Foreign indifference
Perhaps foreign policy is simply not an issue with many of Egypt's presidential hopefuls, writes Magda El-Ghitany
In their campaigns, Egypt's 10 presidential candidates have focussed on pressing bread and butter issues such as education, health, unemployment, youth and agriculture. Most have very little to offer as far as the country's foreign policy agenda is concerned.
"None of the candidates explained Egypt's foreign policy priorities in the years ahead," Mohamed Salmawy, the Egyptian Writers' Union head and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo, a weekly French publication, stated in a recent column that even though drawing a clear foreign policy agenda is of vital necessity for Egypt, which enjoys a strategic location and is an influential regional player, none of the candidates have put foreign policy atop the list of their electoral programmes.
Indeed, few of the candidates dwelt on the Palestinian issue, the Iraqi crisis, relations with the United States, Iran or Israel. Africa hardly featured at all.
Presidential candidates approached by Al-Ahram Weekly insisted that Egypt's foreign policy is of vital importance. But, their concept of the country's foreign policy appeared to be made up of unrealistic sloganeering and bombast.
Osama Shaltout, Takaful Party candidate, gave a typical response. He said that Egypt is the "home of all Arabs". Liberating Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque through what he called "the struggle for peace" tops his foreign policy agenda. Shaltout also emphasised that the Egyptian-Arab relations is now managed in "an extremely traditional manner that is unable to deal with the dramatic changes in the region." A common Arab market and an Arab Court of Justice are the two goals he will try to accomplish.
Ibrahim Tork, Ittihadi Party candidate, said that Egypt should "compete" with Israel in various fields -- cultural and the social, rather than militarily. However, Tork told the Weekly, this does not signal his party's readiness to "normalise relations with Israel". Tork also said that Egyptian diplomacy must pave the way for attracting foreign investment. It must also open global markets for Egyptian products.
Rifaat El-Agroudi, Al-Wifaq Al-Qawmi Party candidate, said that Egypt should possess nuclear weapons. El-Agroudi's main focus, he said, is "restoring Egypt's leading role in the Middle East and Africa".
El-Agroudi classified states as "friends" or "enemies" of Egypt. "Friends must support major Arab causes such as Palestine." Egypt should also support the Palestinian and Iraqi peoples through "all possible means", he declared without being specific.
Arab Socialist Egypt Party's candidate, Wahid El-Oqssori stated that the only means through which Egypt can only "freely pursue" its own foreign policy without bowing to "external pressures" by forming a "strong and unified Arab front". El-Oqssori also said that Egypt should restore "lost" ties with Africa.
In a TV interview on Monday, Mustafa El-Feki, head of the People's Assembly Foreign Relations Committee, stated that "Foreign policy should not be overlooked" in candidates' programmes because a good foreign policy serves the country's economic interests. Mahmoud Abaza, deputy head of the Wafd Party, said that throughout history, Egyptians had never separated between domestic and external issues. "Pivotal issues, like the Palestinian question, have been always been uppermost in the minds of the people of Egypt," Abaza said.
The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), and the opposition Wafd and Ghad parties have clearer foreign policy strategies. Gehad Auda, chairman of international relations department at Helwan University and member of the NDP Policies Committee, told the Weekly that the NDP's foreign policy agenda includes a "multilateral approach" to foreign affairs and seeks to "establish strong ties with Africa, Europe, Russia and Japan", instead of applying a "unilateral" approach that focusses only on Egyptian-American relations. Further, Auda noted, Egypt will seek to intensify its participation in international organisations like the UN and the African Union (AU). "We also aim at creating a joint Arab stand to reduce the incidence of inter-Arab conflicts.
Noaman Gomaa, Wafd Party's contender, stated that Sudan is of strategic importance and that Egypt should work on preventing any external intervention in Sudanese domestic affairs. Egypt, he said, must strengthen its ties with its Arab neighbours and re- establish the primary role it once assumed in the Arab world, through supporting the Arab League and establishing a common Arab market. Gomaa also noted that Egypt's relations with the US should be based on "mutual interests".
Ambassador Nagui El-Ghetrifi, Ghad Party's spokesman for foreign affairs, said that his party is mainly keen to "consolidate Egypt's relations with Sudan."
Political analyst Amr El-Shobky at Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said that the point is that candidates had to move from focussing on certain bilateral issues, like the Palestinian question and Egyptian-Israeli relations. He said Egypt's relations with other regions like Latin America should be strengthened. Presidential programmes, El-Shobky added, had also to "genuinely" enhance Egypt's relations with African countries.
The main reason behind the marginalisation of foreign policy in this year's campaign is that Egypt is still "unable to formulate a foreign policy independent of US strategic interests in the region", although it has been trying to break loose of the American stranglehold.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/758/eg44.htm