Party, or political, reform?
I am puzzled by the turn our much-hyped political reform has taken. The current approach to reform focusses more on the status quo than on the reasons behind the status quo. A debate has been launched involving the major parties -- National Democratic, Wafd, Nasserist, etc, all of which suffer from profound structural problems. The Egyptian population has long been alienated from both government and opposition. True political reform, one might assume, would address this problem. It would attempt to restore the trust between the public and its political representatives.
Most of our parties suffer from internal stagnation. The NDP, for one, is indistinguishable from the government. It has turned into an administrative agency run by political bureaucrats, not politicians. Some of these political bureaucrats have skills, but they lack the vision and vitality of politicians.
The opposition parties are no better. Their aging leaders oppose democracy within their own parties while advocating it for the country. The opposition parties suffer from dwindling membership and dwell blissfully on the peripheries of political and social life.
Political reform should start with removing restrictions on party formation. We have about 17 parties now, half of them inactive. We need to encourage non-governmental organisations as well as other political forces to become part of the country's political scene. Egypt does not need bureaucrats holding exchanges with other bureaucrats behind closed doors. It needs to encourage political and non-governmental groups to communicate, peacefully and democratically, with the public. It is communication with the public, not the authorities, that counts.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is a political analyst at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 18 - 24 December 2003 (Issue No. 669)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/669/op7.htm