A senior columnist of the government-backed paper Al-Ahram attacked the National Democratic Party, Egypt’s ruling party, this week. “The party’s rigid opposition to political reform…has bestowed an atmosphere of stupidity, awkwardness and uncertainty on the political life in Egypt,” wrote Salama Ahmad Salama.
The senior editor of Al-Ahram, Ibrahim Nafi’, is considered a loyalist of state President Hosni Mubarak.
This protest against the regime is not a lone voice in Egypt’s political arena. Two months ago the EOHR (The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights) launched a campaign to sign up members of the regime on a petition appealing to engage in a political, constitutional and democratic reform in Egypt. [For more details click here [1]]. Yet this organization’s power stretches to the precise point the regime wishes it to reach. Al-Ahram daily, on the other hand, is a whole new ball game.
“Many parties in Egypt demand amendment to the constitution, but the National Party doesn’t even discuss it,” protested Salama in his Sunday column. “Local, regional and international circumstances have changed since the constitution was established in 1971.
“The National Party’s monopolistic seizure of power and its rigid opposition to political reform, intended to leave things as they are…without modifying ideas or leaders, has bestowed an atmosphere of stupidity, awkwardness and uncertainty on the political life in Egypt. It is causing most young people and intellectuals to refrain from participating in the elections and in the political process at large.”
Mubarak’s regime has some experience with protest from Al-Ahram.
Perhaps the best-known case was in 1995 when Law 93 was passed. This law was enacted when the Egyptian press violated an unwritten, albeit obeyed prohibition, that the policy of the regime in general, and Mubarak in particular, must not be subjected to blatant criticism. The law was intended to limit journalists from publishing anti-establishment articles, and in fact tied their hands behind their back. Nafi’, who was and still is senior editor of Al-Ahram and Chairman of the Egyptian Journalist Association, was the instigator of the protest. As a result of the objections, particularly because of Nafi’’s ties to Mubarak, the law was abolished.
In light of this event, Salama’s protest this week should not be regarded as worthless and ineffectual, but rather as one that might bring about a change, even if not immediate.
“One need not regard the 1971 constitution as a holy cow…the constitution must organize [the activities] of the authorities and prevent them from being exploited…and not be used as a means for a single power to rule…We need a modern constitution, without which the much-anticipated progress and change will not come about,” concluded Salama.