Egyptians pin hope on the new cabinet to perform miracles, writes Shaden Shehab Although the newly appointed caretaker cabinet will be running the government for less than six months it must take some of the most far reaching decisions in Egypt's modern history. Expectations are high. The new government is somehow supposed to make up for three decades of inertia and fulfil political, economic and social demands that have been on hold since the 1980s. And it is expected to deliver now. It is not an easy task in such an unprecedented period of unrest. Newly appointed Prime Minister Essam Sharaf withheld the new cabinet's first meeting yesterday and went with 11 of his ministers and held an emergency meeting with the Higher Council of the Armed Forces (HCAF) about sectarian violence and ongoing protests. Clashes had erupted yesterday in Tahrir Square between protesters and those who demanded they leave the square to get on with their lives. The Armed Forces fired shots in the air to disperse the crowds. Until Al-Ahram Weekly went to press, there were no reports of casualties. The new cabinet is the third since the 25 January Revolution and the second since the HCAF took over the running of Egypt. It was formed after the HCAF complied with protesters demands last Thursday and sacked the government of prime minister Ahmed Shafik, appointed by Hosni Mubarak shortly before he was forced to step down as president. Shafik's replacement, 59-year-old Essam Sharaf, went straight to Tahrir Square following his appointment to promise democratic reforms. He was well-received by the protesters, not least because, on 4 February, he had joined the demonstrators' ranks, leading members of Cairo University's faculty on a protest march to the parliament buildings. Between July 2004 and December 2005 Sharaf, an engineer, served as minister of transport, resigning the post in the wake of a deadly train accident in protest over what he said was corruption and a lack of resources to improve the ailing railway system. He did, however, remain a member of the NDP's powerful Policies Committee. The 25-member cabinet Sharaf now heads includes seven new ministers, all experts in their fields. Just four ministers remained from the tail end of Mubarak's regime: the Minister of Planning and National Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga; Minister of Military Production Sayed Meshaal; Minister of Electricity Hassan Younis; and Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Maged George. The remaining 14 members of the cabinet received their portfolios from Shafik. The new faces include Nabil El-Arabi, a former International Court of Justice judge who was named foreign minister, replacing the unpopular Ahmed Abul-Gheit. Onetime Cairo Security Chief Major-General Mansour El-Eissawi replaces Mahmoud Wagdi as minister of interior. Wagdi held the post for less than a month after the much hated Habib El-Adli, who is now facing trial, was sacked. Mohamed El-Guindi, a judge who enjoys a spotless reputation, replaces Mubarak loyalist Mamdouh Marei as minister of justice, while Abdallah Ghurab, former head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, takes over from Mahmoud Latif Amer as minister of petroleum. The latter occupied his cabinet seat for just 10 days. Ghurab's appointment disappointed many who objected to his close ties with former minister Sameh Fahmi, currently being investigated on suspicion of corruption. Ahmed Hassan El-Borai replaces Ismail Ibrahim Fahmi as minister of labour. El-Borai played a leading role in drafting the 2003 unified labour law. Water affairs expert Hussein El-Atfi becomes minister of irrigation and water resources and Emad Abu Ghazi, a former secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Culture, is minister of culture. Field Marshal Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, head of the HCAF, defined the new cabinet's most important tasks as fighting corruption and reorganising Egypt's discredited security agencies. Sharaf identified the government's priorities as reestablishing law and order and getting the wheels of production rolling once again. The new government's goals may have been clearly stated but achieving them requires the circumventing of a host of obstacles. It will be no easy task jump-starting an economy that has spent the last month and a half grinding to a halt. Abu Bakr El-Guindi, head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), this week estimated that Egypt's economic growth rate will drop from 5.8 per cent to 3.8 per cent, insufficient to absorb new entrants to the job market let alone the estimated two million expatriate Egyptian workers forced out of Libya. Unemployment before the revolution was already over 10 per cent. Before the revolution the budget deficit stood at 7.9 per cent of GDP. El-Guindi says it could rise to 8.5 per cent, though other experts are more pessimistic, saying a 12 per cent deficit is possible if things continue as they are. Strikes have reached epidemic proportions since the removal of Hosni Mubarak, with people demanding everything from the removal of heads of unions, syndicates and press organisations to a complete overhaul of the school curriculum. The fate of the police force, which disappeared from the streets on 28 January, also hangs in the balance. El-Eissawi pledged after meeting Sharaf on Sunday that he would work to restore security and reduce the role of the hated State Security Intelligence (SSI). In recent days protesters have assembled outside several SSI offices across the country, in many cases storming the buildings, including the agency's headquarters in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City. The protests followed reports that officers were destroying documents containing evidence of human rights abuses against Mubarak's opponents. Forty-seven police officers were jailed after an investigation found they shredded and set fire to documents and destroyed computers. "If the police force does not return to serving the country chaos will prevail," says leading commentator Salama Ahmed Salama. "It is the number one priority. Without security the new cabinet will be unable to achieve anything." Writer Fahmy Howeidy agrees that getting the police back on the streets is essential, though he points out that "some instability is normal in revolutionary times." Howeidy attributes much of the current turmoil "to a counter-revolution from the tails of the ousted regime", arguing that should instability prevail the "former regime will have been successful in inducing chaos". Events this week reinforced the belief of those who detect the hand of counter-revolutionaries at work. A church in Atfeeh, Helwan, was set ablaze by a group of Muslims following a dispute between two families over a romance between a Muslim girl and Christian boy. As the building blazed Muslims rescued the church's clerics and sheltered them. The military immediately promised to rebuild the church before Easter. Soon enough, though, the issue snowballed. Violent clashes erupted across Cairo, leaving nine people dead. Coptic Christians demanded an end to discrimination while Muslim protesters once again demanded the release of Camilia Shehata, the 26-year-old wife of a priest in Upper Egypt who fled her home after a quarrel with her husband on 18 July 2010 only to be returned by the police a few days later. At the time some Copts blamed her disappearance on a forced conversion to Islam while some Muslims now believe she is being held prisoner by the church. Against a backdrop that includes heightened sectarian tensions the caretaker government must steer the country through the reforms necessary before free parliamentary and presidential elections can be held. The HCAF has already decided that parliamentary elections will precede the presidential poll, a timetable opposed by those who believe more time is needed to allow political parties to be formed. The constitutional reform committee formed last month has already proposed 11 constitutional amendments that will be put to a popular referendum on 19 March. Political Science professor Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed is optimistic that the new cabinet and the army will be able to overcome any obstacles in the way of political reform. "It's not an unfounded optimism," he says. "At last the government contains people whom we can trust." (see p.2)
