Road to real reform
By Amr Elchoubaki
Parties were allowed back into political life some 30 years ago, but they're still on the sidelines. We have about 24 parties in this country. Only a few of them are seriously engaged in political and public life. Some parties have all the history and the experience one would hope for, and yet no political role to mention. Others have been formed by administrative decisions and serve as decorative props at most. Their leaders busy themselves reading palms and trading in pilgrimage visas. A leader of a certain party that was given a licence to operate of late said he wasn't really interested in politics.
The Wafd, Al-Ghad, Tagammu and Nasserist parties can no longer pose a serious threat to the National Democratic Party. Even the Democratic Front Party seems to be heading in the same direction. The regime and its security services have succeeded in banishing all political talent from the scene, leaving only those who can fight endless legal battles in the courts to get their parties approved.
A strong opposition is good for both the country and the government. A capable opposition would force the ruling party to get its act together. But some of our oldest political parties seem to have just run out of steam, mostly because of the political constraints they have to deal with. The Wafd Party won only six seats in the recent legislative elections.
We need reform, but the quest for reform is greater than anything our political parties can undertake for the moment. We have determined reformers, but we lack the institutional framework through which they can make a difference. So what shall we do? I have a suggestion. Our activists should put together a reform movement, one transcending the organisational boundaries of their own parties and reaching out to reformers inside our state institutions. It can be done, for what is needed in this country is real reform, not the mirage some people keep talking about.
This week's Soapbox speaker is an analyst at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/850/op7.htm