The press had vastly different takes on the NDP's second annual conference. Aziza Sami samples the views The headlines of the national, independent and opposition press competed in projecting the layman in its headlines on the occasion of the ruling National Democratic Party's annual conference. From which aspect however depended on the perspective of these newspapers. On Tuesday, the day the conference started, the banners of the national dailies Al-Akhbar and Al-Ahram respectively promised in so many words, "Tax exemptions to alleviate the burden on citizens" and "Government plans to reform the tax system and support limited income groups." This has become the signal tune denoting the new government's priorities. The apolitical emphasis of the national press in its coverage of the NDP's conference as well as the fact that economic reforms were predominantly touted induced the opposition press -- which had never been optimistic about the conference's outcome anyway -- to direct more of its usual criticism. On Wednesday the weekly newspaper Al-Ahali issued by the left-wing Al- Tagammu Party proclaimed: "The opposition decides to resort to the people." A front-page frame, "Taboo subjects", proclaimed that "Mohamed Kamal, a member of the NDP's Policies Committee and NDP conference's media organiser, announced that it will discuss neither the emergency law nor the upcoming presidential referendum." Al-Ahali intimated that what was at hand was a ploy being performed for the benefit of a foreign audience. Another headline announced: "Opposition papers are prohibited from attending the NDP's conference while foreign delegations are allowed to participate and discuss the papers presented." The opposition daily Al-Wafd issued by the Wafd Party reprinted the full text of the article written the day before in Al-Ahram by columnist Salama Ahmed Salama. In the article, "Three no's", Salama underscores the three much- anticipated but prohibited discussions of constitutional change, presidential elections and the NDP's monopoly of political life. The opposition weekly newspaper Al-Arabi issued by the Nasserist Party came out strongest -- as usual -- in its disapproval of the conference's outcome. On Sunday the newspaper summarily proclaimed in its banner: "The assassination of political reform in Gamal Mubarak's conference". Two intriguing contrary interpretations of the political ascendancy of head of the NDP's Policies Committee Gamal Mubarak were presented, one by AUC economics Professor Galal Amin, the other by Ahmed Al-Garallah, the editor of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyasa. On Saturday Al-Garallah wrote in the national weekly newspaper Akhbar Al-Yom, "When we, the audience, heard Gamal Mubarak speak at the NDP conference we asked ourselves: Why did he not present his thinking to us before? If this thinking by the son of the president had been presented a long time ago we would not have faced the problems we have now, nor needed the current sweeping reforms. The ideas expressed by the son of the president emanate from a bold and profound economic mentality, unusual in the Egyptian environment. However, popular 'sensitivities' -- naive ones one must say -- (which oppose the political ascendancy of the president's son) have obstructed such thought from playing its role. A decision must be made not to heed such sensitivities or listen to fools when they speak." On Sunday however, Galal Amin wrote in Al- Arabi, "It would seem to me that Gamal Mubarak did not start participating in public life except in response to [the point of view] that his doing so will be in the interest of the country. But I don't get the impression he is happy doing so. This is a prime example of an intelligent, sincere and promising young man undertaking a task that is not his." The independent weekly newspaper Al- Osbou' on Monday launched an attack on a conference held in Zurich, Switzerland entitled, "Egypt's Copts, a minority under siege". "The extremist Zionist Daniel Pipes headed the participants: a suspect alliance in Zurich between the American right and some members of the Coptic expatriate community," wrote Al-Osbou' in the headline of one article. Al-Osbou' wrote that the conference, which was held under the auspices of the International Christian Solidarity movement, brought together figures "known for their hostility to the Arabs and Muslims", in addition to several Copts mostly from the expatriate community. "Some of these are connected to suspicious circles in the US," Al- Osbou' asserted. The newspaper detailed the papers delivered and their titles such as, "Al- Kosheh: the tragedy of the inability of judicial and government organisations to provide justice to the Copts". Presented by Midhat Qilada, this referred to clashes which took place in the Upper Egyptian village of Al-Kosheh three years ago in which a number of Copts were killed in clashes with Muslims. The court sentences subsequently issued were contested by members of the Coptic community as having fallen short of meting out due punishment to the culprits. Al-Osbou' reported that the conference dealt with an itinerary of allegations such as the forced conversion of Christian girls to Islam, outright physical and moral persecution and the "indifference of the Egyptian government". In commentary Al-Osbou' wrote: "The Zurich conference is no different than its predecessors which utilised the Coptic minority as a pressure card and pretext to solicit foreign intervention in Egypt's affairs. The American right wing is inciting expatriate Copts to raise a furore at a time when [the US] is targeting Syria, the Sudan, occupying Iraq, and massacres increasing in Palestine. The aim is to put Egypt in a defensive position or at least mar domestic moves being undertaken to attain change. They want Egypt weak, easy to extort and submitting to the US and Israeli agenda." On Sunday, the day that Al-Osbou' hit the newsstands, William Wissa wrote, "Chronic accusations which no longer terrorise anyone". This was published in Watani , the weekly newspaper issued by the Coptic community. The writer calls for discussing any grievances the Coptic community might have inside Egypt in order to prevent a situation where Copts go outside the country's borders. "Whenever the question of the Copts is publicly laid on the table and recommendations made, we are confronted with evasion, temporary panaceas and putting the lid on things. This is what many Copts inside and out of Egypt feel. This induces many of them to discuss these questions outside of Egypt, with all the consequences that this may have." The writer concludes, "We must find a cure for the political hysteria and media epilepsy with which we are confronted every time we bring up the Coptic question. This tedious mantra of 'defaming Egypt' must stop. We must be able to convene conferences under whichever title, and in Egypt. "I sincerely believe that if the opportunity were afforded to everyone, civil society especially, to seriously discuss these matters in a healthy atmosphere, there will be no need for anyone to resort to the outside." Satirist Ahmed Ragab took aim at what he described was the constant fabrications undertaken in history textbooks by successive Egyptian governments. Ragab wrote in Akhbar Al-Yom : "Some of our history textbooks have consistently fabricated the past for political reasons. We defamed Mohamed Ali, the founder of modern Egypt, and the Khedive Ismail, who undertook a great renaissance, built the Suez Canal and whose army reached the source of the Nile. We still fail to mention that Mohamed Neguib was the first president of the Egyptian republic. It is shameful that the very first lesson that our state gives its youth is lies and hypocrisy."
