Unemployment, democratisation -- the government's getting it all wrong, says the opposition. And the alternatives? Well, they are far less obvious, as expected, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Prime minister Ahmed Nazif and two members of his cabinet -- Minister of Manpower Ahmed Al- Amawi and Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin -- were the targets of the majority of interpellations submitted by seven opposition MPs on Monday. The questioners said the policies of the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif are exacerbating poverty and unemployment. Egypt's failure to combat unemployment should not, however, be blamed exclusively on Nazif's government. It is, the questioners alleged, the responsibility of almost two decades worth of NDP governments that have consistently favoured the interests of a handful of rich businessmen and foreign investors over the poor and unprivileged majority. Since Nazif was not present at the interpellation session, Al-Amawi and Mohieddin took charge of responding to the opposition MPs. Both emphasised that the economic policies of the Nazif government aim at boosting the role of the private sector in generating real employment opportunities. "Filling government offices with large numbers of new employees can no longer be regarded as a viable solution to the crisis of unemployment," said Mohieddin. Encouraging local and foreign investments was, he argued, the only credible way to create real jobs. The most vocal of the government's detractors was, as expected, El-Badri Farghali, the maverick leftist MP from Port Said. Farghali argued that the proliferation of unemployment is not simply the result of the government's decision not to appoint new university graduates in public offices. "The severity of this crisis," said Farghali, "is due to IMF instructions that in the 1990s demanded the government scrap appointing university and school graduates to posts in the government and public sector." Yet, Farghali said, during the same period the government has provided businessmen with a host of incentives, including generous tax exemptions and tariff reductions. "These businessmen have offered the economy nothing in return and have imported thousands of foreign workers, thus exacerbating the unemployment crisis," said Farghali, who also criticised IMF-inspired privatisation policies that have seen valuable state assets sold to foreign investors at knock- down prices. The new owners, he said, then divest these assets of the majority of their employees. Mohamed Abdel-Alim Dawoud, a journalist and MP from the liberal-oriented Wafd Party, described unemployment as "a cancer that has crept its way to all parts of the body". The decision in 1984 to abandon old employment policies marked, said Dawoud, the beginning of the crisis. "This decision," said Dawoud, "has seen the number of the unemployed soar to 7.5 million, with another 700,000 people joining the labour market annually." These young people, Dawoud continued, fall easy prey to extremist ideas. "They turn to extremism not only because they are unemployed, but also because they see how government policies are making the rich richer and the poor poorer," Dawoud said. The majority of crimes in Egypt are now committed by the jobless, he claimed: "Unemployed people commit 40 per cent of all murders, 71 per cent of car thefts, 60 per cent of robberies and 80 per cent of family crimes." He also alleged that the number of those committing suicide in 2004 rose to 3,000, and that the majority was unemployed. Dawoud also criticised the government for allowing 18,000 young Egyptian men to travel to Israel to seek jobs there. Hamdi Hassan, a Muslim Brotherhood MP for Alexandria, questioned the seriousness of government claims that it was seeking to alleviate levels of unemployment. "Not only has the government opted to close the door on appointing new university and high school graduates," said Hassan, "but it is also against projects proposed by Egyptian academics in the area of land reclamation and building new desert communities." Prominent MP and opposition leader focussed on the role of corruption in worsening the unemployment crisis. Nour went so far as to implicate that the policies of Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali led many young people to commit suicide. "Abdel-Hamid Sheta graduated from the Faculty of Economy and Political Science with excellent marks," said Nour. "Yet he was denied a job in the Ministry of Foreign Trade [when Boutros-Ghali was minister]." According to Nour, Boutros-Ghali refused to appoint Sheta on the grounds that "he was socially unfit, his father being a poor farmer". "And it was following Ghali's decision Sheta drowned himself in the Nile," said Nour. Menoufiya MP Talaat El-Sadat reiterated the role of corruption in exacerbating unemployment. "An example of this corruption," said El-Sadat, "is that many of the richest businessmen in Egypt are members of the NDP's Policy Secretariat. And these crony capitalists use their NDP membership as way to promote their business interests." Mohieddin, defending the government's record, conceded that unemployment remained a thorn in the government's side. Unemployment amounts to nine per cent of the available workforce. "This problem cannot be solved by pursuing the old socialist policy of filling government and public sector offices with new appointees every year," Mohieddin said. The government's strategy in combating unemployment depends, he said, on creating real jobs. "Real jobs come through raising exports, boosting investments and divesting the state of loss- making companies," said Mohieddin, who outlined the achievements of the Nazif government since coming to power. The government, he said, had stabilised the pound against the dollar, boosted direct investments from $408 million to $1.5 billion, while privatising loss-making companies has relieved the state of financial burdens. "The huge number of public employees account for LE5.5 billion in salaries and wages every year and play a significant role in exacerbating the budget deficit," said Mohieddin. Minister of Manpower