The 51st anniversary of the July Revolution is intersecting with a frenzy of initiatives for "political reform". Amira Howeidy examines the significance or lack thereof It wasn't long ago that tens of thousands of outraged Egyptians from all walks of life unexpectedly took to the streets of central Cairo to protest -- in the early hours of 20 March -- the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. The build-up to the war had fuelled an already intense political environment seething with public anger towards Israel's escalation of violence towards the Palestinians and the nonchalant official Arab reaction to it. The domestic scene also seemed bleak, with a severe economic recession accelerated by the government's sudden decision to float the local currency in January, ultimately resulting in a shocking 30 per cent devaluation of the Egyptian pound. Independent political groups and organisations continued to blame the government and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) for stifling fundamental freedoms and rights via the 23-year old emergency law, weakening civil society, monopolising power and quashing attempts for meaningful political reform and real democracy. "Change" -- reiterated the pundits back then -- was imminent. They cited the general state of politicisation triggered by the September 2000 Intifada, and interpreted the strong anti-government sentiments expressed during the anti- war and anti-Israeli demonstrations, as a sign of -- if not a prelude to -- this change. Some went even further, arguing that the climate was analogous to the period before the 1952 Revolution, when a group of officers -- frustrated by the 1948 Zionist occupation of Palestine, the British occupation of Egypt, corruption and the widening gap between rich and poor -- overthrew the monarchy in a non-violent coup led by Gamal Abdel-Nasser on the 23rd of July of that year. It was in this environment, then, in late 2002, that political groups (including the NDP) began to speak of "reform". In November, the Wafd, Nasserist and Tagammu parties, as well as the illegal Communist Party and five human rights organisations, created the "Committee for Defence of Democracy", as a grouping committed to formulating a political reform programme fostering democratic development. Little was heard of this committee until last week when it organised -- eight months after its creation -- a seminar on "Democratic and Constitutional Reform in Egypt". Last May, in the same vein, the liberal Wafd, Nasserist, leftist Tagammu and (frozen) Labour parties announced the formation of the 'National Front for Political Reform'. The four parties set forth an upbeat founding statement that said the group would work towards organising a massive popular political conference comprising those political forces that could offer "an alternative political programme to the government's". Just three months after its formation, however, the Front seems to be already on its deathbed. Although none of its players are willing to announce its demise, there are signs that it will face the unfortunate fate of similar previous endeavours vowing to bring about "change" and "real democracy". A Front source who demanded anonymity told Al-Ahram Weekly that differences in "vision" between the Wafd Party and the other three parties involved in the Front, over the Wafd's recent alignment with the NDP and its desire to include the ruling party in the Front, were the main roots of the current impasse. "How can we include the NDP when it's the cause of everything we're fighting against?" asked Nasserist Party Head Diaaeddin Dawoud. He denied, however, that the Front was failing to achieve the agenda it announced last May. "We're working on it and very soon we'll resume our meetings." The Front had previously announced that it would hold its popular conference in June. When that didn't happen, no explanation was offered. For the past month, the Wafd's mouthpiece has been publishing a series of articles supporting the notion of inviting the NDP to join the Front. Last week, however, Information Minister Safwat El- Sherif, who is also the NDP's secretary- general, attacked the Front by describing its call for constitutional reform as a threat to "national stability and unity". Meanwhile, other reform projects have also been brewing. Several months ago, a so-called "National Initiative" was put forth by a number of "liberal left-wing" intellectuals. More recently, "The 20 March Movement for Change" -- which sets the "struggle against despotism and dictatorship" as its top priority -- was launched. The springboard of the 20 March Movement, as its name suggests, are the events of that day four months ago. On that day, said the group's founding statement, "we took to the streets like the rest of the Egyptian people and faced police brutality, but we succeeded in liberating Tahrir Square for that one day, and transformed it into a popular democratic platform." Tens of thousands of people "held their placards, calling for the liberation of Iraq, the liberation of Egypt from corruption, and the liberation of our daily bread from appropriation." Exactly how the Movement (whose members are mostly left-wing intellectuals and activists already affiliated to several other groupings with similar mandates) will achieve its goals remains unclear. Even the NDP is advocating its version of political reform and "change", though this does not include the demands made by other reform camps, such as electing a vice president, changing the constitution to limit the presidency to two terms, lifting the emergency law, and demanding a democratic rotation of power. The NDP's idea of reform encompasses the formation of a National Council for Human Rights, the promotion of the party's young cadres to senior posts, and general promises for more reform. This week marks the golden jubilee of the declaration of the republic which was announced a year following the 1952 July Revolution. Half a century later, the country's entire political spectrum is immersed in initiatives for reform that hope to bring about the long- aspired change, albeit without a very specific plan for how that change will come about. That this deluge of projects coincides with the commemoration of the last significant transformation in Egypt's history might be telling of the pressing need for democratic reform. But even the revolution's staunchest supporters, like the Nasserist Party's chairman, are discouraged by the huge gap between reality, and the aspirations of those who anticipated change four or more months ago. When the masses occupied central Cairo's Tahrir Square, said Dawoud, "that was a rare moment when the people were stronger than the state. But the regime -- soon thereafter -- regained its upper-hand. On the anniversary of the revolution," he lamented, "Egypt is clearly moving in the opposite direction of everything the 23rd of July stood for."
