Doaa El-Bey relays a thought that the Egyptian military should be more forthcoming Various issues engaged the press this week, including President Mohamed Mursi's address to the UN General Assembly, an attack on Israeli forces along the Egyptian border and the Supreme Administrative Court's ruling that re-emphasised that the disbanded parliament is indeed void. Al-Shorouk on Tuesday wrote 'Mursi takes part in opening session of UN General Assembly' and Al-Ahram on Monday stated 'Mursi's speech at the UN includes democratic transformation and Egypt's relation with the world'. Al-Wafd on Monday stated 'Salafist group in Gaza takes responsibility for attack on Israeli forces on the Egyptian border' and Al-Masry Al-Youm on Sunday had 'Supreme Administrative Court rules that parliament is void'. Regarding the attack on the Israeli forces on Friday, Emadeddin Hussein observed that the Egyptian army did not respond properly. He wrote that the Israeli army issued 11 statements regarding the incident but that the Egyptian army did not issue any statements by the time he wrote his column on Monday. On the day following the incident, Israeli newspapers published a statement by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu threatening to venture into Sinai to pursue the gunmen and implement intelligence operations. The Egyptian army did not bother to respond to that insolence. Hussein added that a few weeks ago, the Egyptian army took a good step by appointing a spokesperson. However, he never answers when the media calls him, fields questions via e-mail and tells journalists to wait for the answer. Hussein noted that this system could have been suitable 30 years ago but is not in the age of twitter and the race between the different sites to publish the piece of news first. He noted that after Friday's attack, the newly appointed spokesperson disappeared. "We do not want the army spokesman to declare war on Israel. When Netanyahu says that he would break into Sinai we want a response from the army or the presidential palace. We simply want the spokesperson to say that we do not accept that statement and we are capable of protecting our country," Hussein wrote in the independent daily Al-Shorouk. He concluded his article by appealing to the minister of defence and other top officials in the army to re-activate the role of the spokesperson and make sure that he is always ready to answer any question from the media. Hassan Nafaa wrote that the Supreme Administrative Court ruling concluded a legal controversy about the disbanding of parliament, or People's Assembly. It put an end to the attempts of some to return the assembly without legislative elections until the end of its term. Even some tried to return the whole assembly without holding elections on the third of members who were ruled as illegally elected. Now, Nafaa added, it is incumbent to hold legislative elections to elect a new People's Assembly after drafting a new constitution and holding a referendum on it. However, the writer pointed to other repercussions to the ruling, namely the disbanding of the Shura Council because it was elected using the same system that was ruled as illegal and the Constituent Assembly which was formed by the People's Assembly. "The status of the Constituent Assembly would be like the status of the illegitimate son after disbanding the People's Assembly and Shura Council," Nafaa wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. Nafaa said the state of confusion that the country is living in is not unexpected and is due to the poor administration of the transitional period by the military council. The way out of the confusion is drafting a consensual constitution accepted by all parties. "The president should dissolve the Constituent Assembly created to draft the constitution and form a new one after conducting a dialogue with all the political powers. The assembly that should include constitutional experts must finish the draft of the constitution in two months. Without that step Egypt will remain in a vicious circle." Protests that recently spread in various areas in the country raised serious concern. Ragaa Al-Nemr acknowledged the right of teachers, bus drivers, doctors and pharmacists to protest to ask for their rights. But the writer found their decision to harm the interest of the people annoying. She challenged those who protested to wage these demonstrations in their private clinics or pharmacies. Regarding the protests in universities, Al-Nemr expected the parents of students to protest in front of them either because of a raise in the fees or poor administration or usurping the lands possessed by the university. However, she added in the official daily Al-Akhbar the students -- not the parents -- waged these protests. And that was entirely new to our society as she concluded. The scarcity of petrol, which has become a phenomenon in post-revolution Egypt was another reason for serious concern. Wagdi Zeineddin argued that raising the price of gas could lead to a catastrophe. Zeineddin referred to a previous column in which he wrote that there is not one single brave official who would tell the people the truth about the scarcity of petrol which never happened under the previous regime or even in the days of war. He also pointed in the same column to the fact that the government insisted to usurp from the people their right to know the truth. People speculated, he added, that the government would raise the price of petrol and solar. However, the writer advised the government not to do so because it would lead to a rise in the price of all goods starting from the means of communication to sewing needles. "Raising the price of petrol is a time bomb that would explode in the face of the government and the state," Zeineddin wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. There are three goods, he added, that the state should think twice before thinking of raising their price: petrol, electricity and bread, not only because they are staple, but because a slight rise in the price of any would lead to a rise in the prices of many goods and services. Zeineddin pointed to other ways to cover the deficit in the budget, namely reducing the lavish spending of governmental bodies and top officials and claiming the prices of the state's lands that were purchased by businessmen and MPs who have not yet paid. Abdel-Moeti Ahmed reminded us that more than 50 days passed since the Rafah attack in which 16 border guards were killed at Iftar time during Ramadan. However, no news has been heard about the perpetrators of the crime. "We want the whole truth about the identity of those who committed the crime," Ahmed wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram. We want to know, he added, whether they were trained in Sinai or in Gaza and whether they received logistic or military support from Jihadi organisations from inside the Strip to implement the criminal attack on 5 August. Every day, we hear news about an armed attack on security checkpoints in Sinai, especially on Al-Reisa checkpoint which was attacked 27 times by gunmen and banned groups ever since the 25 January Revolution. In addition, the armed attacks reached the security headquarters and peacekeeping forces in North Sinai. Ahmed concluded by questioning who the gunmen were, who supports and finances them and why the intelligence bodies, strategic experts and more important the Muslim Brotherhood are not doing anything to combat them.
