A three-year confrontation between the government and parliamentary opposition reached a fiery crescendo this week. Gamal Essam El-Din looked on For most of his three and a half years in office, corruption in the banking sector has been Prime Minister Atef Ebeid's biggest domestic headache. From his first policy statement, delivered in late 1999, to the most recent one he delivered to parliament on 29 December, opposition and independent MPs have made a point of attacking Ebeid for what they claimed were his attempts to circumvent parliament whenever possible, as well as his tendency to paint a rosy picture of the country's economic conditions and banking sector. This time around, things were a little different. On 11 January, when the Assembly convened to discuss a timetable for debating an unprecedented 28 interpellations (questions that must be answered by the government) on such thorny issues as corruption in the banking, agriculture and housing sectors, rigging of municipal elections and the deterioration of economic conditions, Ebeid decided to stand up to his most aggressive parliamentary critics. The prime minister said his government has spared no effort in fighting banking corruption. "We made a list of everybody who stole from the banks, and reported their names to the newly-established anti-money laundering follow-up centre. We have even hired a private investigation firm to look for them and send them all a clear message: 'that the government is quite determined to recover the bank money you stole, and bring you to justice,'" Ebeid said. In fact, argued Ebeid, the banking sector is exceptionally healthy at the moment. "We have 62 banks (with 2,564 branches throughout Egypt) that were able to attract LE350 billion in individual deposits (from LE40 billion 15 years ago) and offer 272,000 clients LE270 billion in credit facilities," Ebeid boasted. The prime minister, however, attributed corruption in the banking sector to the financial meltdown in Southeast Asia in 1997. "This crisis resulted in a great many businessmen being bogged down in a quagmire of debt. Some of these are serious people whose businesses were left in tatters, and we are determined to help this category of people out of their financial woes. Others were corrupt and opted to flee the country with millions in unpaid loans. We are determined to chase these people and bring them to justice," said Ebeid. Ebeid urged opposition and independent MPs not to exaggerate when discussing corruption. "We all have to be very careful when talking about the banking sector because it is a matter of national security," he said. Ebeid also claimed that the national economy is showing increasing signs of recovery. Real GDP (Gross Domestic Product), he said, is likely to rise to between 3.5 and four per cent in 2003 from 3.4 per cent in June 2002. "The deficit in the current account balance, which was expected to top $1.9 billion due to the negative impact of the 11 September attacks, has ended up at just $9 million. Our foreign exchange reserves ($14.3 billion) are enough to cover imports for eleven months." According to opposition and independent MPs, the prime minister and Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour colluded to mitigate the interpellation session. The first clue was when Sorour opened the session by informing members that the Assembly's General Committee (which includes Sorour himself, his two deputies and the chairmen of 18 committees) would first hold an emergency meeting. Following the meeting, Sourour told parliament that "Although the number of interpellations submitted for this session has reached an unprecedented 28, the general committee has concluded that only one interpellation will be discussed per month," Sorour said afterwards. Opposition and independent MPs were further disgruntled by another surprising decision. Interpellations dealing with the same subject, Sorour said, will be discussed in the same session. "As such," said Sorour, "the debate of each interpellation will have to be limited to just 30 minutes (compared to one hour in previous sessions), and if more than one interpellation is to be debated in one meeting, the limit will be reduced to only 20 minutes." The General Committee's decisions, which were automatically endorsed by NDP deputies, left opposition and independent MPs in an uproar. Independent MP Ayman Nour railed that the NDP-dominated General Committee decisions were in violation of the constitution. "The constitution (Article 125) states that every MP is entitled to table interpellations to the prime minister or his deputies, and to ministers or their deputies, concerning matters within their jurisdiction. The article does not say that the General Committee should be vested with the right to decide on interpellations in any way. This is a new rule which goes against the constitution and expropriates one of the Assembly's basic supervisory rights," Nour said. Most opposition and independent MPs rallied behind Nour, agreeing that the NDP is now closely coordinating with the government with a goal of stripping the Assembly of its supervisory powers. Nour argued that this coordination, which is a reflection of the NDP's "new thinking", has already reduced the Assembly's supervisory powers by about 90 per cent. When Kamal El-Shazli, minister of state for parliamentary affairs and the NDP's parliamentary whip, announced that "the government is quite ready to respond to five interpellations on banking corruption at once," opposition and independent MPs' outrage reached an even greater level, and the discussion lapsed into a mud- slinging match. Nour said that "today's meeting is merely devoted to setting up a timetable for the interpellations that have been submitted. I'm also quite curious as to why the government has been refusing to discuss these interpellations over the last five years and why it is now ready to answer them, after billions of pounds were smuggled out of the country." Ragab Helal Hemeida, the sole representative of the Liberal Party, argued that "it is not the government's right to decide when and whether or not it is ready to answer interpellations. We are not chess pieces in the government's hands." Nour accused Sorour of doing all he could to ensure that parliament would be a toothless body, to which Sorour responded: "You are not the one to judge or tell us how the Assembly's affairs should be properly run." Sorour then asked the NDP majority to vote to prevent Nour from speaking any further on the interpellations. It didn't matter -- Adel Eid, an independent MP, quickly replaced Nour and began attacking Sorour as well. According to Eid, the government's decision was an insult to the Assembly. Eid asked that the five interpellations on banking corruption that had been submitted by himself and other colleagues be discussed either the next day or later, in the evening session. Wary of the ramifications of the verbal clash that was going on, Sorour decided to give the floor to Prime Minister Ebeid, who began by saying that even though the five interpellations were corroborated by 400 supporting documents, "unfortunately, most of the information contained in these documents is entirely unfounded and lacking in fact." Ebeid said he had refused to respond to interpellations on banking corruption "for the sake of the country's economic image in the world." The prime minister then produced a long list of his government's achievements over the past year. He said political stability had helped Egypt face the economic hardships of the last few years. "Although my government is not directly responsible for these hardships, it bears a direct social responsibility for raising the living standard of this country's citizens," Ebeid said. Opposition and independent MPs described Ebeid's statements as more white wash, arguing that the government negligence was the key factor behind the plunder of more than LE40 billion in bank savings. The Liberal Party's Hemeida cited Banque Du Caire as topping the list of plundered banks, saying its chairman, Ahmed El- Barad'i, had been appointed because of his crony relationships with leading officials. Ebeid responded by charging that El-Barad'i's rejection of a loan request by Hemeida was the real motive behind the latter's attacks against the bank. Out of the 28 interpellations that have been submitted, seven -- surprisingly enough -- are directed at Youssef Wali, the deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture. These interpellations take Wali to task for alleged corruption in the agricultural sector and the appointment of unqualified people to leading positions in the ministry. The last time Wali faced interpellations was in March 1994.
