Controversy surrounds Heikal's credibility and Gamal Mubarak's wedding, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed A curious feature of the press in the past few weeks has been the sometimes subtle but more often than not blunt remonstrance against the Arab world's leading political commentator Mohamed Hassanein Heikal. The octogenarian seems to have vicious enemies in the media. Heikal, of course, has been highly critical of the whole question of constitutional amendments in his celebrated exclusive interviews with the pan-Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera. Thus he's being targeted. Spearheading the campaign to tarnish Heikal's image has been Abdallah Kamal, editor-in-chief of Rose El-Youssef. Kamal has come up with a string of cocky articles questioning Heikal's judgement and credibility. Now, it seems that he has been joined by Al-Akhbar which ran a prominently displayed front page letter to the editor by Gamal Hammad, a member of the Free Officers. He accused Heikal of "pomposity" and of making up "bombastic statements" and the "imperative need to correct Heikal's falsehoods". "In my book Secrets of the 23 July Revolution, I expose the fibbings of Heikal and my observations were backed by documents and facts," wrote Hammad in his letter to Al-Akhbar. Other papers such as the daily liberal, opposition Al-Wafd, the daily mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party, focussed instead on workers' demonstrations and sit-ins. "The employees of the metro system threaten a general strike" read the banner. "In Mansoura and Suez there were even larger sit-ins". Al-Wafd also stressed the question of restlessness and disgruntlement expressed by the indigenous Arab Bedouin tribespeople of Sinai. "The Arabs of Sinai dared to do what the Egyptians of the Nile Valley and Delta failed to do. They stood up for their rights. They protested and took up arms against the regime. They challenged the authorities and the government clampdown provoked an international outcry. The brutality and excesses of the police and state security agents were condemned by Egyptian and international human rights organisations," wrote El-Shafei Bashir in Al-Wafd. In much the same vein, Adel Sabri lambasted the authorities for the abysmal record of repression in Sinai. "Yes there are gross violations against the rights of the sons of Sinai. We abandoned them in the face of rampant unemployment. We forced them into the bosoms of the enemy," Sabri warned in reference to the fact that the Bedouins tried to escape to Israel. On a very different note, Wael El-Ibrashi, in the independent weekly Sawt Al-Umma, which has specialised in exposing corruption cases, wrote about the fall of many celebrities and figures during the past few months, without anyone knowing why they fell from grace. Mortada Mansour, former MP and former chairman of Zamalek Club, Haidar Baghdadi, NDP MP who exposed the contaminated blood cases and television announcer Hala Sarhan were cited as examples. "A keen observer of events will notice a significant increase in the fall of public figures and politicians of late: Ayman Nour, Talaat El-Sadat, Ihab Talaat, Hala Sarhan, Emad El-Gilda, Noaman Gomaa, Hani Sorour, Haidar Baghdadi, Mortada Mansour. The question is: Why now and why were they not [arrested] a long time ago? "In fact, exposing corruption cases in Egypt is done in a selective and optional way according to the wishes of the regime. If the regime desires to hide corrupt figures, it protects and immunises them. And if it desires to expose them, it forsakes them by lifting their immunity and gives the green light to arrest them. Clear evidence is that the regime will not bring [former minister of housing] Mohamed Ibrahim Suleiman before justice, or Mamdouh Ismail, the owner of Al-Salam Ferry which claimed the lives of 1,350 passengers... who has been rewarded by enabling him to escape to London. The regime will not bring to justice former chairmen of national press establishments who squandered their funds, and nobody will dare accuse the 'spoilt' ruling National Democratic Party's [steel] tycoon Ahmed Ezz... Bringing [corrupt figures] to justice will put on trial the regime itself." Gamal Mubarak, the president's son and heir apparent, featured prominently in most newspapers this week. A TV interview was published in the daily independent liberal-leaning Nahdet Masr. But the big news was his wedding which made the headlines of independent newspapers. "I don't look to assume any executive position," Gamal told the newspaper. "I don't intend to run for presidential elections and I don't aim to preside over the National Democratic Party. "The Policies Committee only provides suggestions and follows up with the government. My role is to link the roles of the party, its members and the government. There is no intersection between these roles. "Any reform move within the ranks of the party or any new law is always interpreted as a step towards bequeathing [the presidency]. My political horizon aims at achieving the agenda of President Mubarak, on which basis he was elected, until 2010." The wedding was intertwined with political statements. "The coming conference of the National Democratic Party will be a decisive moment to assess [what has been done]," Nahdet Masr wrote. The happy couple's wedding was held in a luxurious hotel in Sharm El-Sheikh and was enlivened by impressive performances by Amr Diab and Vanessa Williams. "It was held [in a hotel] overlooking the sea. The bridegroom's mother, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, the groom's brother, Alaa, and his wife danced with the happy couple," reported Al-Masry Al-Yom. On a more serious note, Wahid Abdel-Meguid, writing in Al-Wafd about the political conundrum in Egypt, sounded pessimistic about the country's future. "The tragedy Egypt is living through now is in this unreasonable, pointless conflict [between the current government and the Muslim Brotherhood] over power." In the daily semi-official Al-Ahram, Abdel-Moneim Said concurred about the future of Egypt. "There is a set of widespread expressions agreed that is held in the press, the People's Assembly and satellite channels about a crisis in the country, a state of polarisation and a surge in violence, and that the country is heading towards a disaster. Such phrases have been held by some journalists and international observers as an expression of the current affairs in Egypt. "Meanwhile, the number of tourists pouring into Egypt are on the increase -- they could hit eight million -- in a way unprecedented in the country's history. And in the past year Egypt received a bulk of foreign investments that was never in the country during the 1990s. In the past two years international financial and economic institutions expressed their confidence in Egyptian [economic and political] conditions. Then, these expressions saying that the country is going through 'a crisis' or heading for an 'explosion' are not describing the current conditions correctly. This proves that Egypt is much greater and complicated than such descriptions," Said wrote.
