Defining issues

Workers and judges, Coptic Christians and rights activists, ministers, politicians and tycoons are all, understandably, on different wavelengths, writes Gamal Nkrumah

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"Participatory politics, is a principle that President Hosni Mubarak has instituted. He has put all the facts before the Egyptian people. The resolution to entrench peace that has been undertaken by Egypt is an Arab initiative. The Arabs have begun to understand its contents after a quarter of a century of liberating Sinai," wrote Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Osama Saraya.

"peace paved the way for a parallel liberation of our political and economic life. The state reiterated its commitment to the protection of those with low incomes. The state will never abandon them and no citizen will be negatively impacted by the economic liberalisation process." Saraya added in a front page op-ed piece on the Tuesday edition that coincided with the Sinai Liberation Day. Saraya's optimistic outlook was centred around the notion of peace and political stability.

This sort of political tactfulness has been accompanied by a studied makeover of the country's political image which was not picked up by the Egyptian opposition and independent papers. Indeed, some took the occasion to highlight the plight of the indigenous Bedouin population of Sinai. The independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom ran a front-page feature on the Bedouins of Sinai entitled, "The other face of the crisis of the Sinai Bedouins from the Mahdiya Camp."

"A few yards separate the village of Al-Mahdiya from the barbed wire fence demarcating the border between Egypt and Israel. It is at this particular site that the Bedouins of Sinai chose to erect their protest camp," noted Al-Masry Al-Yom.

"They hoisted the Egyptian flag and some 2000 Sinai Bedouins staged a sit-in protest. Tensions are running high in Sinai since the violent clashes between the state security forces and the Bedouins in the aftermath of the [2004] Taba bombings".

The report described in some detail the difficulties faced by the Sinai Bedouins and outlined their grievances. "The Bedouins were subjected to collective punishment. Not even the Bedouin women were spared".

The following day, the paper claimed in a follow-up report that 70 per cent of Sinai Bedouins "do not trust the government". Al-Masry Al-Yom most certainly is sympathetic to the Bedouin cause.

In much the same vein, the paper also tackled the question of religious freedoms. In an article entitled "The crisis of those returning to the Christian fold", the question of freedom of religion spurred by the controversial court ruling that Christians who convert to Islam were not permitted by the Civil Registry to have their religion changed back to Christianity. A group of Christians decided to take the Registry to court and lost the case. Human rights groups considered the court ruling as an infringement on the religious freedoms and rights of the country's Christians. Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was quoted as saying that it was shameful that Christians who convert to Islam are not entitled to revert to Christianity, at least not on their official papers, documents and identity cards.

Secularists on the other hand, the paper stressed, believe that the Coptic Church was to blame. They claimed the crisis would only be resolved if the church reviews its position on marriage and divorce. The Coptic Church forbids divorce, which secularists argue is the main reason why many Coptic Christians convert to Islam. The church, needless to say, hotly denies the charge.

This whole controversy gives the lie to the notion that religious debates no longer routinely provoke the angst it used to a decade ago.

Pundits also touched on the prickly subject of the grievances of the restless judges of Egypt. Most commentators concurred that the judges have been at the forefront of the struggle for democratic reform in the country. They are currently resentful of the government's plans to extend their age of retirement. More than 100 judges staged a sit-in protest on Sunday at the downtown headquarters of the Cairo Judges Club to remonstrate against a new amendment of the judiciary law which would extend the age of retirement of judges from 68 to 70. The amendment, which was approved by the People's Assembly last week, has once again led to a confrontation between the judiciary on the one hand, and the legislature and the executive on the other. Yet the judges stopped short of marching in a demonstration to the Presidential Palace, ostensibly because of security considerations.

Workers' Day did not go unnoticed by the pundits, either. The independent liberal-leaning daily Nahdat Masr ran a front page headline that read, "Workers celebrate their day under a security cordon". The article mentioned demonstrations in Tahrir Square, downtown Cairo; a protest meeting of the Egyptian Movement for Change, better known as Kifaya; sit-ins in Mansoura, a city in the northeastern Delta, because of layoffs; and "disturbances in Gharbiya" instigated by the workers.

Al-Ahrar, the mouthpiece of Al-Ahrar opposition party, trumpeted a weird banner about the Minister for Military Production Sayed Mishaal who blames "thieves" for the chaos in the iron and steel market. The minister was quoted as saying that there is a "mafia" which must be brought under control. However, he also warned of price hikes for iron and steel.

The controversy about the iron and steel industry revolves around the supposed corruption of Ahmed Ezz, head of the NDP's Budget and Planning Committee , and an iron and steel tycoon. "I am not defending anyone," Minister Mishaal was quoted as saying in Al-Ahrar in a barely-veiled reference to Ezz.

Rose El-Youssef, the paper as opposed to the magazine, picked up on the theme. "No one is above the law," Ezz was quoted as saying, obviously referring to himself. He stressed that, the "Egyptian market is free of monopolies". He also denied that there were differences between the Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid and himself.