The National Front for the Protection of the Revolution, formed to support President Morsi in office, says he is not involving the Front in the decision making process as promised on 22 June The National Front for Protecting of the Revolution, formed 22 June to support now President Mohamed Morsi against what was then believed to be a threat of vote rigging in favour of Ahmed Shafiq, expressed frustration Saturday on how the new president is meeting his promises. At a press conference held one month after their declaration to support the “revolution candidate,” the group formed of several prominent political figures complained that now President Morsi is not taking proper steps to champion principles he had agreed to honour in return for their support. “Despite our differences with the [Muslim] Brotherhood, we agreed to forgive what has happened in the past in order to continue with the revolution," said prominent media figure Hamdi Qandeel. "On 22 June, we announced together with Morsi six objectives in return for our support. However, so far, none of them have been met,” At a meeting held days before Morsi was announced the presidential winner, six demands were presented to the Muslim Brotherhood candidate in return for the support of several activists, political figures and groups. At a press conference that Morsi attended, the then presidential hopeful announced his agreement with the principles outlined and promised to abide by them if elected. According to a statement released Saturday, the agreed-upon points included for Morsi to: 1. Abide by the principle of national cooperation and the uniting national project expressing the revolution's demands and representing all of society, including women, Copts and youths. 2. Form a Cabinet and a presidential team that is representative of all the political factions and one that is headed by an independent national figure. 3. Form a crisis management group composed of several National Front members to assist the president during the transition process until a complete handover of power is accomplished. 4. Complete refusal of the addendum to the Constitutional Declaration reducing the presidential authorities as well as the decision of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to dissolve parliament. 5. Seek a more balanced and representative Constitutional Declaration that would help guarantee the drafting of a permanent constitution for all Egyptians. 6. Abide by complete transparency with the people regarding any changes and developments. The Saturday statement, which explained its purpose as reminding Morsi of his promises, also revealed that the new president has so far not been engaged with the political group as had been planned, but has been taking decisions in an isolated and non-transparent manner. The National Front is made up of prominent writer Alaa El-Aswany, columnist Wael Qandeel, nationalist opposition figure Hamdi Qandeel, media figure Sekina Fouad, academic and political figure Heba Raouf, leftist activist Wael Khalil, activist Wael Ghoneim, NAC founder Abdel-Gelil Mostafa, independent activist Ahmed Imam, political thinker Hassan Nafaa, the April 6 Youth Movement, the Egyptian Current Party as well as Brotherhood member Mohamed El-Beltagy, amongst others. Although several members did not make it to Saturday's conference, including Khalil, El-Aswany, Nafaa, April 6 Movement's Ahmed Maher and El-Beltagy, all had explained they were preoccupied, except for the Brotherhood's representative whose absence could not be explained by the attendees. To follow-up on the most urgent matters faced by the president, the National Front said it had also formed several committees, one to propose names for Cabinet membership and the presidential team, one to follow up on military prisoners and one to oversee the reshuffle of the Constituent Assembly promised one month earlier by Morsi. Raouf, however, expressed frustration that their views were largely ignored. While they had been told the new Cabinet would be a political coalition government, members of the National Front were surprised to see that the president had chosen a technocrat for the position of prime minister, explained Raouf, adding that they had been researching and proposing names based on a completely different criteria. “If the new PM is a technocrat then so should be the ministers. However, the names proposed so far for ministerial positions reveal a bias towards a specific political party," Raouf complained. Regarding the Constituent Assembly, member of the National Front and co-founder of the National Association for Change (NAC) Abdel-Gelil Mostafa underlined that nothing has changed in its formation despite previous assurances. The plan had been to replace several Islamist members of the constitution drafting body with either those who have withdrawn from the leftist and the liberal camps, or from independent candidates who have been chosen as substitutes, making it more representatives, explained Mostafa. Former Brotherhood member and founder of the Egyptian Current Party, Islam Loutfi, also explained that information regarding the status of military prisoners was kept far from reach by the General Security apparatus. Further, Morsi has ignored initiatives proposed by the group for reforming and purging state institutions, explained Raouf, adding: “The state system has been structured to allow corruption. We cannot achieve renaissance without initiatives that aim at changing state institutions.” Meanwhile, the National Front itself has been criticised by many activists for portraying Morsi as the revolution's candidate. The Muslim Brotherhood has also been for months under harsh attack by the wider political movement, claiming it “sold out” the revolution to get into power. “Sell the revolution, Badie (the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide)!” is a chant still heard at anti-military rule demonstrations. Revolutionaries were not alone in distancing themselves from the new president. Following disagreement over the Constituent Assembly, several parties — including the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and the liberal Wafd Party — also announced their unwillingness to accept positions in the new Brotherhood government. Activist Wael Ghoneim, on the other hand, stressed at the conference that the National Front's announcement regarding Morsi's lack of progress in meeting their demands should not be viewed as a threat to Morsi but rather as a form of continuing support for the new president. “When support is made public, so should criticism. Politics requires transparency,” said Raouf. Sekina Fouad further explained the group's decision to warn the president, saying that if the people were not engaged in the political decision making process Morsi would not be able to fight the old regime.
