By Salama A Salama Two things happened last week that say much about the course of reform -- which seems increasingly becoming more of a puzzle than a quest -- in this country. The first concerns the national dialogue during the course of which 16 parties, including the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), sat debating democracy behind closed doors. The second thing was the arrest of Ayman Nour, People's Assembly member and leader of the Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party. The national dialogue was supposed to take place in a climate of transparency and in full public view. The parties involved in the dialogue, after all, represent only a modest segment of the Egyptian political scene and, therefore, have no right to determine the future of the entire country. NDP officials believe that the dialogue has been a great success. The first round, we are told, produced a consensus on the priorities of reform, including the amendment of the constitution according to a specific timetable. The constitutional amendment, it is suggested, will take place after the presidential referendum is held. This, of course, is a vague formula -- there is nothing concrete or reassuring about it. Future rounds of talks are still to take place, but the picture so far is not rosy. Nour's arrest cast a shadow over the proceedings. The People's Assembly member, we were told, may have submitted forged power of attorney documents from potential supporters as part of his application to establish the new party. I do not wish to discuss a legal charge while investigation is underway. But the manner of Nour's arrest, insulting to the utmost and done in true police-state fashion, is hardly reassuring. Then came President Bush's State of the Union address, in which he urged Egypt to lead the Arab world in democracy, as it did in peace. Taken alone, this is not an extraordinary remark. But considering the sudden turnabout in the NDP's stand on amending the constitution one has to think again. The NDP used to scoff at any call for constitutional amendment. Then both Safwat El- Sherif and Gamal Mubarak suddenly began telling us that amending the constitution was not such a bad idea after all. Condoleezza Rice, the new US secretary of state, now touring Europe and the Middle East, called for US-sponsored democratic reform in the region. The on-off approach to reform in Egypt is giving the Americans a stick with which to prod us. The Washington Post has just run a particularly patronising editorial, calling on the US administration to step on some toes in Egypt in order to further democratic reform. The editorial singles out Nour as a key democratic figure on the grounds that he has called for democratic presidential elections. The truth is that Nour's party was launched only days ago, and it is not the only party in Egypt that has called for reform. The problem with the NDP -- old guard and new blood alike -- is that it is jaywalking along the international highway of democratisation, and feeling insecure about it. Each time the US and Europe admonish us, which they are doing more often than at any time before, the NDP becomes more erratic in its actions. Yet Washington's own credibility as an advocate of democracy, freedom, and human rights is now in tatters following America's unscrupulous resort to the use of force and its endorsement of torture and detention without trial. The US is giving out mixed signals. And officials in this country, as elsewhere in the region, are running round in circles.
