Doaa El-Bey writes that the night at Maspero continues to dominate Egypt's news The deadly Maspero confrontations continued to cast a long shadow over the country. Meanwhile, candidates rushed to register their names for the parliamentary elections due in November. Mohamed Abul-Ghar regarded the Maspero incident, in which at least 20 people were killed last week when protesters and army troops clashed in front of the state TV building known as Maspero, as a catastrophe. Abul-Ghar listed various reasons to back his argument in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The motives of the peaceful demonstration of the Copts were known to state authorities months ago but that did not calm things down. The absence of any kind of justice was the second reason Abul-Ghar brought forward: suppose the second floor of the Marinab church was illegally built. Who should remove it -- the state or a group of Salafis? Abul-Ghar also commented on the performance of the governor of Aswan who failed to act as a fair mediator and contain the crisis. He was clearly biased and that was a big political slip up. Abul-Ghar wondered why fair decisions to satisfy the Copts and stop the march to Maspero were not taken when the route and time of the march were known four days in advance. Abul-Ghar concluded his article by noting that Finance Minister Hazem El-Beblawi submitted his resignation in protest at the government's performance in Maspero, but the government put the decision to accept the resignation to the ruling military council. While Abul-Ghar expected the government to resign soon, he called on the military council to seek the help of unbiased advisors. "Perhaps the establishment of a civil presidential council to rule in parallel with the military council is a suitable idea to save Egypt," Abul-Ghar wrote. Safwat Omran wrote that the political parties had rushed to register their names for the parliamentary elections and had taken all measures to guarantee that they would get a satisfactory number of seats in the next parliament. But Omran said it was clear that political parties are weak and that there was no difference between the pre-and post-revolution parties as are seemingly unaware that they were being pushed to join a weak and fragmented parliament that could be easily controlled like puppets. However, the rest of the parties are still incapable of persuading the 45 million voters that they are the most suitable at present. Al-Wafd Party, for instance, Omran added, was affected by internal fighting. It had to withdraw from the strong democratic coalition and instead resort to previous NDP members to complete its election list. Fouad Saad focussed on the immediate national demand to educate the public about the election. Saad wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram, "Now that we are on the threshold of the first parliamentary elections after the 25 January Revolution, the media -- press, radio and TV -- should assume their national duty towards 45 million voters. The voter, he explained, has to cast his vote twice; once in the ballot box for individual candidates and once in the ballot box for partisan slates. The results of the individual elections will be declared as soon as the votes are counted whereas the results of the slate elections will be announced at the end of the three phases. Thus, Saad added, the media should focus on programmes that increase awareness and information of the people about the elections on a daily basis. The media, especially state TV, should explain and simplify these unfamiliar and complicated procedures. While the law on building places of worship has not yet been passed, an anti-discrimination law was issued this week. Many writers welcomed it as a step in the right direction provided it is applied. Mohamed Barakat described the anti-discrimination article that punishes whoever commits an act of discrimination against an individual or group of people by imprisonment or a fine as a huge step towards democracy and rooting the values of citizenship and human rights. Via the law, Barakat wrote, "we laid down the sound basis for eliminating any cause for confrontation or any threat to the national unity of all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians. Barakat added that by passing the law that organises building places of worship, Egypt would have taken all the necessary measures to close the gap that drives a wedge between the Muslims and Christians. However, these laws should be accompanied by strict application in order to deter whoever would want to create differences between Muslims and Christians. Mohamed Mustafa Sherdi agreed with Barakat that it is not a matter of passing laws, but in applying them and imposing them on society in order to protect it. However, Sherdi wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party, that "if we apply that law to the letter today, we would find that we are a state without any system and that we abandoned all the basics of managerial organisation and opened the door to corruption. But all these dreams are linked to applying the law, Sherdi summed up in his back page column.
