Opposition movements are rallying to convince people to vote against the constitutional amendments during next week's referendum. Will their desperate efforts succeed, wonders Mohamed El-Sayed Since President Hosni Mubarak proposed the amendment of 34 constitutional articles on 26 December last year, all opposition to such a decisive move was confined to partisan meetings, scathing critiques in opposition and independent newspapers, as well as television shows. Having realised that this is too little to oblige the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to listen to their protests, detractors resorted to street activism and popular conferences to rally against the amendments. Last week saw the first public demonstration staged by an opposition group, the Egyptian Movement for Change (Kifaya), to protest what it depicted as the "absurd" process of amending the constitution. Members of the three-year-old movement planned to gather in Tahrir Square downtown, but naturally police forces took pre- emptive measures by cordoning off all streets leading to the square hours before the scheduled demonstration. Nevertheless, about 200 protesters managed to gather in nearby Talaat Harb Square and began chanting slogans against the amendments. They asked for the application of the Mauritanian model in Egypt, referring to the transitional elections which were successfully held in Mauritania after years of military rule. Soon, Central Security forces began attacking and dispersing the crowd. Afterwards, riot police arrested 33 demonstrators, who later entered into a hunger strike after Al-Dhaher Police Station officers refused to release them despite the fact that Qasr Al-Nil Prosecution had ordered their release. Prominent thinker and general coordinator of Kifaya Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri revealed that he received security warnings against the protest before it took place. "Three senior security officials called me to warn me against staging this demonstration," Elmessiri told Al-Ahram Weekly. "I asked them, 'are you going to beat us gently this time?' And they said, 'no this time we will strike with an iron fist'." Elmessiri lent the security warnings a deaf ear, saying that, "the government is unable to tolerate a peaceful demonstration. Deploying thousands of security forces and beating citizens during a peaceful demonstration reflects the state of fear in which the regime lives. The regime doesn't realise that the country is in need of a peaceful change to avoid a mass explosion." He scathingly criticised the proposed constitutional amendments which give the president "unlimited powers. They will curb public freedoms, pave the way for the bequeathing of the presidency to Gamal Mubarak, and will keep the current stalemate as is." Other opposition movements resorted to popular conferences as a means to express their rejection of the proposed amendments, and convince the masses to vote against them. The National Coalition for Change, headed by former Prime Minister Aziz Sidqi, held a popular conference at the Bar Association branch in Menoufiya entitled 'Constitutional amendments... where to?'. "Sovereignty should lie with the people, not the ruler," Sidqi told the audience. "Egypt is at a critical juncture and the constitutional amendments are catastrophic." He believes that the main problem is not in the constitution itself, but lies with officials. "The regime insists on arranging all things in a manner that serves its goals and personal interests," he argued. "There is an interest group surrounding the president which has formed a coalition that aims at serving its interests illegally." But will all these manoeuvres and fiery speeches be effective? "We will boycott the referendum," insisted Elmessiri, admitting that demonstrations alone may not change the situation. "But we are thinking of new methods to prevent this charade from unfolding in the coming period." In all cases, he has little faith in the results of the upcoming referendum even if the masses are mobilised against the constitutional amendments. "The regime will resort to rigging the votes by ordering [more than five million] civil servants to vote for the amendments," believes Elmessiri. Abdel-Halim Qandil, another Kifaya coordinator, stressed that, "we will launch a major demonstration on the day of the referendum to hamper this nasty process." Meanwhile, the People's Assembly brought forward the date of the referendum to 26 March, instead of the first week of April. Perhaps all these moves by the opposition are too little, too late.
