Soapbox:

If it ain't broke

By Nasser Amin

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No part of the Egyptian constitution is more protective of human rights than Chapter III, especially Articles 40-45, which ban arrests without warrant, searches without court orders, snooping, and phone tapping. Now the government wants to introduce an anti-terror law that would supersede those constitutional provisions. The government wants to change the constitution in a way that would entitle it to harass people and prevent them from travelling without court orders. It wants to make phone tapping and home searches constitutionally acceptable.

The government is telling us that major countries, such as the UK and the US, have introduced such measures after 9/11. But this is not the same thing. These two countries have public opinion and democratic traditions that keep the government in check. We don't. Our government gets away with everything, and now it is demanding more power. This is why it is important that we have a constitution that defends human rights. If the government wants to take extraordinary measures, that's its business. But it mustn't be allowed to change the constitution so as to give its deeds a thin veneer of legitimacy. The people and the constitution should not be made to pay for the government's inability to resolve certain issues. The government reacts to everything as if it were a security problem, and now it wants to alter the constitution to justify its stance. The constitution is fine as it is: don't fix it.

This week's Soapbox speaker is director of the Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession.