NDP parliamentarians had much to say about the results of their party's general congress, writes Gamal Essam El-Din During last week's NDP congress, Gamal Mubarak, the 39-year-old son of President Hosni Mubarak, said that from now on the relationship between the government and the party would proceed in a new direction. Accordingly, the two are to interact on the basis that "the government is the party's government and not vice versa". The way party members perceive this change, it seems, depends on the position that they occupy within the organisation. Gamal Mubarak, who was elected chairman of the NDP's newly-formed Policy Secretariat, explained that in its performance and strategies, the government will follow the NDP's lead. "The NDP is the party that formed this government because it is the party that won the majority of votes in parliamentary elections. This is why the government must be restricted by the party's recommendations, proposals and strategies on socio-economic and political development in Egypt." Within this context, he added, NDP MPs have new responsibilities. "The role of NDP MPs in this new equation will be to focus on supervising the government's performance and ensuring that it proceeds according to the NDP's platform, strategies and recommendations." Gamal Mubarak's new vision for the relationship between the government and the NDP has sparked a mixed reaction in parliamentary circles, urging Safwat El- Sherif, information minister and the NDP's newly-elected secretary-general, to devote his first announcement to this issue. With respect to the Policy Secretariat, El-Sherif said, "This secretariat will be the party's throbbing heart and its tool for turning new thoughts into reality and crystallising a clear political vision on all national issues." He added that the Policy Secretariat will include a 200-member higher council that debates policies and recommendations proposed by the party's congress, committees and secretariats, and it will also coordinate with the government on party policy. "The chairman of this secretariat will also head its higher council. This chairman's [Gamal Mubarak] priority is to coordinate with the government on mechanisms necessary to put NDP recommendations into action and he will have primary responsibility for boosting the party's performance." Policy Secretariat sub-committees, El- Sherif said, will be assigned the job of formulating recommendations on an array of vital issues such as the government's economic performance, education, health, women, youth and foreign policies. "To achieve this objective, the Policy Secretariat will open a dialogue with the nation's top thinkers, experts, opposition and civil society figures." For their part, NDP MPs agreed that the new Policy Secretariat will be the party's most influential entity. Some NDP MPs, who asked not to be named, told Al-Ahram Weekly that they believe this development will accelerate what they view to be the erosion of their role in party decision- making. "First, we were dismissed from heading the party's offices at all levels. Now, we will be asked just to endorse government policies in parliament and to see how these policies reflect the party's recommendations and proposals." NDP MPs also complain that the party secretariat's new composition has augmented the influence of the party's businessmen members. The heads of three secretariats, they pointed out, are businessmen who also chair parliamentary committees. Ahmed Ezz, head of the Membership Secretariat, chairs the Budget and Plan Committee; Hossam Awad, head of the Youth Secretariat, chairs the Youth Committee; and Hossam Badrawi, head of the Public Business Secretariat, chairs Parliament's Education Committee. "I wonder why businessmen, in particular, were given greater powers and new high-level posts, especially since some of them have been implicated in monopolistic practices," said one NDP MP. But that was not MPs' only quarrel with the appointment of businessmen to key positions. With respect to the appointment of Ahmed Ezz, a major iron and steel magnate, to the position of Membership Secretariat head, one MP said, "I don't know how Ezz will find time to chair the delicate meetings of parliament's Budget and Plan Committee and follow the NDP's membership issues at the same time. The party is full of long-time members who are more capable of heading the Membership Secretariat," said an NDP MP. The MPs believe that the new secretariat will exert overwhelming influence on the party's members, especially NDP MPs. According to Article 50 of the party's statutes, the Membership Secretariat will be charged with collecting information about party members and, consequently, will have considerable input into whether they are nominated to run in parliamentary elections. Noting that the party congress endorsed the rule that NDP MPs should not head party offices on the basis that they should devote all their time to parliament, one MP expressed surprise that the principle underlying the rule was not applied to the selection of secretaries. "We think that this rule was broken in favour of wealthy businessmen and at the expense of long-time members," he said. Moreover, NDP MPs said that they were sure that the ulterior motive behind the appointment of young businessmen MPs to head three NDP secretariats was to reduce the power of the party's old guard, especially NDP Assistant Secretary-General Kamal El-Shazli. In the past, El-Shazli, in his capacity as NDP's secretary for organisational affairs, was responsible for membership issues, the party's policies and administrative and financial affairs. All of these powers, said NDP MPs, were transferred to businessmen. For his part, Kamal El-Shazli said the creation of new secretariats is in the interests of improving the party's performance. "The Policy Secretariat, led by Gamal Mubarak, is particularly important because it will be entrusted with forging the party's vision on all national issues and passing it on to the government for implementation."
