In need of reconciliation

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Two weeks ahead of the holy month of Ramadan and only a few days before the beginning of a new school year and the streets of Cairo are increasingly frenetic. As every Egyptian household knows the panic has very little to with anticipation of either event and everything to do with the cost.

Inflation has soared in recent months, with some basic commodities registering price increases of up to 40 per cent. Many members of the public feel the price hikes to be unjustified, and they underpin the growing sense of resentment felt towards the political establishment.

True, the government has promised that prices will be controlled during Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr, if the headlines of the state-controlled press are to be believed. But are there any guarantees that the market can be subjected to such control? And can Egyptians, who have lived for decades with hollow promises of better wages, infrastructure, education, healthcare and even political reform, be expected to believe them?

Officials should make promises sparingly if they want to regain some credibility. Instead of vowing to contain the surge in prices for the limited period of Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr they should be working year long on measures to ensure that Egyptians receive basic services and enjoy constitutionally enshrined rights every month of the year.

Rather than blame opposition groups for publicising allegations of torture by the police the establishment should be working on stamping out human rights violations within the security apparatus. Instead of arresting large numbers of Muslim Brotherhood members and accusing them of money laundering and plotting to assassinate state figures without providing a shred of convincing evidence, the ruling National Democratic Party should concentrate on becoming a real political party deserving of widespread public support. And instead of selling the public sector and public banks to foreign investors and compromising the independence of the economy the prime minister should be addressing the cancer of corruption that has caused once successful public assets to sink into the red.

Egypt is in need of reconciliation between its government and the people based on honesty and transparency. Promises of a better tomorrow will continue to fall on deaf ears as long as that tomorrow never comes. And the more the public waits, the likelier it becomes that the future will be bleaker than we can possibly imagine.