Three weeks after it elected a new council the Bar Association seems to be slipping into the same bad habits, reports Mona El-Nahhas Dozens of leftist lawyers staged a sit-in on Sunday at the headquarters of the Bar Association to protest against government interference in the affairs of their syndicate. Earlier in the week, a committee comprising lawyers from across the political spectrum was formed to defend the independence of the Bar Association. Accusations that the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) was being given leeway to control affairs at the Bar Association were levelled at the newly-elected council, which contains a majority of NDP members. "I will never allow anybody to interfere in the syndicate's affairs," stressed Hamdi Khalifa, the new chairman. His reassurances -- Khalifa is a member of the NDP -- failed to calm down angry lawyers. The Muslim Brotherhood, who won just 18 of the council's 46 seats, vowed to escalate protests. The conflict started last Thursday when it was reported that Ahmed Ezz, the NDP's secretary-general for organisational affairs, met with members of the Bar Association's council at a luxury hotel, purportedly to distribute the leading posts on the council among NDP supporters. During the meeting it was agreed that NDP parliamentary member Omar Haridi should be made treasurer of syndicate and Hussein El-Gammal secretary-general. Independent lawyer Said Abdel-Khaleq, who did not attend the meeting, was nominated to take the post of deputy chairman. MB lawyers, who were not invited to the meeting, were excluded from all posts. Khalifa, who attended the end of the meeting, said that he had been called by council members and invited to the hotel. When he arrived he said he was told about the formation of the council. "While we were talking, Ezz greeted us and then left," Khalifa told Al-Ahram Weekly. Khalifa subsequently decided to convene a meeting of the new council, scheduled on Monday, to allow members to elect candidates for syndicate posts through a secret ballot. "I doubt very much that Monday's meeting will differ from that with Ezz," says MB lawyer Gamal Tageddin. Tageddin predicts that council members will simply endorse Ezz's recommendations. "Let's wait and see what results from Monday's meeting," cautioned leftist lawyer Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamad. "It will show how the new council will act in the coming stage. We will not allow council members to hand the syndicate to the NDP." Hamad warned that should the council try and do so members of the general assembly would be mobilised to withdraw their confidence. "We are not going to stand helplessly by as Ezz tries to monopolise the syndicate exactly as he has monopolised the trade in steel and iron." Many lawyers see the meeting with Ezz as a warning signal aimed at MB and opposition council members. "It seems as if the NDP wants to send the message that MB and opposition lawyers will be marginalised if they attempt to rock the boat," said leftist lawyer Ahmed Qenawi. Qenawi is not optimistic about the prospects for the new council and anticipates ongoing bickering between its MB and NDP members will leave the syndicate in a state of paralysis. "Khalifa is an NDP member, and it is his intention to reduce the syndicate into one of Ezz's firms." In an ironic twist, Khalifa won the chairmanship of the syndicate on the back of MB votes. Though it was well known that he was a member of the governing party he ran a tight election campaign, portraying himself as an independent and thus separating himself from Sameh Ashour, the former chairman, whose unremitting hostility to the MB had won him the support of the government.
