Doaa El-Bey reviews the pros and cons of Mursi's foreign incursions Newspapers followed President Mohamed Mursi's visit to Turkey. Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted him saying "Egypt will not rest until Al-Assad's regime is uprooted" and Al-Ahram quoted him as saying "we will not interfere in anybody's affairs and will not allow anybody to interfere in Egypt's affairs". Forcing Coptic families to leave Rafah, the referral of former runner-up presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik to Criminal Court and the issue of military intervention in Syria were given prominence in the press as well. Al-Youm Al-Sabei on Monday had 'The return of Christian families forced to leave Rafah'. Al-Wafd stated 'Presidency involves Egypt in new war' and Al-Akhbar wrote 'Referring Ahmed Shafik to Criminal Court for spending LE90 million in state funds'. Said Al-Lawendi praised Mursi's foreign tours because it helped Egypt regain its regional and international status. He wrote, "We thought that Egypt would never recapture its international presence, but Mursi came to put Egypt anew -- may be without meaning to -- on the map of regional and international events." While he reviewed the visits that Mursi paid to various states including Saudi Arabia, China and Turkey, Al-Lawendi wrote that these visits have two targets: to indicate that Egypt is still present and has an effective role in international forums, and to show that Mursi aims to raise the standard of living of the Egyptian citizen via signed agreements. As for his visit to the UN, Al-Lawendi added, it was the issue of the hour. "Everybody wanted to hear the Egyptian viewpoint after 23 years of absence from that forum. During the visit, Mursi talked with transparency about the Palestinian issue, the Syrian crisis, Sudan, Africa and the world's financial crisis. "Mursi's foreign visits regained Egypt status and made Cairo an important station for whoever wants to play a role in the Middle East," Al-Lawendi wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram. Suleiman Gouda disagreed with Al-Lawendi about the value of Mursi's foreign visits. He wrote that Mursi's visit to Turkey aimed to attract more investors to start business in Egypt. The same applied to his visit to China, Italy and other countries. Apparently, he added, "we should thank Mursi for his efforts and support him with all our might". But he pointed to an important fact that the president should notice: the Kuwaiti investor -- for instance -- will not invest in Egypt simply because Mursi visited his country and talked to him about the advantages of investing in Egypt. The Kuwaiti investor, Gouda elaborated, who invested and succeeded in Egypt would be the best person to persuade other Kuwaiti investors to follow suit. Dozens of visits will not succeed in attracting investors if their fellow citizens do not invest successfully in Egypt. "Thus, Mursi should save his time and energy and stop visiting foreign states to attract more investors. Instead, he should focus on setting the correct environment for the foreign investor who is already investing in Egypt. If he is satisfied, he will attract more investors," Gouda wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. Writers looked into Mursi's achievements during the first 100 days which ended in the middle of the week. Mohamed Fouda questioned where the Nahda or the Muslim Brotherhood's renaissance project was. He wrote that the project was part and parcel of Mursi's presidential campaign which promised comprehensive change in Egypt. "Days, weeks and months have passed since Mursi assumed power, and we have heard nothing about the Nahda project. Where is Al-Nahda project?" Fouda wrote in the independent daily Al-Youm Al-Sabei. He accepted that there are major problems facing the president, such as a race to meet his promises in the first 100 days, the world financial crisis which affected Egypt and Mursi's foreign visits to China, Europe and the US. However, the persistent question remains: where is the Nahda project? In search for transparency and credibility, Fouda asked the president for more frankness. He called on the presidential spokesman Yasser Ali to reveal the secret of the Nahda and to tell the people frankly whether it is real or mere election propaganda. Wagdi Zeineddin questioned why social justice, one of the main demands of the revolution, has not been achieved up till now. He wondered when would life in Egypt improve. Many Egyptians, Zeineddin wrote, thought that their life would improve and that after the revolution they would find suitable food, clothes and shelter. But it seems that their dreams dissipated. "People raised the slogan 'bread, freedom, dignity and social justice' during the revolution. They neither live with dignity nor did they achieve social justice" Zeineddin wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. "Any revolution should achieve the demands of the people, he added. However, everybody is busy with political reform at the expense of social justice. Although political reform should precede social justice, up till now political reform is still blundering and the transitional period continues with no sign of any reform. "The fact is that nearly two years have passed since the revolution, and a new constitution has not been drafted. This is proof of the absence of any reform." Zeineddin concluded by repeating the same question: when will people live a dignified life and what did the revolution do for those who started it? Forcing Coptic families to leave their homes and life behind upset many writers including Mohamed Barakat. He wrote that we have to look at the significance and the extremely dangerous meaning of forcing Coptic families to leave their homes and work and move to another place in fear for their lives and families. The danger of that incident is that the families were forced to leave to avoid problems or confrontations with extreme Islamists. We should not shut any eye to that kind of crime whether it happened in Sinai, Upper Egypt or the Delta as it contradicts with basic human rights stated in the constitution and the law. However, the writer added, the more dangerous significance of the incident is that there are organised groups in Sinai which want to impose their will or unjust authority and law on citizens without any consideration to the authority of the state or respect to the law. "If these terrorist groups succeeded in imposing their will and manage to force people to bow to their threats, the only meaning for this is the failure of the state," Barakat wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. "The state falls when it loses respect in the eyes of its citizens or fails to carry out its responsibilities and duties towards its citizens and society. The first responsibility is providing security to the citizen and protecting him from anything that jeopardises his life, money and property."
