Doaa El-Bey followed the reaction to the creation of a new consultative board in Egypt and the significance of holding local elections in Syria The big controversy over the role of the consultative board which held its first session Sunday was reflected in newspapers this week, together with the second phase of parliamentary elections that started yesterday and the performance of the new government headed by Kamal El-Ganzouri. Al-Shorouk on Tuesday quoted the ruling military council as saying the consultative board is not a substitute for the parliament. Al-Ahram on Monday quoted a member of the military council confirming that the council, the consultative board and the government would not take part in choosing the founding committee. Al-Akhbar on Monday had 'The consultative board: choosing the founding committee is the job of parliament'. Al-Gomhouriya on Tuesday quoted Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi as stating that all support is being offered to the second and third phases of the elections, and Al-Masry Al-Youm on Monday said 'Political parties enter the confrontation between the ruling council and the Muslim Brotherhood'. Writers asked whether the consultative board would take part in choosing the founding committee that would be responsible for drafting the new constitution. Taher Qabil wrote that the job of the consultative council is to help the ruling military council in all matters related to the state and the public. The first phase of the job will end next March as soon as the first session of the People's Assembly and the Shura Council are held. The second phase will end in June after the election of the new president. Thus, Qabil wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar, the role of the consultative board is different from that of the People's Assembly. Still, the latter is not supposed to be the sole ruler in the country. Drafting the new constitution or unilaterally choosing the committee that would do that task or form the government are not part of the job of the People's Assembly. The government also should have its own well defined tasks, Qabil added. El-Ganzouri's government is supposed to restore security, take measures to combat price hikes, prepare reform programmes and offer complete support for youths to prepare them to take responsibility of their country in the future. "Strangely enough, the MB who was against the hegemony of the disbanded National Democratic Party over the government, parliament and political life in the past, is now seeking the same hegemony for itself," Qabil concluded. Mohamed Abul-Ghar wrote that the new consultative board has no real value although it is formed of highly respectable figures. However, it will not be able to choose the founding committee away from the influence of the MB who refused to join the consultative board and behaved in a way that showed that everything is in their own hands because they won a big number of seats in the new parliament. Which is why Abul-Ghar said Egypt is in a real crisis at present. Ever since the success of the 25 January Revolution, Abul-Ghar explained, most the revolution's leaders were aware of the importance of drafting the constitution. Although they repeatedly told the military council that the constitution should come first, it did not listen. Now the constitution is in the hands of the MB. It can draft it and choose the founding committee in the way it likes. That is why the consultative board is not of any real value. "The Egyptian people have lost an opportunity to write a balanced constitution because of the repeated mistakes of the military council," Abul-Ghar wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. Magdi Tantawi expected a confrontation between the consultative board that has liberals and secularists and the parliament which is likely to be dominated by Islamists. Tantawi wrote that the formation of the consultative board could be a major threat to the MB. However, he wondered whether the mission of the consultative board was to frighten the Islamists in the coming phase and hamper their plan to completely apply Islamic Sharia. Perhaps the fact that the majority of the consultative board are liberals and secularists would necessitate a confrontation with parliament. Anyway, "the results of the second and third phases of the election will settle the controversy and show whether the people are affected by the thinking of the consultative board or are adamant in trying another trend that they hope would provide radical solutions for their problems," Tantawi wrote in the official daily Al-Gomhouriya. Mohamed Esmat asked why the state bodies are not investigating charges being made against political parties and groups. Naguib Sawiris, Esmat wrote, accused the Nour and Freedom and Justice parties of accepting millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Islamic sources accused the US of giving liberal political powers some $200 million and the ruling council accused 6 April movement of accepting external financial funding. Still, state bodies did not move to investigate any of these accusations. Likewise, the ruling council ignored all the violations in the first phase of the parliamentary elections, including using mosques in the elections propaganda and the claim that the church asked its followers to vote for certain names. "Although there was a general inclination to vote for Freedom and Justice and Nour in the first phase, that does not exempt the authorities from investigating reported violations committed by the Brotherhood, the church or the liberal parties," Esmat wrote in the independent daily Al-Shorouk. He warned that a repeat of these violations could lead to reproducing a Mubarak-like parliament with minor amendments as if there was no revolution at all. The editorial of the official daily Al-Ahram said that El-Ganzouri is assuming an important job in a critical phase in the history of Egypt. However, his government stands a good chance of succeeding because of various factors, including El-Ganzouri's will to succeed and help his country in facing the present challenges. El-Ganzouri also accurately outlined the present priorities in restoring security on the streets, re-rotating the wheel of production, reaching an agreement with the protesters to give him and the country some time and creating the right environment for democratic transformation. Given that El-Ganzouri possesses a long history of political work, the edit added, he chose language with the protesters that rejects violence on the part of the security forces. He also realised that dialogue and political solutions rather than confrontation are the way out of this critical phase. "The street will monitor El-Ganzouri's government especially the performance of the Ministry of Interior. If he succeeds in restoring security, boosting production and winning the confidence of protesters, it would be a great achievement by his government," the edit added. It expected that the coming days would be teamed with important events.
