In Focus: Moses' staff Commitment and determination, so far missing at the top, are paramount if Egypt is to steer its way through these current turbulent waters, writes Galal Nassar Angry demonstrations erupt in Cairo's streets; sectarian violence shakes churches and mosques in Alexandria; avian flu crushes a major industry; explosions claim more innocent victims in Sinai; security is in chaos and random arrests are rampant -- these are a few of the scenes from life in Egypt in these troubled times. Taken together they form a bleak panorama that bodes ill for this country and those given to conspiracy theorising are casting about for the party most likely to benefit from this convergence of events that seem to be pushing the country to a precarious brink. Particularly perplexing is that silence at the top -- as though the regime, or a part of it, is that party. Although Egypt is no stranger to political unrest, one cannot help but be disturbed by the growing impetus of the current surge of discontent over the past two years. The government, today, is up against the forces of reform, all occupational syndicates, labour federations, political parties, university professors, intellectuals and journalists. Tensions appear to be reaching breaking point. Whereas in the past there always seemed to be someone who saw the bigger picture and took control of the ship to steer us clear of danger, today confusion seems to reign at the helm. It is as though government agencies, particularly those in charge of security, are at odds with themselves, each working independently according to its way of getting things done, indifferent to how they might be trampling on the work of others. Add to this a lack of transparency and what appears to be deliberate foot-dragging in the fulfilment of pressing public demands and you get nothing less than anarchy in the management of crises that are coming one on top of the other. The initiative for amending constitutional Article 76, announced by President Mubarak on 26 February 2005, may have generated some movement in our stagnant political waters; however, there was nothing to regulate the pace of that movement or set its course. The result is our current state of chaos, which some undoubtedly hope will be "creative". The utter muddling of the implementation of the president's pledges gives the impression that there is some kind of power struggle at work within the ruling elites and that this struggle is playing itself out regardless of its impact on public welfare and the fate of our country at this particularly volatile time in the region. Where are the reforms we have been waiting for? Why has it been taking so long to come up with bills for constitutional and legislative amendments to provide for a freer press and judicial autonomy? Why has the Political Parties Committee not yet taken those crucial decisions needed to compel political parties to get their act together? What is being done about that rampant corruption that has so infested many official and semi- official organs that its filth has rubbed off on the reform process itself and has tainted the credibility of government officials charged with promoting the reform process? Somebody must be working from within the regime to create problems for the regime. How can a country of the size and status of Egypt and with the difficulties it is currently facing possibly benefit from a situation in which its government finds itself at the other side of the fence on a range of thorny issues that are all cropping up at once? In whose interest is it that government officials seem to vanish in times of crisis instead of explaining to us what is going on, or that the government issues conflicting decisions based on information that we know nothing about or whose facts and figures are fudged if released to the public at all? Who does it serve when the executive branch clashes with the judiciary or with the press? Indeed, why are we still living under a state of emergency? Who does this serve, since it has long been established beyond a doubt that emergency laws have not prevented acts of terrorism, drug smuggling and the spread of corruption? It is time to relieve Egypt of the shame of living under the conditions of a state of emergency; time to come up with an enlightened alternative to the questions of security and organised crime and corruption; time for Egyptians to live under normal law. Who is responsible for putting the brakes on the president's electoral reform programme? Why are we suddenly being told that Egypt isn't politically or economically prepared for it, without any further explanation? In whose interests is it that legitimate political parties are weakened and undermined, strengthening the hand of underground movements and, simultaneously, aggravating the climate of repression? Who stands to gain by prohibiting politics on university campuses, leaving students prey to a single ideological trend and a single political force that excels in working in the dark? Why are the press and media establishments in Egypt still subordinate to the state, ensuring a constant drone of propaganda justifying the government's confused and contradictory policies? Certainly, this must be one of the reasons that the once powerful and dynamic Egyptian media now lags behind even its regional counterparts in professional standards, technology and even substance. Who benefits from this? How, for the sake of example, does one explain what appears to be an official cover-up of the Al-Salaam 98 Ferry disaster? How did its owner manage to flee to London in the knick of time? Why have we not yet received a convincing explanation for the delay in lifting his parliamentary immunity and confiscating his property by those extraordinary bodies -- such as the Socialist Public Prosecutor's Office -- that were created by emergency laws that were meant to protect us from this sort of thing? The government has some extremely crucial problems to contend with. It is time for it to tackle these problems head on; there can be no more palliatives, no more procrastinating, no more hiding from the public behind various sorts of screens -- we are no longer living in an age where it is acceptable to keep the public in the dark. What the government needs, perhaps, is something in the way of Moses' staff. I am not talking about some kind of magic wand that will make plagues vanish overnight (this is no longer the age of fairy tales either). Rather, the staff I am talking about comes in the form of a sincere commitment to clear and effective solutions. After all, what harm would come to the government from setting specific time frames for producing a bill for the autonomy of the judiciary and other reform legislation, declaring specific deadlines for lifting the security around the syndicates so as to pave the way for free syndicate elections and for ending the state of emergency, for unveiling specific plans for the phased privatisation of public sector companies? Certainly, one of the most immediate effects of these commitments would be to alleviate the current state of political tension. Moses' staff, in other words, is not so much the solutions themselves as it is the genuineness of the dedication to really solving our problems. It is this dedication that will give the Egyptian people hope. History has shown that when this ordinarily mild- tempered people are subject to sustained hardship with no end in sight they can become a volcano that will blow up in the face of anyone careless enough to approach it wrong.
