mean that Cairo and Washington see eye to eye on everything. The Americans often exert pressure through various means, including aid. And Cairo offers some resistance, but most of the time it gives in. Let's admit it. We're weak because we've waited too long before introducing economic and political reforms. We have signed the QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zones) agreement although what we really wanted was a free trade agreement. And try as we may, we cannot get Israel to push ahead with the peace process.

Recently, the US House of Representatives threatened to slash aid to Egypt, saying it was displeased with our pace of democratisation and our human rights record. And the Americans cannot understand why we slapped Ayman Nour with a five- year imprisonment term.

It was in this context that Egypt decided to close down the Republican Institute, which had been operating for a few months, saying that it failed to obtain the right permits. The Democratic Institute -- another US body that seeks to promote democracy -- was also closed down. The two institutes had been active in monitoring the elections and had provided several civil rights groups with assistance. The government did not object to any of this. Suddenly it decided the closure of the two institutes would be a good idea. And it made a big fuss about it, as if it were defending the nation in doing so. At the same time, the government began suggesting that the Egyptian opposition is vaguely implementing a US agenda.

This is disinformation in action. Calls for democracy in this country are purely domestic and real. Foreign pressures have nothing to do with democratisation in this country, although they don't harm. The government, however, is looking for pretext to slow down the pace of reform. The judges' crisis was not created by America. Nor were the lame constitutional amendments the National Democratic Party wants to introduce. The government is mishandling the judiciary law. It is refraining from abolishing imprisonment in publishing cases. And it keeps extending the state of emergency for any number of excuses. None of this can be blamed on Washington. These are purely domestic issues. The Americans may bring such things up, but this is beside the point. We have problems and we need to face them, instead of blaming the opposition for being pro- American.