The opposition welcomed recent NDP initiatives, but said the ruling party has not gone far enough to level the political playing field and bring true reform to the country. Gamal Essam El-Din investigates In his speech before the first annual conference of the National Democratic Party (NDP) on 28 September, President Hosni Mubarak said the ruling party aims to boost democratisation in Egypt over the next year. This, Mubarak added, will happen through adopting three initiatives: inviting opposition party representatives to a national dialogue with the NDP, amending a host of laws pertaining to the exercise of political rights, and the abrogation of military orders under the Emergency Law. Leaders of major opposition parties wholeheartedly welcomed the NDP's initiatives, but had strong doubts that they would lead to real political reform in the near future. Hussein Abdel-Razeq, chairman of the leftist Tagammu Party, said NDP's newly-announced initiatives are just "a drop in an ocean of political reforms required to turn Egypt into a thorough democracy". "I really wonder if the NDP will be able to agree to the opposition's reform agenda. This is important because, in the end, real reform could lead to the demise of the NDP itself," Abdel-Razeq said. On NDP's first initiative, President Mubarak said the objective of the proposed "national dialogue" is to reach "a charter of honour" with opposition parties. "This charter is intended to regulate competition between the NDP and opposition parties in election campaigning and partisan activities," said Mubarak. The NDP's Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif told the ruling party conference on 27 September that "the NDP is not interested in monopolising political life." "The NDP welcomes opposition parties playing a more active role in political life because full democracy requires fair competition among all political parties in fair elections," El-Sherif said. Leading members of major opposition parties welcomed a national dialogue with the NDP, but added that previous experience with such initiatives is by no means encouraging. Abdel-Razeq said since its formation in 1978, the NDP has invited the opposition to five national dialogues -- in 1982, 1986, 1988, 1992 and 1993, but all to no avail. Abdel- Razeq argues that the NDP resorts to the idea of "national dialogues" whenever its in the grip of a severe crisis. "In 1993, the NDP faced unprecedented danger from Islamist terrorism, and it was important at the time to mobilise all political forces against terrorism," Abdel-Razeq said. When the tide of violence ebbed in 1994, Abdel-Razeq added, the NDP decided not to implement the reforms which the opposition advocated during the June-July 1994 dialogue. This year, Abdel-Razeq believes the NDP is in a serious two-pronged dilemma: a severe economic crisis that caused soaring public discontent and an impatient America exerting pressure on its Arab allies to democratise. The dialogue, he added, will also help to polish the image of NDP's so-called "future generation". Diaaeddin Dawoud, chairman of the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party, said his party is interested in joining the proposed dialogue but cautioned that "the NDP will lose a lot if it plans to use this dialogue for just promotional or cosmetic goals." Opposition leaders also said the NDP was right to believe it was time to update laws governing the exercise of political rights. However, they indicated that there is a wide gap between the NDP and the opposition over the necessary legislative changes. In his 28 September speech, President Mubarak said the NDP is anxious to see political parties step up their activities and win people's confidence. "The best way to do this is to innovate laws regulating the exercise of political rights, create a more favourable political climate and help parties develop their institutional structures," said President Mubarak. El-Sherif said the proposed dialogue will focus on how best to upgrade four basic laws: the Exercise of Political Rights Law (No 73/1956), the Political Parties Law (No 40/1977), the Professional Syndicates Law (No 100/ 1993) and the Local Councils Law (No 43/1979). By contrast, opposition forces think a group of so-called "infamous laws" must be radically changed, or even scrapped entirely. The first one is the Political Rights Law. This law, in addition to the laws regulating the activities of the People's Assembly (No 38/1972) and The Shura Council (No 120/1980), govern the organisation of general elections in Egypt. The opposition believes that in their present form these laws have helped the ruling party manipulate parliamentary and local council elections in its favour for the last half century. The opposition wants these laws amended to bring elections, either by individual candidacy or by the slate system, under full judicial supervision, or completely exclude intervention by the Interior Ministry (as in India). This was drafted into a bill by the opposition four years ago, but it was rejected outright by the NDP-dominated People's Assembly. Ibrahim Abaza, a senior member of the Wafd party, said the law's stipulation that half the seats in parliament and local