As the People's Assembly embarks on its third session, Gamal Essam El-Din previews the agenda and spotlights one of its hotter issues Following a five-month summer recess, the People's Assembly inaugurated its third session (in a five- year term) yesterday with a procedural meeting that witnessed the re-election of Ahmed Fathi Sorour as Speaker. In Egypt's 136-years of parliamentary history, Sorour is the first person to hold the Speaker post for 13 consecutive sessions. He was re-nominated in a meeting held on Tuesday between the deputies of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and President Hosni Mubarak. That meeting also witnessed the nomination of the speaker's two deputies, as well as the chairmen of parliament's 18 committees. El-Sayed Rashed, chairman of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions (GFETU), and Amal Othman, a former minister of social insurance, were selected as Sorour's two deputies. On Saturday, President Mubarak will deliver a speech before a combined session of the People's Assembly and the Shura Council, the assembly's consultative upper house. The speech is expected to deal with a variety of thorny issues ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a possible attack against Iraq to the local economic situation. To prepare for the session, the NDP's newly formed Parliamentary Committee held a meeting on Sunday with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, which was also attended by Sorour and Shura Council Speaker Mustafa Kamal Helmi. According to the NDP's Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif, the Parliamentary Committee will act as a link coordinating between the NDP on one hand, and the government on the other, regarding legislation and other issues to be discussed by parliament. In this respect, the NDP's Policy Secretariat, headed by Gamal Mubarak, the 39-year-old son of President Hosni Mubarak, will be responsible for discussing laws ahead of their submission to the Assembly. Prime Minister Atef Ebeid said the government aims to submit a list of 14 laws to parliament, most important of which are legislation on banking, income tax, telecommunications, e-signatures, construction, accounting, consumer protection and the establishment of companies. On Saturday, however, the Assembly will plunge into business by discussing the first articles of the controversial unified labour law, which is designed to regulate relations between employers and workers in a market economy. The above list of laws clearly shows that economic issues are sure to dominate the Assembly's agenda during this session. During the previous two sessions, opposition MPs severely criticised the economy committee's chairman, Abdallah Tayel, labelling him a corrupt and unsavoury businessman lacking in the basic economic experience and knowledge to be appointed the committee's chairman. Opposition MPs complained that under Tayel's leadership, the committee basically forfeited its role as a discussion board of basic national economic issues. They argued that Tayel had even manipulated the committee to prevent MPs from discussing reports submitted by the Central Auditing Agency (CAA) on corruption in public banks and companies. Opposition MPs were vindicated last month as Tayel was taken into custody for a month, pending investigation on charges of bank fraud. Said El-Alfi, a businessman with huge investments in poultry farms who has been the economic committee's deputy chairman for the last two sessions, will replace Tayel as chairman. In general, there is a serious atmosphere of disappointment among both opposition and NDP MPs as the new round of parliamentary life begins. MPs who spoke to the Weekly argued that parliament does not serve to provide effective scrutiny of the government. "The Egyptian parliament, the oldest in the region, has been relegated to little more than a toothless institution with no real power to check an overly mighty executive," Mohamed Mursi, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood MPs, told Al-Ahram Weekly. MPs, argued Mursi, are denied the right to deliver interpellations -- questions that must be answered by cabinet ministers -- on thorny issues such as corruption in the banking sector. "The government withholds answers to parliamentary questions and even fails to give MPs valid reasons for refusing to answer them. The result is that there is a widespread feeling amongst the masses that parliament is an out-of-touch institution," Mursi said. He argued that had the interpellations submitted by opposition and independent MPs on banking corruption been discussed, they would have helped the nation avert what has only become a worsening "loan defaultment" crisis. "Egypt's political and parliamentary life will only flourish when the government starts welcoming both interpellations, and the supervisory role of MPs in general, in order to oversee and rectify government performance for the greater interests of the nation," Mursi said. Actually, corruption in the banking sector is expected to be the hottest issue on the new session's agenda. Opposition MPs are hopeful that this session will not feature the rejection of their interpellations on this kind of disastrous corruption. "Banking corruption has become an issue of great importance to public opinion," said Mursi, "and we have to show people that we are in parliament to defend their rights and protect their deposits from being plundered." As many as eight opposition and independent MPs have submitted interpellations on banking corruption thus far. Opposition MPs also complain that the Assembly's present internal executive rules and regulations should be amended to curtail the speaker's powers and make the government more accountable to parliament. "These regulations have to be amended not only because they go back to 1979, but because they are primarily responsible for the parliament's frail performance," said independent MP Abdel-Moneim El-Oleimi. Speaker Sorour, however, thinks that MPs should do more to refine their performance rather than ask for the amending of internal regulations. "They can do this by studying legislation more carefully and making their speeches shorter and more intelligent," Sorour said. For their part, NDP deputies are afraid that the creation of the Parliamentary Committee and the Policy Secretariat will reinforce the belief that parliament is just a rubber-stamp institution. "Since all issues will have to be dictated and discussed by these entities," said an NDP deputy who preferred to remain anonymous, "matters will come to parliament's attention only to be officially approved and endorsed without fuss." The Shura Council will also be experiencing a few adjustments in this session. The Council's deputy chairman, Tharwat Abaza, who died last March, will be replaced by Abdel-Rahman Farag Mohsen, the chairman of the legislative committee. Adel Qoura, an appointed member, will head the legislative committee. And Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, who was appointed by President Mubarak to the Council last month, was sworn in yesterday as a new Shura Council member.
