Local papers were inundated with news of the NDP congress, while the Arab press managed to neatly balance domestic and global concerns, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed

Party politicking

The ruling NDP convention hit the headlines like a colossal bombshell

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The week kicked off with extensive coverage of President Hosni Mubarak's four-day visit to France and his meeting with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy. But then the annual convention of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) metamorphosed into the exclusive focus of the press.

The NDP had the undivided attention of the pundits. The official daily Al-Ahram portrayed a glittery picture of the party bigwigs who have come under increasingly vicious attacks in recent weeks. Businessmen already occupy the top jobs, and they were the subjects of much recrimination.

As its habit around this time of year, the Egyptian press, be it official, opposition or independent, was awash with news reports and opinion pieces about the annual NDP convention. Positions varied according to the editorial policy of the newspapers.

"Every Egyptian is entitled to the fruits of [economic] reform and development," Al-Ahram quoted President Mubarak as saying on the first day of the convention. "We thank God that we have not sustained losses as a result of the global credit crisis," he added. Mubarak also outlined the agenda of the NDP in the coming period. "The main priority of the state will be given to spending on investments," he was quoted as saying. "We will go on with economic reforms unhesitatingly" a headline quoting Mubarak read.

Almost the same quotes made the headlines of the state-owned dailies Al-Akhbar, Al-Gomhuriya and Rose El-Youssef which spread pages for the convention. On the other side, independent and opposition newspapers and pundits harshly criticised the NDP. Writing in the daily Al-Masry Al-Yom, Hassan Nafaa called upon "the NDP to review its policies and admit its mistakes. This is the first, and least, step the party should take in order to render the attempts of saving Egypt successful before the country enters a dark tunnel due to its policies."

Meanwhile, the daily leftist Al-Badeel followed suit, having published articles highly critical of the NDP's annual convention. In its column, Iman Yehia slammed the annual convention, describing it as "the annual conference of the ruling Soviet Party", arguing that it's a party of a totalitarian nature. "The annual moulid of the NDP was concluded resulting in nothing new. All the conventions of the NDP seem to try to paint a rosy picture of a grim political, social and economic reality." And, there was more to be said. "Empty slogans and promises are always used [in the NDP's conventions] without real outcome."

Leaders of the NDP, on their part, commenced their annual meeting by opening fire on the opposition, accusing opposition leaders and writers of unjustifiably attacking the party and its officials. Writing in the daily opposition Al-Dostour, Ibrahim Eissa harshly criticised Ahmed Ezz, head of the NDP's Organisational Affairs Committee for attacking the opposition in his speech at the conference. "Ahmed Ezz's speech at the NDP's convention is politically unintelligent and heresy," the writer argued. Eissa is currently facing trial on charges of defaming NDP leaders.

Wide coverage of the activities of the NDP's conference and the activities of its leaders in the national media, which allocated numerous pages for the event, provoked independent MP Gamal Zahran. Writing in the weekly Sawt Al-Umma, Zahran wondered, "I don't know why media professors and experts do not comment on or criticise the unjustified wide coverage allotted to the NDP and its leaders in the national newspapers and other media." These media venues, Zahran argued, "are owned by the nation, not the government, so it should not be used for propaganda for government and the ruling party's figures."

On a more mundane note, Salama Ahmed Salama reflected on government policies adopted in the past couple of years to combat avian flu. Writing in Al-Ahram, Salama criticised the government for failing in curtailing avian flu that swept Egypt. "When bird flu emerged in Egypt, the authorities took uncalculated, unstudied measures to save the poultry industry in order to prevent a famine... these measures have partially succeeded in curtailing the epidemic." However, the writer continued, these efforts were not continued with the same vigour. "As usual, when relative improvement in curtailing the epidemic took place, laziness in fighting the epidemic reigned supreme until Egypt ranked third in the countries in which the virus transformed and was finally transmitted to human beings," Salama argued. He added that "officials should have seized the opportunity after the improvement in fighting the epidemic in its first stages to prevent it from being transmitted to human beings... the problem is that the government puts plans and scenarios on paper, without implementing them in reality."

The Coptic question cropped up again. Apart from routine clashes between Muslims and Copts, the issue of how many Copts there are in the country resurfaced again this week as Pope Shenouda was quoted last week as revealing the number in Egypt today. "The number of Copts in Egypt is five million, not 12 million," wrote Abul-Ela Madi, founder of the unlicensed Islamic-leaning Al-Wasat Party in Sawt Al-Umma. Madi displayed a number of statistics conducted over the past decades showing the number of Copts. "This, however, does not mean that Copts should enjoy lesser rights. Even if the percentage of the Copts are less than one per cent, they are of course entitled to all citizenship rights."

The government refrains from revealing the number of Copts.