councils be reserved for representatives of workers and farmers must also be entirely revoked. Currently, the NDP wants to scrap individual candidacy in favour of the slate system. El-Sherif also said the NDP aims to provide citizens with voting "identity cards" to simplify elections. On its list of legislative reforms, the opposition wants the Political Parties Law annulled, or at least be changed to rid it of Article No 8, which stipulates that citizens must get a licence from a "political parties committee" before their parties can be approved. This committee, which is headed by the chairman of the Shura Council and whose membership includes justice, interior, and parliamentary affairs ministers, as well as three former senior judges, also enjoys other influential powers in supervising the performance of parties. Opposition parties consider the committee "unconstitutional", not only because most, if not all, of its members are NDP stalwarts, but also because it stands against the basic principle of the multi- party system enshrined in the constitution (Article No 5). Amr Hashem Rabie, a researcher with Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said that out of 61 requests submitted by citizens for establishing political parties over the last 25 years, the committee approved only eight. Rabie added that the council even decided to freeze the activities of seven parties. Most of the current opposition parties were created through the force of court rulings. Kamal El-Shazli, the parliamentary affairs minister and an NDP heavyweight, believes the committee is necessary to protect the country from "political disarray". The opposition also wants the Local Councils Law amended to rid them of NDP monopoly, save them from endemic corruption, and help them improve public services. Zakaria Azmi, seriously influential within the NDP as chief of President Mubarak's staff, charged local councils with being up to their necks in corruption. The opposition believes that rampant corruption in local councils is due to the fact that its two wings -- executive and elected municipal councils -- are NDP monopolies. According to Abdel-Razeq, this breeds corruption, stifles democratisation, and robs ordinary citizens of adequate services. In the local council elections of April 2002, the NDP won almost 99.9 per cent of the seats unopposed because the opposition, suspecting the elections would be rigged, decided it was futile to run against the ruling party. El-Sherif acknowledged the local administration system is "lagging behind and needs to be urgently streamlined". He added that improving this system requires democratisation and decentralisation, but he declined to say how. El-Sherif also said amending the Professional Syndicates Law (No 100/1993) is also an NDP priority. "The NDP seeks to reinvigorate professional syndicates and give a boost to their role in civic life," he said. The opposition believes there is a pressing need to abolish this "infamous" law, proposed in 1993 by an NDP deputy -- Mohamed Guweily, who is currently chairman of parliament's Proposals and Complaints Committee -- to discourage the Muslim Brotherhood from contesting syndicate elections. Rabie said the stringent measures for holding professional organisation elections has paralysed at least four syndicates, and killed a basic part of civilian life. (The last time the doctors and pharmacists elections were held was 11 years ago.) The opposition also wants to repeal the NGO Law (No 84/2002) and replace it with a more liberal one. President Mubarak said the state aims to repeal all military orders issued under the Emergency Law (around 500, not 2000 as alleged by some foreign publications). "The objective of this abrogation is to deepen the sense of belonging and reinforce confidence between the NDP and citizens," said President Mubarak. On 30 September, a committee headed by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid decided that around 15 military orders be maintained because of their importance to national security. These, for example, include orders regarding the acquisition of wiretapping and bugging equipment, the photocopying and handling of military or police identifications and uniforms, and banning foreigners from residing in areas crucial to national security. The opposition criticised revoking some orders, such as one banning construction on agricultural land (around 600,000 feddans were lost to construction in the last 20 years. One feddan equals about 4,200 square metres.). Abdel-Razeq said this initiative was merely "cosmetic" because the opposition wants to repeal the Emergency Law altogether. El-Sherif surprised everyone by announcing last Saturday that "he sees no reason why debate on repealing the Emergency Law could not be put on the agenda for the proposed dialogue." Abdel-Razeq agreed, but commented that "the devil is in the details". An alliance of major opposition parties and human rights NGOs plans to demonstrate in Abdeen Presidential Palace Square on 28 October and submit to President Mubarak a proposed agenda of political reforms, including amending the constitution, repealing the Emergency Law, and ridding the country of a host of other "infamous" laws.
