Preparatory meetings being held as a prelude to a national dialogue featured several disagreements between the NDP and two opposition parties. Gamal Essam El-Din reports The first round of meetings being held as a prelude to a national dialogue between the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and opposition parties began last week. On Monday, the NDP held a meeting with the liberal Wafd; earlier in the week it met with the leftist Tagammu. The NDP was represented at the meetings by its Secretary-General Safwat El- Sherif and his assistant Kamal El-Shazli. Wafd Chairman No'man Gomaa, and Tagammu Chairman Khaled Mohieddin and Secretary-General Rifaat El-Said, attended their parties' respective meetings with the NDP. The meetings were held as a prelude to a "national dialogue" proposed by NDP chairman, President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak invited opposition parties to the dialogue in the hope of establishing a package of political and economic reforms, as well as a charter of honour meant to govern electoral campaigning and funding, and ensure the transparency of partisan activities. The separate meetings with opposition party leaders (a third session is scheduled to take place next week with Nasserist Chairman Diaaeddin Dawoud and his deputy Hamed Mahmoud) will be followed up by a general meeting in which the four parties' leading figures will participate in drawing up the proposed national dialogue's agenda. Informed NDP sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that almost 300 individuals representing 10 opposition parties (out of a total of 17), several civil society organisations (including professional syndicates, NGOs & labour unions) and several independent experts are expected to take part in the proposed dialogue, which is planned for sometime between December 2002 and early January 2003. Groups like the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood (which has the largest number of opposition MPs in parliament) and the frozen Islamist-oriented Labour Party, however, will not be invited to take part. The preparatory meetings began with the Tagammu, NDP officials said, because the party has the largest number (six) of official opposition MPs. Four deputies represent the Wafd in parliament, while the Nasserists have just one elected MP. A statement issued at the end of the first meeting said the two parties -- the NDP and the Tagammu -- agreed that the proposed dialogue has to focus on a new package of political, economic and social reforms. Of utmost priority, the statement said, were three basic political issues: amending laws on political rights and political parties, as well as drafting a new electoral system. Informed sources, however, told Al- Ahram Weekly that the meeting was rife with disagreements. While El-Sherif suggested that the proposed package of reforms should mainly be guided by the NDP's new "Citizenship and Democratisation" report (unveiled by El- Sherif and Gamal Mubarak, the 40-year- old son of President Hosni Mubarak and chairman of the NDP's influential Policy Secretariat) dealing with partisan and civil society life, decentralisation and discrimination against women, opposition parties have made clear that the report's recommendations don't go far enough. Although the Tagammu's El-Said told Al-Ahram Weekly that the NDP seems more serious than usual about political reform, the measures suggested by the report would not result in a radical and highly necessary transformation of the country's dilapidated political structures. NDP sources, meanwhile, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the opposition's insistence on radical reforms (such as amending the constitution, abolishing the emergency law and trimming the presidency's tremendous powers) might end up undermining the dialogue. "The opposition must accept," said one NDP insider, "that even though they can't attain everything, they shouldn't leave with nothing at all." Al-Wafd's Gomaa said the radical reforms proposed by opposition parties aren't aimed at demolishing the "temple because we are all living under this temple. We think that radical political reform is a top priority and that ensuring the integrity of elections must be at the heart of this reform". Gomaa made clear that opposition parties would never be able to win a sizable number of parliamentary seats as long as they are running against a party led by the president of the republic and entirely backed by the government. "Separating the NDP from the state is basic to the dialogue's success, as well as ensuring the integrity of elections and stimulating partisan life," Gomaa said. In response, El-Sherif argued that the NDP is not the government's party, "but it is the country's most popular party which was authorised to create the existing government". El-Sherif also said that the NDP is always making sure that it acts independently of the government in both financial and administrative terms. "The NDP, for example, paid for its conference last September in its entirety, and aired it live on television," he said. Most opposition figures, however, were sceptical of El-Sherif's claims. The NDP and Tagammu leaders also disagreed with the NDP on the dialogue's proposed economic agenda. El- Said said the Tagammu believes that Prime Minister Atef Ebeid's government is heading for an economic catastrophe "because it is a government which is reacting to events rather than controlling them". According to El-Said, the Tagammu "completely disagrees with the NDP in this realm. Our economic agenda is well known -- it is based on scrapping the market economy, embracing self- dependence, reinforcing Arab economic integration and supporting public sector industrialisation." The Tagammu wanted its joint statement with the NDP to include a line about economic reform providing measures to protect citizens from further deterioration of their livelihoods, a suggestion which met with stiff opposition from El-Sherif and El-Shazli, who preferred something more along the lines of "economic reform must be aimed at achieving higher growth rates to ensure an increase in citizens' standards of living". The Tagammu also objected to the NDP's description of Egypt's relationship with America as strategic. With the opposition party making it clear that the promotion of Egyptian-US relations should not be at the country's expense, the two parties agreed to drop this issue from the statement altogether. The NDP and the Tagammu were in complete agreement, however, about excluding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood from the proposed dialogue. Although some Tagammu members consider the Brotherhood a major political force that cannot be completely ignored, the party as a whole feels the Brotherhood should not be invited to the dialogue because it is an illegal organisation. Al-Wafd's Gomaa also attacked the Brotherhood, accusing it of exploiting Islam and turning Egypt into a breeding ground for terrorists and Islamist extremists. Mamoun El-Hodeibi, the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, subsequently accused Gomaa of publicly inciting the government to harass the Brotherhood. Hussein Abdel-Razeq, chairman of the Tagammu's political committee, told Al- Ahram Weekly that he suspects that one of the NDP's main objectives vis-à-vis the dialogue involves mobilising opposition parties against the Brotherhood. "With the Brotherhood facing serious intimidation since [the war in Iraq], the new dialogue may serve to further intimidate and isolate this strong organisation," Abdel-Razeq said, "so that the NDP can continue its monopoly of political life."
