The scepticism with which the Egyptian press awaited the long-promised change may have been warranted, writes Aziza Sami From Al-Ahali to Al-Wafd and from Nahdet Masr to Al- Akhbar, the same refrain recurred in the press this week as the new ministerial formation was awaited and then finally announced. "They removed Aldo and put Shahin" was the popular Egyptian saying inspiring commentators to adopt it as a theme for their articles. Aldo and Shahin was part of a ditty performed by a famed trio of Egyptian stand-up comedians in the 1960s. The song is about famed footballers at the time; one is replaced by the other but the game's final outcome does not change. Four days before the new cabinet headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif was announced, and as speculation on the formation of the new cabinet reached fever pitch, on Wednesday the left-wing weekly newspaper Al-Ahali issued by the opposition Al- Tagammu' Party, published an article by professor of computer engineering Hossam Fahmi entitled, "We want neither Aldo nor Shahin nor the game of musical chairs." Presenting a full itinerary of the "real changes" demanded by a public "overcome with revulsion and lack of trust", the writer says that change does not mean replacing one minister with another. Needed changes range, writes Fahmi, from "devising an acceptable formula for a peaceful passing on of political power at the very highest levels to persons who are chosen by the millions of Egyptians". Change also entails "changing the overall political climate, the propagandist media policy, the corrupt interests groups continuously pulling the strings behind the curtains" and, finally, "appointing officials who are honest and capable of addressing our needs". On Sunday, the day the formation of the new cabinet was announced, the latest newcomer on the press scene, the daily newspaper Nahdet Masr, published on its front page that "statements by the new prime minister indicate priority will be given to economic reform but no allusion is made to political reform." The newspaper also published on its front page that "Nazif's selection ends the conflict between the NDP's Policies Committee (headed by the president's son Gamal) and the government... Nazif is the first Egyptian prime minister not from the generation of the (1960s and early 1970s) Arab Socialist Union and is a man who is free of the hegemony of fixed ideas." According to Nahdet Masr's analysis, "Nazif is a technocrat who speaks little about topics outside his scope of specialisation, and so it is more probable that the new prime minister will depend in formulating policies on all of the important economic issues on the ideas of the Policies Committee." Al-Ahali had already elaborated rather pessimistically that the rising political trend represented by the NDP's Policies Committee and the Future Generation Society (both headed by Gamal Mubarak) would "push for more liberalisation yet obstruct political reform". The paper stated, "Several businessmen who are members in the committees and councils connected to individuals occupying an influential position within the NDP are capitalising on this to lobby for policies realising their monopolistic interests and granting them exemptions and privileges." Al-Ahali added, "Pressure is being exerted by the ruling party's businessmen to push back the question of political reform from discussions of the annual congress of the NDP scheduled to be held in September." Nahdet Masr on Wednesday also wrote, "There is a strong trend within the government to postpone any constitutional amendments to next year, after a new parliament is elected." It is notable that save for the editorial "Who are we?" which Nahdet Masr publishes unchanged word for word every single day on page two, the paper hardly carried any political commentary of note. But it did devote a full-page to "The Free Masons and their nefarious plots to undermine our values and religion", a topic smacking of obscurant sensationalism which seems strange in a newspaper which every day asserts to its readers that it "represents liberal thought, etc, etc". Concerns that the "business- oriented" cabinet formation might not give priority to the interests of the broad masses were expressed in light- hearted terms by the national daily Al- Akhbar' s satirist Ahmed Ragab. "I hope that the new prime minister about whom we are most optimistic will appoint a minister for the poor who will fend for their interests," Ragab wrote. "If it is not possible to find such a minister, then perhaps Nazif might by means of his specialisation [information technology] construct a virtual minister for the poor who, with his exceedingly 'smart' intelligence, can protect them from extortion, long bread lines and perennial government indifference." Over the week the independent and opposition papers were rampant with predictions as to who will join the new cabinet. More than half of those proved to be off the mark. The national dailies Al-Ahram and Al- Akhbar did not escape the confusion, offering tentative names which changed from Sunday to Monday in a manner unprecedented in the coverage of cabinet appointments. Even news of the continuation of some ministries, or their final demise, appeared to oscillate from one day to the next, when it transpired on Tuesday that there would be a Ministry of Communications after all, following extensive press coverage that it would be scrapped. And so, on Monday, Al-Akhbar' s Editor-in-Chief Galal Dowidar exclaimed in the headline of his front- page column: "Why all this obscurity?" The article signaled the first direct attack on the new prime minister who, as communications minister, had been spared criticism. "What happened yesterday and the day before was unbelievable," Dowidar wrote, "and led to confusion in publishing the names of candidates in the cabinet due to the insistence that the ongoing consultations be considered a 'top secret' not to be revealed. This is in total contradiction with the traditions with which previous cabinet formations have been dealt with. There is no explanation for this except the desire to deprive the media from dispensing their function and communicating facts to the public." According to Dowidar "Nazif disappeared inside one of the buildings of the 'smart village' on the Cairo- Alexandria desert road while journalists were imprisoned in an isolated building from which they could see or hear nothing. There was nothing left, therefore, but to guess and speculate, which explains the confusion which was so apparent in publishing the names of the new cabinet members. "I know Dr Nazif well and he respects the press and its role. This is why I am astonished and angry and do not accept what happened. It is a bad beginning for future relations between the new prime minister and the press which is why I direct this reproach to him."
