Last week's NDP conference continues to provoke criticism from the opposition. Gihan Shahine samples the debate The opposition seems to be putting little stock in last week's assertions by President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal, that the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) is working with them to bring democracy to political discourse in the country. Nor do they believe the president's promise that "the coming year will be all about constitutional reform", saying that the regime is not actually willing to bring about any real change or allow any true participation. Critics say that last week's NDP conference in which the younger Mubarak, who is also the NDP's deputy secretary-general, recounted the party's achievements and vowed to push for reform was nothing more than "a media campaign" that paves the way for the president's son to succeed his father. But he denied these claims, saying that the ruling party "will not go on the defensive" nor does he have plans to rule Egypt. Hussein Abdel-Razeq, secretary- general of the leftist Tagammu Party, is not convinced. Abdel-Razeq told Al-Ahram Weekly that "Article 76 of the constitution does not allow for any fair contest for the presidency, and no one in another political party would ever get the same media publicity the president's son is getting." He continued that, "succession is, no doubt, on the regime's agenda -- but definitely not on that of political powers in Egypt." Abdel-Razeq believes that the very title of the NDP conference was "misleading". "The conference talked of the NDP's "second launch" when many wonder what the first launch was," he scoffed. A sarcastic Abdel-Razeq wondered whether the first launch was "the recent cosmetic constitutional amendments which did not allow for any competition in multi-candidate presidential elections. Or maybe it's the bad economy, the inflation, the deterioration in medical and educational services, the surge in railway disasters, poverty and unemployment." If that is the case, a pessimistic Abdel-Razeq is sceptical that "the second leap would be any better in light of current policies." Munir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, secretary-general of the Wafd Party, is equally critical. "The NDP conference did not come up with anything new except for the proposal that Egypt should use nuclear power as an alternative source of energy," Abdel-Nour told the Weekly. But even that suggestion, the Wafd politician said, was previously proposed by his party in 1990 when it found that Egypt's oil reserves are critically low and that tapping into alternative sources of energy was almost inevitable. Al-Tagammu's Abdel-Razeq, however, argued that it was not the inevitability of nuclear power that urged the president's son to raise the issue. "It was all for the sake of headlines," he said, explaining that such a project would need a huge budget and scientific research that Egypt cannot afford. But equally on top of the NDP conference's agenda were proposals to amend Egypt's constitution, which provides the president with overwhelming powers and restricts the formation of political parties. Opposition parties and rights groups have long been calling for a new constitution that would restrict the powers of the executive, establish a full-fledged parliamentary democracy and allow the establishment of political parties without government approval. A coalition of opposition powers, including the Wafd, Nasserist and leftist Tagammu parties, was formed to come up with unified ideas for all the suggested constitutional amendments. Restricting the powers placed in the hands of the president, who should not be allowed to stay in office for more than two terms, are high on the opposition agenda. "We insist on amending all constitutional terms that mix the roles of the different powers," explained Abdel-Nour. "There should be total separation of power. It is totally unacceptable, for instance, that an official in the executive branch is elected to parliament." The Wafdist leader also vowed his party would struggle to amend articles 76 and 77 in a way that would allow for fair presidential elections, and that the opposition would fight against any attempts to annul Article 88 which allows for judicial supervision of elections. "We have called for dialogue with the national party and we will see whether our suggestions will be taken into consideration or not," noted Abdel-Nour. "The fact that the NDP monopolises constitutional change is unacceptable. Enough is enough." During a closed session, Gamal Mubarak refuted all claims of monopoly and said the party was engaged in dialogue with the opposition on democracy. But Abdel-Razeq believes dialogue is not the issue here. "We've had something like six dialogues with the ruling party over the 25 years of Mubarak's rule, and every time our suggestions were completely ignored in the final draft of any decision or law," asserted the Tagammu politician. "There is no way we would get a real chance." Besides, Abdel-Razeq continued, "President Mubarak had previously promised constitutional changes during his electoral campaign last year, but no dialogue has been launched." Abdel-Nour similarly argued that the NDP "promises are good, but the devil is in the details." He does not expect the ruling party to come up with any better amendments than those of Article 76 which allowed for the first multi-candidate presidential elections last year. "Everybody expressed enthusiasm that the amendment would allow for real change, but unfortunately that enthusiasm soon died when the article was drafted in a way that would not allow for any real competition," complained Abdel-Nour. That said, the Wafdist vowed that the opposition will not give up. "We insist on changing the whole constitution which concentrates power in the hands of the executive, because any other alternative would be a patch solution," Abdel-Nour said. "But even in case patch solutions are all we can get at the moment, our party will still insist on participation."
