Stability vs vulnerability
A government challenged to deliver on its promises of change was the focus of the Egyptian press this week, writes Aziza Sami
In the wake of the Egyptian economy's bashing by US trade representative Robert Zoellick at the recent Davos-Amman Summit, Lamis El-Hadidi in the 30 June issue of the economic daily Al-Aalam Al-Yom wrote of the sharp criticism that Zoellick had directed to what she described as Egypt's "slow pace of reform, which is still affecting the economy's growth". El-Hadidi said that Zoellick had defined the vulnerable points that continue to hamper the establishing of a free trade area between Egypt and the US, which included "a customs regime not congruent with a modern economy and one of the highest rates of tax on imports in the world".
El-Hadidi cited Zoellick's statement that "Egyptians must know" that the fact that Egypt is at the heart of the Arab world, in addition to its being a big and important country, is not sufficient for things to be handed over on a silver platter. El-Hadidi wrote that the US trade representative had expressed to her "even more criticisms" in an interview, repeating that "You must tell your government to honour its commitments."
Zoellick, she wrote, had discovered that the Egyptian cabinet "does not speak with one voice, and says one thing while doing exactly the opposite". This was in reference to the conflicting positions allegedly taken within the cabinet over what Egypt's stance should be on the current dispute over genetically modified foods that has arisen between the US and Europe. While Minister of Trade Youssef Boutros-Ghali promised that Egypt would support the US in its case against the European Union, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took the view that there was no need for Egypt to become involved in the issue, El-Hadidi wrote, which could anger its European partners.
"The whole matter shows the extent to which the Egyptian vision is unclear, and confirms to the Americans the dysfunctions in the Egyptian economic decision-making process, and the country's lack of commitment to international obligations," Zoellick commented. Writing on the same topic in the national daily Al-Akhbar on 2 July, columnist Said Sonbol said that the ordinary Egyptian citizen would surely empathise with Zoellick's remarks "because [notwithstanding what our government might say] he is painfully aware of the reality -- when he sees how businesses flee Egypt's bureaucratic practices, for example, headed for Dubai, Amman or Tunis".
News of more impending "liberalisation" was published on 1 July, in relation to a meeting between Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and World Bank officials. The national daily Al-Ahram put the matter in non- committal terms, saying that both sides had agreed "to support government policies that upgrade economic performance and take care of limited income groups". The latter phrase is traditionally used by the national press to refer to liberalisation measures that it is assumed, or hoped, "will not affect limited income groups", the roundabout approach emanating from the political sensitivities of a government concerned with the "negative fallout" that will inevitably arise from economic liberalisation and privatisation.
However, as reported the news did not make clear that the "support" to be given by the World Bank is, in fact, a one-billion-dollars loan to be provided jointly by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, which is contingent on more liberal economic reforms. By contrast, the opposition weekly Al-Ahali, issued by the left-wing Tagammu' Party, on 2 July referred to the long-drawn out negotiations with the World Bank, which had started at the beginning of the year, writing that "before the disbursal of the one-billion-dollars loan the World Bank sets as a condition the restructuring of banks and economic entities."
The pressures put on the government by the US trade representative at Amman, as well as the World Bank negotiations, were apparent in headlines reported in the dailies on 5 July, which stated that the upcoming cabinet meeting will look into "developing the taxation and customs systems, in order to facilitate investment". (Al-Aalam Al-Yom).
Politically, and still on the domestic front, the national dailies on 3 July reported the upcoming annual meeting of the ruling National Democratic Party, due in September. Despite repeated promises of "change" and of "reform", the tenacity of a government bent on maintaining the status quo, and with it that prime quality called "stability", was clear in statements attributed to NDP Secretary General and Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif. Al-Akhbar on 3 July reported El-Sherif as saying "No elections and no changes in the NDP National Congress", adding that "President Mubarak is concerned with the complete stability of the party, which has attained successes all year long." The minister pointed out that it was not the "NDP annual congress", but the "NDP general congress", held every five years, which undertakes elections to party leadership positions.
As the precarious "entente" between the Palestinian factions and the Israeli military continued to develop, Makram Mohamed Ahmed, editor-in-chief of the national weekly magazine Al-Mussawar , on 4 July traced the developments that had led Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah each to announce their acceptance of interim cease-fire periods of varying duration. Shedding light on Egypt's mediation efforts, Ahmed also urged the US to "hasten to reinforce supervision on both sides in a manner that will ensure that both sides maintain their commitments. Otherwise", he admonished, "the chance will remain of extremists here and there aborting the cease-fire."
Signs of a new crisis erupting between the independent weekly Al- Osbou' and Minister of Agriculture Youssef Wali became clearer on 7 July when the paper wrote that the minister had presented a complaint against it to the prosecutor general. The indefatigable Al-Osbou', whose editors were recently released from jail after being convicted of defamation, had conducted a campaign against Wali accusing him of covering up corruption within his ministry. However, the main editorial, written by the paper's editor-in-chief Mustafa Bakri, was entitled "Re-instating Iraqi Self-respect", in reference to the fierce and rising Iraqi resistance against the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq.
On 6 July the opposition weekly Al-Arabi, issued by the Nasserist Party, presented its now ritual article on what the paper interprets as the "political ascendancy" of the son of the Egyptian president Gamal Mubarak. "Secrets of Gamal Mubarak's visit to Washington", read the title of one article, with another posing the question: "Does he represent the new generation of Egyptians?" Retired Ambassador Amin Youssri, who habitually addresses the presidency in a rather bold manner for his part urged "Your political constituency is here, not in the US".
Al-Arabi scouted the opinions of legal experts who denounced the recent agreement concluded between Egypt and the US to turn over to each other, and not to the International Criminal Court, suspects charged with alleged war crimes. The agreement is one of a series concluded by the US with different countries, allegedly through incentives and threats of cutting off economic assistance.
On 4 July Al-Ahram published statements by Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher that "Egypt has not joined the agreement to establish the International Criminal Court," adding that "if a suspect is not brought to trial in his own country, then he can come under the ICC's jurisdiction." Al- Arabi intimated that the foreign minister's statements had come in response to an article written by Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama on 3 July, in which he was critical of the course taken by Egypt on the matter.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 10 - 16 July 2003 (Issue No. 646)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/646/pr1.htm