The abuse hurled between business tycoon Ahmed Ezz, and Talaat El-Sadat, a nephew of the late President Sadat, in the People's Assembly, reflects more than personal animosity, reports Gamal Essam El-Din On 30 May National Democratic Party (NDP) MP Ahmed Ezz and opposition MP Talaat El-Sadat were involved in a verbal clash in the chamber of the People's Assembly that is currently being investigated by the People's Assembly Office, headed by speaker Fathi Sorour. El-Sadat was questioned on Monday and Ezz on Tuesday, and a report on the result of the parliamentary investigation is expected to be discussed by the People's Assembly next Sunday. Parliamentary sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that it is likely that El-Sadat will be referred to the Ethics Committee, which could suspend his parliamentary membership. Tensions between Ezz and El-Sadat first flared up during the assembly's morning session of 29 May. While speaking of the 2006/2007 Budget and Development Plan report El-Sadat surprised MPs by alleging that on 23 May -- Black Tuesday, the day on which the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange saw 7.5 per cent wiped off the value of shares -- Ezz had exploited the situation to make improper financial gains of LE1.2 billion. In the afternoon session Ezz responded by saying the accusations were groundless. All that happened, he said, was that two of his private steel companies exchanged shares, a transaction permissible under anti-trust laws and allowed by the stock exchange. The following morning El-Sadat escalated his attacks, claiming that Ezz had made use of his position in the NDP to acquire 15,000 feddans in the industrial zone northwest of the Gulf of Suez. "Ezz bought the land very cheaply, for LE5 per feddan, and then sold it on to Chinese investors for LE1,500 per feddan." El-Sadat also accused Ezz of insider trading, manipulating the share price of Alexandria Steel Company and making a LE1.2 billion profit dealing in the shares. A furious Ezz replied that the transactions in which he increased his total holdings in Alexandria Iron and Steel Company from 21 to 51 per cent were fully documented and transparent. Furthermore, he said, they took place before 23 May. He also said he purchased the land in Suez in 1998, two years before he became an MP. "I did not sell the land," he told the People's Assembly, "but built one of Egypt's largest iron and steel production factories on it at an investment of $712 million." The factory, he added, currently exports $500 million worth of steel, accounting for seven per cent of all Egypt's industrial exports. The confrontation quickly descended into a mud- slinging match, with Ezz asking the speaker to refer El-Sadat to the Ethics Committee. Ezz demanded that El-Sadat stop his theatrics, telling him to "listen and perhaps learn something". El-Sadat responded by saying Ezz was the last person to teach him anything, and deserved only to be hit with a shoe. Rallying to the support of Ezz, NDP MPs subsequently told Sorour that El-Sadat had already untied his shoelaces in preparation to strike their colleague. But El-Sadat was not finished. "How," he asked Ezz, "has a young man like you managed to amass a personal fortune of no less than LE40 billion in a matter of few years? How were you able to pay LE4 billion for 51 per cent of the Alexandria Iron and Steel Company." When Ezz began to question the financial probity of El-Sadat's own family, speaker Sorour finally intervened, saying the exchange of accusations of corruption would be referred to the assembly's office, which comprises Sorour and his two deputies. The clash split the assembly into two camps. Around 200 NDP MPs alleged that El-Sadat had been ready to strike Ezz with his shoe, whereas in a document submitted to Sorour 60 opposition and independent MPs, most of them sitting close to El-Sadat, saw Sadat's shoes remained firmly on his feet. Questioned by the assembly office on Monday, El-Sadat said he suffered from diabetes as a result of which he occasionally unties his shoe laces. El-Sadat asked Sorour to refer both himself and Ezz to the Socialist prosecutor-general, as "the only authority entitled to investigate the sources of wealth of Egyptian citizens". El-Sadat used the occasion to direct other charges against Ezz, accusing the NDP tycoon of selling steel to Israel for use in building the separation wall. El-Sadat, a nephew of late President Anwar El-Sadat, whose father, the late president's brother, was referred to trial in 1982, a year after President Mubarak took office, on charges of profiteering, also led his family in filing charges of slander against Ezz with the prosecutor-general. Political commentators see in the Ezz-Sadat clash an expression of the disquiet that surround the role of big-business in determining NDP policies. Ezz is a close associate of Gamal, the 42-year-old son of President Hosni Mubarak, and few doubt that this association helped in securing several key posts within the NDP, says Ahmed El-Naggar, an economist with Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. He is chairman of the assembly's Budget and Planning Committee as well as being the NDP's Secretary for Organisational Affairs. "There would appear to be a blatant conflict of interests in a business tycoon such as Ezz chairing the budget committee," says El-Naggar. Ezz, whose companies control more than 70 per cent of domestic iron and steel market and around 50 per cent of the ceramics market, has been repeatedly criticised for monopolistic practices. Leftist newspapers also allege that he funded President Mubarak's presidential elections campaign and was rewarded by being promoted within the NDP. The majority of government newspapers this week rallied to the defence of Ezz.
