A coalition of political parties and human rights activists plans to submit an agenda of political reforms to President Mubarak. Gihan Shahine investigates the prospects Talk of political reform has been in vogue in Egypt since the 1970s, but the rhetoric has never brought about change. Opposition parties and political activists, for their part, have long issued statements urging reforms that usually fall on deaf ears. Meanwhile, the National Democratic Party (NDP) announced plans for transformative political reforms during their first annual conference from 26- 28 September. The message of these reforms is ironic in that it contradicts the ongoing clampdown on civil liberties and political activism. Cases in point can be found in this year's extension of the Emergency Law, re- instituted after President Anwar El- Sadat's assassination in 1981, and the enforcement of highly restrictive non- governmental organisation (NGO) legislation, Law 84 of 2002. A number of groups, however, have decided to mobilise and ensure that this time rhetoric becomes reality. An alliance of three major political parties -- the liberal Wafd and the leftist Tagammu and Nasserist -- the suspended Communist Party and seven NGOs will gather in front of the Abdeen Presidential Palace on 22 October to submit to President Hosni Mubarak an agenda for political reforms. The alliance, dubbed the Democracy Defense Committee (DDC), is suggesting six major points for reform in their agenda. The suggestions range from demanding constitutional amendments to the repeal of the Emergency Law and the amendment of a number of other "infamous" laws. The constitutional reforms recommended by the agenda include replacing the current presidential referendum with fair elections that would allow for the participation of other candidates. It also recommends reducing the authority of the president who, according to the agenda, should not be part of any political party while in post. The alliance also demands the release and retrial of political prisoners before civil courts, not the military courts that convicted them. According to the agenda, which bears the signatures of a wide- spectrum of political and civil activists, a group of "infamous" laws should be amended or totally scrapped. These include Law 100 of 1993 which entails stringent restraints on all syndicate activities and elections by placing them under judicial supervision; the Political Rights Law, which governs the organisation of general elections in Egypt; and the NGO Law, which tightly restricts the activities of Egyptian civil society organisations. Political activists are also pressing for boosting the freedom of expression through amendment of the Press Law, abolishing restrictions on the establishment of newspapers and eliminating the state dominance over both radio and television broadcasting. Albeit not new in content -- the agenda is based on a political reform programme that the same political parties previously introduced in December 1997 -- the initiative is unprecedented in terms of delivery technique. For the first time, civil society and political parties have worked together in delegating 100-150 of their members to gather in front of Abdeen Palace and publicly deliver the agenda by hand to President Mubarak. Whether the initiative will actually make an impact, or even whether the authorities will allow the gathering to take place, remains to be seen. Political analysts who welcomed the initiative nevertheless consider that perhaps more effective techniques should be adopted to effect the desired reforms. Many analysts generally put little stock in official statements and argue that similar agendas were presented over the decades only to arrive rapidly at their final resting places in the dark confines of government drawers. Members of the DDC, however, pin great hope on the timing and political climate in which the agenda will be presented. The agenda was drafted in May 2003. However, submitting it following the NDP Conference, where the president declared that democratisation in Egypt will receive a boost over the next year, is significant. The president promised three initiatives: inviting opposition party representatives to enter a national dialogue with the NDP, amending a host of laws pertaining to the exercise of political rights, and the abrogation of military orders under the Emergency Law. "The agenda will be our own contribution to the achievement of the president's promised reformatory plans," said Hussein Abdel-Razeq, chairman of the Tagammu Party and the secretary-general of the DDC. The DDC initiative, according to Abdel- Razeq, is also very timely, "if the desired changes are to be attained before the presidential referendum and parliamentary elections take place in 2005". "[We] thought it urgent to express the perspective of parties and civil society regarding political reforms before engaging in a dialogue with the government," Abdel-Razeq said. "This initiative is a proof that we are responding positively to the president's promised plans." The DDC, however, embarked on the agenda after the fall of Iraq, amidst public and political consensus that confronting external threats to the region should start from within, making political reforms more urgent and indispensable than ever before. The initiative also emerges as issues of human rights and democracy top the agenda of the international community, putting many Arab governments "under scrutiny" and in a "state of embarrassment". This, DDC members speculate, could bolster the success of their plan. Many analysts, however, believe external pressures for democratisation in Egypt have to date only bred more "jargon and not real change". Ahmed Seif El-Islam, the secretary- general of the Hisham Mubarak Centre for Human Rights, which is a DDC member, expressed scepticism of the official discourse on reform. "Experience proved that all official talk of political reforms are no more than propaganda to save the face of the government before the international community," Seif El-Islam told Al- Ahram Weekly. "There is actually no need for the government to talk about democracy as long as the Emergency Law remains in force." Seif El-Islam believes that "true reform should be forced from within, since external powers take democratisation as no more than a pretext to go on with their colonial plans in the region." For him reform is integral with national and regional integrity. "The US and Israeli threats are imminent and we won't have the strength to confront those threats in the absence of liberty and democracy," Seif El- Islam said. He said the committee will continue with its plans even at risk of arrest. "Nothing is without a price," Seif El-Islam said. "We simply can't wait until other countries colonise [us] under the name of democracy and liberty. It is now more urgent than before that we move fast." It is, perhaps, this perceived "urgency" that prompted the civil society and human rights organisations to align with political parties in their struggle for political reform. "Our main role is to fight for citizens' rights, but we found we cannot do that in the absence of real democracy and freedom of expression," explained Gamal Barakat, a lawyer at the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR). The EOHR was granted legal status on 24 June after an 18- year battle for recognition. On the prospects of the DDC initiative, Barakat concedes that "the abrogation of the Emergency Law alone would be a great achievement in its own right." To achieve comprehensive reform, however, Baheieddin Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights, insisted efforts and effects must be redoubled. Hassan attributes the failure to attain reform over the past decades to the combined factors of official reluctance and receding political activism. "The first annual NDP conference, for instance, came up with good recommendations but showed no real intention for actual change," Hassan lamented. Meanwhile, according to Hassan, political parties working under the double onslaught of external restrictions and internal schisms have confined their activities to "adopting a begging discourse in the form of statements that end up in the drawers of government buildings". Unless political parties fulfil their main role of public mobilisation, Hassan speculates the DDC agenda "will probably end up as just an extra page in a history book". Human rights activist Saadeddin Ibrahim suggests civil disobedience as an alternative mechanism in case the DDC initiative does not work. Ibrahim told the Weekly that civil disobedience entails an "arsenal of activities ranging from sit-ins, peaceful demonstrations and hunger strikes". "We are not reinventing the wheel, but rather adopting peaceful yet more effective techniques that other countries use to force reform," Ibrahim said. "It is also possible to issue a statement that bears the signatures of millions of people from all governorates nationwide." While blessing the DDC initiative as "a positive step", Ibrahim scoffs at the idea that considerations of timing or political atmosphere should be factored into calls for reform. "In activism, you don't wait for rains to fall," Ibrahim said. "You do not wait for things to happen, but make things happen, and create the right atmosphere for it to happen, regardless of what price you have to pay."
