Ex-ministers, editors, business people get rough treatment from government, media
Egypt has barely entered its post-revolutionary era, but the hunt is already on for the country’s missing big money. Legal proceedings as well as public naming and shaming are used as Egypt struggles to follow the money trail of corruption.
Minister of Trade and Industry Samir Sayyad on Sunday banned the export of gold from Egypt, saying that "exceptional circumstances" forced the government to take action to preserve the country’s wealth. The cabinet approved reopening on Tuesday of the stock exchange, which had been kept closed since January 25 out of concern it will be used to funnel capital out of the country.
A list of Egyptians and Arabs owning private jets in Egypt was published on Monday by the weekly Al-Fagr. The list was topped by Gamal Mubarak, the son of deposed President Husni Mubarak, who was alleged to own a private jet and a pilot’s license.
In the long list of protestors’ grievances against the Mubarak regime, especially the coterie of business people surrounding Gamal Mubarak, corruption and profiteering were at the top. Reports of Husni Mubarak’s personal wealth reached the unlikely sum of $70 billion.
Some economists have expressed concern that the bad name reform and privatization got from the Mubarak era will make it difficult for the new government to undertake changes the economy needs to resume growth and create jobs. But analysts said they didn’t believe the pursuit of ill-gotten gains would turn into a general witch hunt against Egypt’s rich.
"There is general hostility towards the business community in Egypt," Samer Soliman, a professor of political economy at the American University in Cairo (AUC), told The Media Line. "The police regime of Mubarak had strong ties with the business community … [but] "I believe most businessmen in Egypt should be happy, because the new era will bring an end to the nepotism associated with Gamal Mubarak.”
Soliman said the best-connected business people in Egypt were justifiably worried, an inevitable price paid for collaborating with Mubarak. But, he added, suspicion is mainly being directed at specific people and not the business community as a whole.
A new grassroots body called the Egyptian Front for Reclaiming the People’s Wealth emerged in early February, claiming that a former Egyptian official transferred some $620 million from Barclay’s Bank in Britain to UBS Bank in Switzerland. Muhammad Mahsoub, the group’s secretary-general, said he submitted the allegations to Egypt’s attorney-general and called on Egyptians to forward him any new information on high-level corruption.
A date was set Sunday to begin trying former Interior Minister Habib Adly on charges of money laundering and accepting bribes. Adly, previously accused of violently cracking down on protesters in Cairo, is being charged with receiving five million Egyptian pounds ($850,000) from a contractor in return for illicitly approving building projects.
Egypt’s Illicit Gains Authority (IGA) has requested legal authorities to investigate at least 13 other ministers, in addition to several party members, for illegally accumulating vast amounts of money. All of the editors in chief of state-run newspapers are being investigated as well.
"For the first time in three decades the public is starting to believe that the law is being applied to all and that no one is above the law," columnist Mona Al-Nahhas wrote in Al-Ahram, an Egyptian daily.
Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a Cairo-based human rights group, said public frustration with the rich was understandable in a country where 40% of the population lived under the poverty line, according to data collected by the World Bank. He added, however, that public criticism of corruption shouldn’t be confused with criticizing the rich.
"The business elite worked closely with President Mubarak," Bahgat told The Media Line. "But the beautiful thing about the revolution is that it united all segments of society, rich and poor."
Meanwhile, provisions were underway to ensure clean governance in the future Egypt. Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq announced on Sunday the establishment of a task force to prevent conflicts of interest between the state and ministers. Soliman of AUC said Shafiq, a former army general who served under Mubarak and maintained strong ties with Egypt’s business elite, is being kept in power by the military which understood the importance of free enterprise in rebuilding Egypt.
"We are still in a transition period that will not last forever," Soliman of American University said. "The private sector is imperative for Egypt, and will be the dominant force in the economy." He added that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, currently in control of Egypt, will soon try to appease the Egyptian business community.