A bitter pill

With tear-inducing tension, the tug-of-war between pharmacists and the Ministry of Finance dominated the domestic scene, writes Gamal Nkrumah

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This is no time for niggardliness, the pundits concurred. As the credit squeeze tightens, professionals and beleaguered associations feel less equipped to protect themselves from what they regard as gross government interference in their affairs. The Pharmacists' Syndicate is sadly a quintessential example of the professional associations who resent being victimised in times of crisis.

The pundits, preoccupied with the pharmacists' strike on 16 February, tended to side with the grievances of the Pharmacists' Syndicate. Pharmacies closed down, with the notable exception of government-run pharmacies, and patients in dire need of medicine were at their wits' end. The pharmacists were furious because of a unilateral decision taken by the Ministry of Finance and Tax Authority to cancel a tax agreement between the Tax Authority and the Pharmacists' Syndicate. The agreement stipulates that pharmacies are classified as small businesses and so, were not liable to be more heavily taxed than previously.

Deputy Chairman of the Pharmacist's Syndicate Mohamed Abdel-Gawwad met the head of the Tax Authority and apparently was given short shrift in a five-minute meeting. "Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif came under intense criticism for his government's inability to assuage the anger and frustration of pharmacists and other professionals", ran the front-page headline of the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom.

"Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali negotiated with the Ministry of Finance to resolve the crisis of confidence with the Pharmacists' Syndicate. El-Gabali presented a memorandum in which he specified the demands of the syndicate and pleaded with the Ministry of Finance not to rescind on the agreement with the syndicate over taxation," the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the Wafd Party, reported.

"A dangerous escalation in the imbroglio between the pharmacists and the Ministry of Finance on the eve of the strike of the pharmacists", noted the independent daily Nahdat Masr. The paper quoted Ashraf El-Arabi, chairman of the Tax Authority, as saying pharmacists have taken patients hostage in order to force the government into rescinding on its taxation policy.

Al-Masry Al-Yom also tackled the strike by truck drivers who are protesting at the new traffic law deemed detrimental to their interests. "Eleven truck drivers were arrested and the transport of cargo was brought to an abrupt standstill that paralysed the country," the paper lamented.

Nahdat Masr reported that there was a parliamentary furore when Rifaat El-Said, head of the opposition leftist Tagammu Party, was quoted as saying, "the government failed to protect the poor, and has put everything in the hands of dinosaurs." He said that there are about eight "dinosaurs" who control everything in the country and that the people loathe them. "The government cannot touch them or bring them to book," El-Said was quoted as saying.

While on the domestic front there was plenty to write about, foreign affairs were no less contentious. On the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Islamic revolution several political commentators ventured to evaluate the pros and cons of the revolution and to access the state of Arab-Iranian relations.

In a full-page interview in Al-Masry Al-Yom former foreign minister Ahmed Maher lambasted Arab regimes as petty and incompetent and disclosed his sympathy for Iran and admiration for Turkey. "The fear of Turkey and Iran incarcerates Arabs in the prison of history and the past," Maher warned. "Discussions between Arab regimes has reached an unprecedented low level," Maher observed. "If America itself is considering dialogue with Iran, how can we as Arabs boycott Iran and blabber about the pointless Persian avarice?"

The division of Arab states into "moderates" and "militants" reflects the general state of confusion and trepidation, Maher noted. "There is no problem that has no solution. I do not exempt Iran from committing certain mistakes. However, we have to take into consideration the fact that Iran is threatened, and that Tehran feels it has come under tremendous pressure from America and the West because of its nuclear ambitions," Maher maintained. "The real purpose behind Western coercion is their insistence on prohibiting developing countries from benefiting from nuclear capabilities, for both peaceful and military purposes."

In much the same vein, Yehia El-Gamal applauded the Iranian post-revolution experience. "The experiment of the Islamic revolution in Iran is exciting and thoroughly stimulating. No doubt the revolution was directly responsible for the creation of a powerful political entity that imposes itself on the international and regional arenas as a key player."

Official dailies were more concerned with foreign affairs, or to be more precise, regional concerns. "Egypt urges America to implement its pledge of establishing the state of Palestine", trumpeted the official daily Al-Ahram. A photo of Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu-Gheit posing before the cameras and shaking the hand of his US counterpart Hillary Clinton accompanied the front-page report by veteran reporter Hoda Tawfik and Assem Abdel-Khaleq. "We are not obliged to honour any bilateral agreement between Washington and Tel Aviv to which we are not a party," Abul-Gheit was quoted as saying. In other words, Egypt reiterated its position that Washington must change course radically on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. It would be foolish for the Obama administration to underestimate public fury in the Arab and Muslim worlds concerning Israel's assault on Gaza and the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, including 400 children.

Egypt must be a foul-weather friend. It is in the country's interest to do so. This much was clear in a report in the official daily Al-Gomhuriya on the US Congressional delegation that met President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm El-Sheikh. US Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey was present. Much of the discussion, according to the paper, focussed on the Gaza reconstruction schemes, and the conference scheduled to take place in Egypt concerning the contentious issue of Gaza's rebuilding. The meeting also sought to access the state of bilateral relations between Egypt and the US in light of the Middle East policies of the administration of US President Barack Obama.

Nothing short of an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory and the creation of a Palestinian state will do.

The independent daily Al-Ahrar was even more forthright. "Hamas is immature, Fatah is in the grips of a crisis and Israel waits for a gift from the heavens," the paper said. "The Camp David accords are still the most appropriate solution," Al-Ahrar concluded. "And, the option of the West Bank and Gaza is still on the cards."