Al- Amawi agreed that filling government offices with new appointees simply "masks unemployment". He also dismissed the suggestion that Egyptians had travelled to Israel to seek jobs. USAID grants attacked The government promised this week that it would amend the companies law to penalise companies that accept foreign funding without government approval. Under a barrage of criticism from MPs from both the opposition and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Kamal El-Shazli, minister of parliamentary affairs, said the law would be amended so that companies operated on the same footing as NGOs, which cannot accept foreign funding without prior approval. MPs voiced their criticisms following a decision by the American Embassy in Cairo to allocate $1 million to NGOs intending to monitor this year's presidential and parliamentary elections. The grant was announced on 3 March at a press conference at which the outgoing American ambassador, David Welch, said the money was being offered in response to democracy- building proposals submitted to the US Embassy by a number of civil society NGOs. Included on the list of organisations is the Ibn Khaldun Centre for Developmental Studies, chaired by Saadeddin Ibrahim. Ibrahim spent more than a year behind bars before being exonerated, in 2003, of charges related to election monitoring activities. The Ibn Khaldun Centre intends to use the money to fund its continued monitoring of political and electoral rights -- the same activities that led to Ibrahim's arrest in the summer of 2000, just three months prior to parliamentary elections. MPs denounced the grants as an attempt by the US to interfere in domestic political affairs. In a question submitted to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on Sunday, Abul-Ezz El-Hariri, described the direct funding of six NGOs by the US as "a blatant breach of diplomatic norms that could open the door wide for more American meddling in Egyptian affairs". "It is completely unacceptable," El- Hariri said, "for any Egyptian citizen to accept money from America, a country whose crimes against us are piled high throughout the region." Mohamed Abdel-Alim, from the liberal-oriented Wafd Party, blamed the government for allowing the American ambassador to provide funding to NGOs. NDP MPs, who once lauded the role of US grants in funding development in Egypt, were busy making a U-turn, demanding that the laws governing the activities of NGOs and companies be tightened and any foreign funding of political activity be banned. The US grant, El-Shazli elaborated, provided funds to two NGOs and four companies. One of these companies, he confirmed, is the Ibn Khaldun Centre. "As for NGOs," El-Shazli explained, "the law regulating them [84/2000] prohibits their receiving funding from foreign donors without government permission." As for companies, El-Shazli promised that the law would be modified to oblige them to place any foreign funding under government supervision. Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga emphasised that while the government is completely opposed to outside meddling in domestic affairs it is also "keen to boost the role of civil society organisations and ensure that NGOs activities are in line with Egypt's higher national interests". The $1 million US grant, Abul-Naga said, is entirely consistent with the 1998 agreement between Egypt and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). "According to this agreement," Abul- Naga revealed, "USAID has allocated $35 million to a number of NGOs and civil society organisations to support their activities." Abul-Naga added that all NGOs seeking funding from USAID must obtain permission from the Ministry of International Cooperation. "The number of NGOs benefiting from USAID funding in Egypt has so far reached 500," Abul-Naga said. She concluded by reminding MPs that all USAID grants provided to Egypt are ratified by the People's Assembly before being disbursed into cash. Negad El-Boraie, chairman of the United Group, one of the NGOs which is benefiting from the $1 million US grant, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the attack against the funding in the People's Assembly was "quixotic". "NGOs working to promote democracy in Egypt face many hardships, not least a lack of funding," said El-Boraie. Nor are there that many alternative sources of funds: successful companies, and businessmen, maintain close links with the NDP and are generally unwilling to donate funds to organisations promoting democratisation. "The NDP, though, is happy to obtain money from the United States as long as it has nothing to do with politics or ending the NDP's monopoly of power," El-Boraie said. Another second USAID grant -- aimed at the health sector -- also came under attack when it was debated by the People's Assembly Health Committee on 23 March. The criticisms came mostly from members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The grant -- recently increased from $82 million to $102 million -- targets the health of poor women and children, seeks to improve birth control, fight endemic diseases and provides training to Health Ministry personnel. Ali Laban, a Muslim Brotherhood MP, denounced the grant as part of an American-Israeli conspiracy aimed at imposing birth control and sanctioning abortion. "These American practices," said Laban, "contradict Sharia law and reflect American policies that aim to curb fertility rates in Islamic countries, especially Egypt." He was joined by El-Sayed Hozayen, another Muslim Brother firebrand, who claimed the agreement included secret provisions that go against Islamic morals. Health Minister Mohamed Awad Taggeddin refuted the MPs' claims. "This grant achieves one of the major objectives of the government of Egypt," he said. "It aims to improve health practices in the area of birth control." The population of Egypt increases by 1.3 million annually. "This runaway growth," said the minister, "places enormous financial burdens on the government." The US grant helps the health sector bridge the funding gap and improve health conditions. "This is not against Islam," stressed Taggeddin.
