What hopes for the newly formed Committee for the Defence of Democracy, asks Amira Howeidy The D word is all over the place again. It has been popping up regularly for more than a year as an essential component in the reformist discourse of senior National Democratic (NDP) officials who believe that democratic reform is underway now younger members have been introduced to its ranks. And opposition parties have recently started to make their bows in the D word's direction. Democracy's latest outing occurred during a lacklustre press conference on Tuesday at the premises of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), distilled in the form of a Committee for the Defence of Democracy (CDD) comprising representatives of the Wafd, Nasserist and Tagammu parties, the illegal Communist Party and five rights organisations. The committee aims to liase between various political groupings with the object of formulating a political reform programme fostering democratic development. Representatives from the Islamist trend, though, were conspicuous by their absence, an omission that triggered a storm of questions at the press conference. Those attending the event were told that the idea of the committee had emerged in May during meetings between rights groups and political parties to discuss the new NGO law, viewed by civil society activists as inimical to their work. "Everyone was welcome to attend those meetings," Hussein Abdel-Razeq, representative of the Tagammu Party explained, "and the Islamists didn't come [while] Muslim Brotherhood MPs approved the law in parliament. This committee is formed of representatives of the political groups that attended those meetings." A statement issued by the CDD -- its first meeting is scheduled for after the Eid -- said it was the passing of the NGO law that prompted them to face this "aggression on democracy" and revitalise efforts to achieve political and democratic reform. It has based its programme on the National Charter, a political reform initiative formulated in 1997 and the brainchild of Said El- Naggar, economist and head of the New Civic Forum, an NGO adopting a liberal line. The charter emerged following a series of intensive discussions between political groups, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, and laid down the foundation for a joint programme intended to strengthen democratic reform. The project stalled, however, when then-Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Ma'moun El-Hodeibi refused to abandon Islamic Shari'a as the group's main frame of reference. And because the charter was based on the inclusion of all political groups the entire project was thwarted with the defection of the Brotherhood. Abdel-Razeq and other members of the DDC believe the absence of the Islamists this time will not affect the committee's role, though El-Naggar, who spearheaded talks with the Brotherhood and insisted they abandon Shari'a, believes their inclusion is "essential". "All the political forces within the country must be represented, even if there are differences in opinion," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "It is in our interest that we include the Muslim Brotherhood." Despite its illegal status and regular security clampdowns that vary between occasional detentions to military trials, the Brotherhood won 17 of the National Assembly's 454 seats in the 2000 elections, making it the largest opposition bloc in parliament. And if no one at the press conference was saying that the Islamists had been deliberately excluded from the committee, the absence of the most powerful opposition group in the country could well be convenient. Following the death last week of Mustafa Mashhour the man who refused to sign the charter in 1997 is now the Brotherhood's supreme guide. Yet this time, El-Naggar believes, El-Hodeibi "might be willing to cooperate". Critics of the new committee, though, argue that the Brotherhood have no monopoly as representatives of the Islamist trend. Abul-Ela Madi, who defected from the group to form the Al-Wassat Party in 1996 but whose request for a licence was turned down by the government, argued that "we [Al-Wassat] called for and took part in phrasing the 1997 Charter." The absence of the Islamist movement from the committee, he said, "weakens and questions its credibility". The CDD has stated its "priorities for reform" in eight points derived from the 1997 Charter which include guaranteeing the freedom and basic rights of citizens, providing guarantees for judicial independence, revoking emergency laws in force since 1981 and modifying the system for presidential elections to allow more than one person to stand for the presidency. The EOHR press conference did not specify mechanisms to implement such an ambitious programme. "We are not simply a committee, we are a movement," said Abdel-Razeq. We will be organising, holding seminars, demonstrations and other peaceful initiatives... All the decisions made by the committee will be binding on the parties involved." Sceptics, weary of political stagnation and the deficiency of democracy, find it hard to believe that the CDD will succeed where previous endeavours have failed. "What else can we do?" asked El-Naggar, "The situation is very, very bad, and we're trying to do something. The nation is in real danger and the government is asleep. America's plans for the region are obvious. Israel wants to occupy what remains of Palestine and the US wants to divide Iraq. And we're doing nothing, as if none of this has anything to do with our national security when it has everything to do with it." Related stories: Brothers in succession Who's working for democracy? 17 - 23 December 1998 Focus: 2000 elections 1995 elections
