Opposition parties have demanded guarantees that the NDP's initiative for a proposed national dialogue is serious, comprehensive and fruitful. Gamal Essam El-Din reports The ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) recent call for a "national dialogue" with opposition parties continued to reverberate in Egyptian political circles for a third straight week. On Monday, the party's six-member steering office said the invitation -- which was unveiled by party chairman President Hosni Mubarak at the NDP's first annual conference in late September -- will go out to representatives of opposition parties and civil society organisations. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal El-Shazli, the NDP's assistant secretary-general, made clear that the invitation only applies to legitimate opposition parties. This, said El-Shazli, excludes such frozen Islamist forces as the Labour Party as well as the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood -- even though the latter has the largest number (16) of opposition MPs in parliament. While steps are being taken to translate Mubarak's invitation into a reality, opposition parties are looking for guarantees that the proposed dialogue will be a major, and more importantly a serious, step on the long road of democratising Egypt. Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, chairman of the leftist Tagammu Party's political indoctrination secretariat, said the invitation was a clear indication that the NDP recognises that it is in the grip of comprehensive and unprecedented crisis. "In order for opposition parties to positively respond to this invitation, the NDP should provide guarantees that the proposed national dialogue is not just a tactic to help it out of its crisis, but part of a genuine interest in relieving the country of its chronic political and economic ailments," Shukr said. According to Shukr, "there is a consensus among opposition parties that Egypt's crisis is more political than economic. We strongly believe that sorting out the country's economic mess will only be viable if we deal with the serious political predicament first." Liberal Wafd Party Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Abaza said the NDP must not give itself the upper hand when deciding what issues will and will not be discussed as part of the proposed dialogue. "This must be clear in advance because this dialogue will end up failing if the NDP decides that amending the constitution -- the opposition's cornerstone of real political reform -- is not up for discussion," Abaza said. Ten years ago, when the NDP last invited opposition parties to a national dialogue, the party's leading officials shocked the opposition by insisting beforehand that amending the constitution would not be on the agenda. People's Assembly speaker Fathi Sorour, who headed the national dialogue's political committee, said at that time that, "amending the constitution is like putting the cart before the horse". The Wafd and Nasserist parties responded by boycotting the dialogue. Although the dialogue ended up taking place, the 300 or so representatives of political parties, professional and labour unions, and grass-roots organisations, only ended up passing three somewhat insignificant political reforms. One curtailed the political powers of the so-called socialist prosecutor-general (a post created by late President Anwar El-Sadat in the early seventies to intimidate his political opponents from participating in political life), another gave the Shura Council (a consultative upper house) a greater role in examining draft laws and the state budget, while a third provided new voters with more opportunities to register their names by extending the registration process to the last four months of each year instead of confining it to just December. Abaza is not optimistic that the newly proposed dialogue will be any different. His pessimism stems from the fact that the recently concluded NDP annual conference made no mention of the possibility that amending the constitution might be a political reform priority for the near future. Many Wafdists are expecting their party to boycott the new dialogue for precisely this reason. This week, Wafd Party Chairman No'man Goma'a urged President Mubarak to disentangle the NDP from the state, as a basic assurance towards achieving real political and economic progress. "By monopolising power and exploiting the state's resources, the NDP -- who are a gathering of opportunists -- has alienated millions of Egyptians and consigned them to the political wasteland," Goma'a said. Arab Nasserist Party Chairman Diaaeddin Dawoud also argued for basic ground rules to be set before the proposed dialogue could be held. "A preliminary meeting including representatives of the NDP and opposition parties must first be held to set the agenda," said Dawoud. "At this meeting, opposition parties will be able to explore the extent to which the NDP's proposed dialogue expresses a genuine interest in achieving political reform, as well as how far its leaders are willing to go towards introducing radical change." Dawoud's Nasserist Party boycotted the 1993 national dialogue, not just because of the ruling party's monopolisation of the agenda, but also because of Mustafa Khalil's appointment as the dialogue's rapporteur. Khalil, currently chairman of the Arab International Bank, is a former prime minister who played a major role in forging the Egyptian- Israeli peace treaty. NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif said meetings with representatives of political parties and civil society organisations would precede the proposed national dialogue. El-Sherif, however, indicated that these meetings, which are expected to be held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, would only be between the chairmen of political parties, on the one hand, and El-Sherif and El-Shazli on the other. "We will dedicate a separate meeting to each political party chairman until we reach an agenda that is acceptable to all parties," El-Sherif said. Rifaat El-Said, secretary-general of the leftist Tagammu Party, warned that the NDP must refrain from implementing any anti-democratic measures either before or after the proposed dialogue. "With previous dialogues, the NDP used to say something and then do something else," El- Said said. El-Said recounted that in 1993, just one month before the dialogue was held, the NDP asked its majority deputies in parliament to approve the extension of the emergency law for a further three years. "This killed the dialogue from the very beginning," said El-Said. El-Said also said the NDP must guarantee that the dialogue will be broadcast live on state television and radio. "This is important to show citizens first-hand who really cares about changing their economic and political lives for the better," El-Said said. In response, El-Sherif said the NDP has a genuine interest in boosting political reform. "The NDP's invitation is serious. It is not cosmetic or aimed at merely polishing the party's image." He also said the party would ensure that "every step leading towards this dialogue is transparent."
