What MPs think of Mubarak's campaign reforms will be studied by the People's Assembly. Gamal Essam El-Din reports The People's Assembly on Tuesday agreed that its general committee be tasked with studying the opinion of MPs on President Hosni Mubarak's presidential elections campaign package of constitutional and political reforms. According to parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour, the approval comes in compliance with Mubarak's speech before a joint session of the People's Assembly and Shura Council on 19 December. In his speech, Sorour indicated, Mubarak did not wish to have the final say on what constitutional reforms should be passed in the coming period. "In fact," said Sorour, "Mubarak wanted that MPs, in their capacity as the nation's elected representatives, contribute to formulating the desired constitutional amendments." Mubarak, Sorour added, wanted that constitutional amendments be comprehensive and that they reflect the wishes of MPs as a whole rather than expressing the will of one person. As a result, representatives of the ruling National Democratic Party, opposition and independents agreed in a meeting on 25 December that the PA's general committee was the venue most suitable for studying the opinion of MPs on Mubarak's constitutional reforms. The committee is composed of the assembly's speaker and its two deputies, chairmen of 19 political committees, and representatives of two opposition parties and the independents' bloc. On Tuesday, the PA met to discuss a six-page preliminary report by the general committee on Mubarak's reforms. According to the report, the president's election campaign focussed on the necessity of achieving five constitutional reforms: curtailing the president's powers in favour of the cabinet and parliament; supporting the rights of citizens and public freedoms; reinforcing party-based political life; empowering women; and upgrading the performance of local municipals. The report also emphasised that many of the current constitution's articles should be scrapped because they no longer reflect the times and realities of the new century. "When the current constitution was passed in 1971," said the report, "it was an age fond of raising the banners of socialism and heavy state intervention in the economy." By contrast, the report argued, the ideals of the modern age lay stress on democratisation, public freedom and a market economy. The report said a new constitution should strike a balance among the executive, legislative and judicial powers in a way that fights corruption and reinforces transparency and accountability. Detailing more, the report said new constitutional amendments should give the cabinet a greater say in decision-making and strengthen the supervisory role of the People's Assembly. During the discussion of the report, Sorour explained that the general committee's investigation of the opinion of MPs will go through several stages. The committee will collect proposals submitted by MPs. Later, he added, there could be a session in which the proposals will be discussed. Then, said Sorour, a comprehensive report including the opinions will be submitted to Mubarak. At the end, Sorour added, Mubarak will have to decide which articles of the constitution are to be amended or whether the constitution as a whole should be replaced with a new one. In their debates, MPs agreed that the PA's general committee investigation should not be confined to MPs. In carrying out its job, said Mahmoud Abaza, spokesman for the liberal-oriented Wafd Party, the committee should hold a series of sessions in which professors of constitutional law and representatives of civil society organisations will be invited to express their opinions. In response, the assembly's deputy speaker Zeinab Radwan indicated that the committee will make sure that its final report be inclusive of opinions of the political community as a whole rather than parliament alone. Ragab Hilal Hemeida, spokesman for the Ghad Party, voiced concern that the report does not indicate how long the committee will take in investigating the opinion of MPs. "Unfortunately," said Hemeida, "the report lacks a timetable and a programme of action on how it is going to achieve its task." Hussein Ibrahim, a Muslim Brotherhood MP for Alexandria, said that in case sessions on proposed constitutional amendments are held, they should be covered by television and the press. "We do not want the scenario of the amendment of Article 76 be repeated again," said Ibrahim. Article 76 allowed for the first ever multi-party presidential elections. Mohamed Khalil Qiwita, an NDP MP, argued that Article 189 of the constitution empowers both the president of the republic and MPs to present parliament with proposals on constitutional amendments. "Unfortunately, this right has turned out to be an exclusive authority for the president," said Qiwita, urging that MPs take the initiative of proposing constitutional amendments rather than discussing changes proposed by the president alone. Qiwita also cautioned that investigating the proposals and opinions of MPs on constitutional reforms will turn into a waste of time. "We," said Qiwita, "all know what scenario was applied in amending Article 76. All the proposals of MPs, professors of constitutional law and representatives of civil society organisations were ignored in favour of the NDP's proposal which was prepared in advance," argued Qiwita. Adel Eid, a former MP and a prominent human rights lawyer, told Al-Ahram Weekly that President Mubarak's request that the People's Assembly submit proposals on constitutional amendments is ludicrous. "Constitutional amendments should have been clear when President Mubarak spoke about them for the first time during his presidential election campaign," Eid said. "What is happening now is just a waste of time and a silly repetition of the scenario of Article 76 which, rather than strengthen democracy, led to raising the spectre of inheritance of power and alienating the opposition." Eid said the habit of delivering hollow promises and wasting time in formulating cosmetic reforms could end up with a political upheaval. "The people have become bored with unfulfilled promises and will not tolerate an Article 76 scenario again."
