In Focus: Parties and democracy One cannot have democracy without viable, diverse parties; by the same measure, viable parties are not run as dictatorships, writes Galal Nassar Egyptian parties have been falling over themselves for over a year now. It all started when President Mubarak declared, on 26 February 2005, his intention to amend Article 76 of the constitution, the article defining the method of selecting the president. Since then, our parties have been struggling to rise to the challenge, and failing. The presidential and later the parliamentary elections made it clear that pluralism has made little or no difference in this country. Since pluralism was launched in its modern form in 1976, we have had many parties but no political life to mention. At present, we have a parliament dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The dismal performance of our political parties is cause for concern. Right now, political parties are far from effective, and our pluralism exists only in name. The collective failure of the parties in this country is a wake-up call. Political life is in a slumber, and we must blame the Parties' Law, a law that prohibits party activities in universities, factories, and other state agencies. Other obstacles to political life include the existence of the Parties Affairs Committee, Emergency Law, and the 1979 university statutes. As the political crisis unfolded, I, among others, expected the NDP to begin reforming itself, for it has become evident that the old guard has failed to motivate the public. The NDP has been reluctant to admit its errors. It went on denying the power struggle between the old and new guard within its own ranks, even though it was there for everyone to see. In the recent restructuring of the NDP General Secretariat, most of the old guard disappeared. The new guard is now in charge. Will it succeed in turning the NDP around? Now let's turn to the Wafd Party, which is in theory the country's second largest party. The Wafd is caught up in a conflict over leadership and the party's paper, and may end up losing its bearings, just as Labour did a few years ago. A similar fate awaits the Tagammu, Nasserist and Ahrar parties. All of these small-sized parties face a power struggle within their own ranks for a simple reason: their leaders want to have no rivals on the public scene. They want to control the parties, dominate the media, and take charge of the LE0.5 million the government dispenses annually to each party. The liberal Ghad Party looked good for a while, then it lost its drive, mostly because its leader insisted on monopolising decision-making. The crisis in our party life has left us with a power vacuum, into which religious movements have stepped. Despite an official ban, Islamists have managed to stay in touch with the masses. They have not been thwarted, neither by the parties or emergency laws. They spoke the language of the street and used the lexicon of simple people. Religious-leaning movements have used the conditions of failure, corruption, poverty and unemployment to whip up public support. The government's internal and external failures have played into their hands. The Egyptian public is upset by the events in Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. It is dismayed by Washington's continual pressure. And the recent wave of public wrath against the offending drawings of Prophet Mohamed is just the kind of thing Islamists hope for. This is becoming a pattern in Arab countries. Conventional parties and ideas are on the wane. And secularism has failed to offer the public what it needed. That's why the public is turning to Islamists. The NDP has changed its secretary and government, but the public wants more than a change of faces. The NDP needs to address the problems of corruption and neglect. It needs to stamp out corruption and inefficiency and alleviate poverty and unemployment. It needs to revive political life and revamp legislative and judiciary powers. Furthermore, the NDP needs to abolish all restrictive laws. We need a climate in which Egyptian parties may once again fill the political vacuum. We need leftist, socialist, and liberal parties that are strong and credible. We need solid parties from across the political spectrum. Our parties, and not just the NDP, need to refurbish themselves. Our parties need to introduce democracy within their own ranks. Unless they do so, the entire political scene will remain sluggish.
