Politicising the Internet

Politics, economics and the Internet preoccupy the pundits, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed

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The Internet has once again dominated the headlines. Official newspapers and magazines launched a campaign against the Internet and the websites of Facebook and Youtube, as their Egyptian members were blamed for orchestrating the 6 April civil disobedience. It was crystal clear that certain government bodies asked the state-run newspapers to launch the attack, so the opposition papers speculated.

The daily official Al-Ahram launched a campaign against the Internet being used as a means to "incite violence", in a clear indication to 6 April. "The dark realm of the Internet in Egypt: Revealing pictures, obscenities, and incitement to commit violence", ran the headline of the feature. The feature, which was run without a byline, called for action to be taken "against the violations committed by Internet users before it becomes necessary to involve security agencies to restore order to this dangerous means that poses a threat to the security, stability and ethics of society."

In the meantime, the weekly magazine Rose El-Youssef launched a harsh critique against the popular website Facebook, via which a group of bloggers and Internet activists started 6 April. "Facebook is a secret room aimed at running Egypt" ran the headline of the file. "Members of the website are searching for gossip," the paper reported.

Official papers were unanimous in their criticism of the supposed misuse of the Internet. Indeed, Mohamed Ali Ibrahim, editor-in-chief of the daily official Al-Gomhuriya called upon readers to "boycott Youtube and Facebook websites". While slamming those who used Facebook to launch 6 April, he hailed members "who also suffer from skyrocketing commodity prices and dysfunctional [government] services, but use Facebook to fight against the websites that promoted the Dutch movie Fitna." All very confusing, indeed. Except, that is, if you reckon it is a case of killing two birds with one stone. Ibrahim added that the most logical thing to do now is withhold patronage of the offensive websites. "We should boycott Facebook and Youtube for the enemies of Islam are promoting anti-Islamic [ideas on them]."

Writing in the weekly opposition mouthpiece of the Nasserist Al-Arabi, Abdullah El-Sennawi reflected on the fallout from civil disobedience in the first week of April. "By condemning [6 April], some political parties have lost what was remaining of their audience and credibility -- and the image of the Muslim Brotherhood was deeply shaken." El-Sennawi added that there was a dire need to look into the usage of the new technologies. "Weapons and armoured vehicles come face to face with the new realms of technology... The main concern that preoccupies [President] Mubarak is making sure of the level of loyalty among the most important establishments of the state," he opined.

Writing in the weekly independent Sawt Al-Umma, Wael El-Ibrashi was shocked at seeing documents of the prosecution that described what happened in the clashes that took place between security and demonstrators on 6 April in Mahala. "The documents show that what happened in Mahala was a street war, and there were scores of victims due to bullets fired by the riot police. It's crystal clear that the skies of Mahala were raining bullets. What is all this blood? What are all these bullets?"

The paper also quoted the former governor of Gharbiya, where Mahala is located, who was unseated last week, as saying: "The government appointed a key official in the State Security Apparatus as the new governor of Gharbiya in order to oppress [the people] and control the city of demonstrations and strikes."

People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour was quoted in Al-Ahram as saying: "The 6 April strike was aimed at undermining stability and security to achieve doubtful aims."

Writing in the daily popular independent Al-Masry Al-Yom, Diaa Rashwan harshly criticised the presidential decree by virtue of which two new governorates -- Helwan and Sixth of October -- were created. "The re-division of [Greater Cairo governorates] and creating two provinces was far from the demands of the majority of Egyptians, and it was not one of the [critical] and urgent issues they wanted to solve." He added, "it has been a common feature of the way Egypt is being run that important decisions that affect the people's interests are conducted without the necessary studies."

Writing in the daily official Al-Akhbar, sarcastic writer Ahmed Ragab mocked Egypt's agricultural policies that give priority to unimportant crops and ignore vital ones like wheat. "The food crisis has become global. And despite the fact that we have [fertile] land and the [abundant] River Nile, we earmark only 10,000 feddans for the agriculture of beans -- our main dish -- and 180,000 feddans for the growing of sunflower seeds, and hundreds of thousands of feddans for the growing of tasteless cantaloupe and strawberries. We also grow two million feddans of alfalfa to achieve water security for donkeys. All these chaotic policies are not a result of bad planning; rather it's because of a severe lack in medicines that cure mental disorders [that afflicted policy-makers]."

Writing in the daily opposition Al-Wafd, Wahid Abdel-Meguid argued, "most businessmen [in Egypt] are totally secluded from ordinary people. They live their own lives, unaware of the increasing danger arising from the aggravation of the social crisis... and they think that the high fences they surrounded themselves with, and which further seclude them from the people, will be enough to protect them."

In Al-Wafd, Suleiman Gouda lamented the chaotic situation in Egypt. "What's really strange is that when an Egyptian is in a capital other than Cairo, he/she behaves well every step they take and turns from a chaotic creature, who is used to unlimited chaos in his home country, into a civilised person." Gouda added, "when a recent report says that the number of those killed [and injured] in accidents [in Egypt] hit 73,000 in a single year, this only means that what is happening in our streets is a war, not an ordinary movement of traffic. The US has been fighting in Iraq for five years, and the number of its soldiers killed there did not exceed 4,000!"

And, with his magical touch as always, veteran writer Mohamed Hassanein Heikal was quoted in Al-Masry Al-Yom as saying: "The Egyptian press is experiencing a crisis, and this is attributed to the general atmosphere in Egypt which is reflected on the media scene in general."

In much the same vein, and echoing similar sentiments, Al-Arabi ran a full-page interview with a newspaper vendor in downtown Cairo. Asked what makes newspapers sell most, Attia Khalifa said: "Criticising the government". And asked what makes a newspaper sell more, criticising the government or publishing more sports news, he answered: "Criticising the government."