A new and different parliament

By Gamal Essam El-Din
In an inaugural speech before a joint session of the People's Assembly and Shura Council on Sunday, President Hosni Mubarak expressed hope that the newly-elected parliament will prove to be a landmark along the road to greater political reform and full democracy.
"The people are looking forward to a new parliament that primarily seeks to serve their interests, maintain their unity, exercise close supervision over the government and pass legislation in favour of the vast majority of citizens," Mubarak said.
President Mubarak placed special emphasis on the need for the new parliament to take the utmost care in debating and passing legislation.
"Your discussions of new legislation should not result in marginalising the interests of limited-income brackets," Mubarak said.
He devoted a major part of his speech to the issue of political reform and the integrity of parliamentary elections. He affirmed that all political parties, including the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), should have learned the lessons of the recent parliamentary elections.
"The major lesson is that they should restructure themselves and develop new kinds of performance and political action aimed at winning the support of citizens. It is evident that the vast majority of citizens in the recent elections expressed the profound wish for change as a prerequisite for complete political reform and full democracy," Mubarak said.
President Mubarak indicated that political reform must be gradual and should go hand-in-hand with socio-economic reform.
"Since I came to power [in 1981], I have been keen to introduce sound democracy that reflects the true will of the people, supports freedom of expression and upholds the supremacy of law," Mubarak remarked.
In reference to the economy, President Mubarak emphasised that the programme of future action should aim to achieve three main objectives: creating employment opportunities for young people; boosting exports; and upgrading Egyptians' creative skills.
Referring to the first objective, Mubarak said that the state policy is to encourage private investments -- both local or foreign -- by offering lucrative incentives to investors.
"This is necessary to create new jobs for young people. Moreover, the objective now is to raise the economic growth rate to treble the population growth rate. At the same time, the level of investments should be boosted to between 25 and 28 per cent of the GDP," Mubarak announced.
Moving to the second objective, Mubarak emphasised that "promoting exports is a matter of life or death for Egypt."
"I have given instructions that the government should submit to me and to parliament, ahead of the second quarter of 2001, a detailed programme for export promotion," Mubarak continued. He argued, however, that this objective cannot be realised fully without taking concrete steps towards the creation of a common Arab market.
As for the third objective, President Mubarak said that the development of human resources is a major component of comprehensive development in the future.
"There is a pressing need to give priority to modernising the education system as well as healthcare institutions. I hope that the medical insurance system, which currently covers 17 million citizens, will be expanded to cover all Egyptians," Mubarak said, adding that a new mortgage law will also help young people to purchase condominium apartments at affordable prices.
On regional issues, Mubarak condemned Israeli policies which negatively affected the peace process and turned the Palestinian territories into a "large prison for a helpless people." He said that Jerusalem is a very sensitive issue to both Muslims and Christians and nobody has the right to unilaterally decide the future of the holy city, "even the Palestinian leadership itself."
The Assembly had met on 13 December in a procedural session to elect a Speaker and two deputies. Although Fathi Sorour, the NDP candidate, easily managed to retain his post as Speaker for the 11th consecutive year, the meeting did produce a surprise. Sorour, 68, won 445 votes out of the 450 cast. The surprise was that young Wafdist MP Ayman Nour managed to win as many as 156 votes, compared to 289 garnered by NDP candidate Amal Osman, in elections for the position of deputy Speaker for the professionals' seat.
The fact that Nour won the votes of 94 NDP MPs, plus 62 votes representing opposition and independent deputies, is unprecedented and shows that conditions in parliament are changing fast.
There were other surprises at another meeting during the same day devoted to electing chairmen and deputy chairmen of the 18 parliamentary committees. NDP candidates who were easily elected during the previous 21 years, this time faced strong opposition. In elections for the post of second deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee, independent businessman Rami Lakah managed to defeat NDP candidate Mustafa El-Qorashi. The committee chairman is Maher Abaza, a former minister of electricity, and the first deputy chairman is Mustafa El-Fiqi, an appointed MP and former assistant to the foreign minister and former ambassador to the Arab League.
The election of Lakah as second deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee did not prove as annoying to the NDP as the attempt of Nasserist MP and journalist Hamdein Sabahi to win the post of chairman of the Culture, Tourism and Information Committee. Sabahi managed to win 13 votes, more than the 10 garnered by NDP candidate Fayda Kamel. But Speaker Fathi Sorour and his deputy, Amal Osman, argued that the vote did not qualify Sabahi to become committee chairman. Osman contended that the required quorum for winning was one half of the committee's seats plus one (16), and Sorour managed to organise another election on 16 December. Between 13 and 16 December, several NDP committee members gave in to pressure by the party's leaders and changed their positions. As a result, Sabahi won 10 votes, compared to 20 garnered by Kamel, on 16 December.
Sabahi told Al-Ahram Weekly that his "objective behind chairing the Culture Committee was to hold meetings on press-related issues, particularly a draft law that is being prepared by the Press Syndicate's council to repeal the jail penalty for publication offences. I was not planning to use my position as chairman of the committee to propagate the Nasserist ideology. However, the NDP's officials proved once again that they are too narrow-minded to allow an opposition figure to chair a parliamentary committee."
During the same meeting Akram El-Sha'er, an independent deputy for Port Said and a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, managed to win a seat on the Assembly's general committee. This committee, which includes the Assembly's Speaker and his two deputies, chairmen of 18 committees and representatives of three opposition parties, is entrusted with prioritising issues that will subsequently come up for discussion.
Related stories:
Independent needs
Full steam ahead
Tiptoeing toward reform
New parliament launched 14 - 20 December 2000
See Elections 2000
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