There was much deliberation about the emergency law, President Bush's presumptuous pontification at the WEF-ME and the state of the economy, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed The political mood in Egypt, at least among the pundits, is darkening. The most important topic that preoccupies the press is the renewal of the state of emergency in Egypt. The country is agog with gossip about the repercussions. Many commentators have expressed outrage at the continuation of the emergency law. Another political factor is at play, too. Many suspect that there is a link between the consolidation of the stranglehold of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and the perpetuation of the emergency law. However, there was a great difference between the perspectives of the official and independent papers. Most opposition papers were vehemently critical of the extension of the emergency law, but many commentators and columnists of the official press defended the move. The official pundits were promptly accused by the independent press of being apologists for the regime. "Egypt is to be governed by emergency law till 31 May 2010," ran the headline of the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom. The accompanying article was scathing in its criticism of the law. In sharp contrast, the daily official Al-Ahram ran the headline "The government pledges to use the emergency law only to protect citizens". Another headline read: "The government will take its time in preparing the anti-terror law in order to strike a balance between freedoms and constraints." The weekly opposition Al-Arabi, the official mouthpiece of the Nasserist Party, quoted Osama El-Ghazali Harb, chairman of the newly established National Democratic Front Party, as saying: "[The extension of] the emergency law is a serious setback and a consolidation of human rights violations." Harb set the tone for many an opposition sentiment. Many opposition pundits shared his feelings. Ahmed El-Sayed El-Naggar was quoted in the independent weekly Sawt Al-Umma as saying: "Wait for a popular explosion next month". He openly warned that there is a limit to people's patience. He predicted that the Egyptian people will rise up in anger and frustration against the imposition of the emergency law. "If the government had imposed a one per cent tax on the stock exchange dealings, it would have garnered more money than that it reaped from increasing the price of gasoline," he added. "President Mubarak announced the 30 per cent salary rise without knowing how it will be financed." Meanwhile, the paper quoted laymen as saying: "The government hasn't raised the price of natural gas because it sells it to Israel for very cheap prices." Foreign relations, too, received some attention from the pundits. In particular, a comment made by United States President George W Bush and widely deemed offensive came under harsh criticism by the commentators. Writing in the official daily Al-Ahram, Mohamed El-Saadani lambasted Bush's speech during the World Economic Forum on the Middle East (WEF-ME) held last week in the Red Sea Resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Harsh criticism was levelled at Bush as he talked about democracy in the Arab world, inherently criticising countries like Egypt which failed in achieving democracy in their countries. Indeed, there was much feedback concerning the WEF-ME in the press during the past few days. There were those who focussed on the economic ramifications of the WEF-ME, but most commentators dwelt on the political instead. "The heresies which Bush uttered in Sharm El-Sheikh, and which bordered on obscenity, demonstrate that arrogance could make [Bush] ignorant of the characteristics of nations... this kind of arrogance prevents him from reading even a line in a history book about a people like the Egyptians before standing on a podium on their territory and speaking about fake democracy that follows [American policies]." American politics is glaringly present in most newspapers. Writing in the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, Hamdi Rizk was shocked at Barack Obama's statements about his closeness to the Jewish people and Israel and denying that he was Muslim. Somewhat naïvely, perhaps, he had illusions about Obama's religious affiliations. He most certainly underestimated the prowess of the US Jewish lobby. "This statement came as a shock to some people in the Islamic world, for they thought that he was perhaps a Muslim... they dreamed of Islam governing the world from Washington." He added, "some people [in the Islamic world] were dreaming of having a Muslim American president swearing on the Quran at the White House." Rizk added that, "we were harmed by Obama's distancing himself from Islam in such a blunt and racist manner which is disrespectful of the religion embraced by roughly two billion people around the world." The rising star of the oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar also aroused the interest of many a commentator. Writing in the weekly opposition Al-Arabi, Abdallah El-Sennawi wondered, "why did Qatar succeed in solving the Lebanese crisis while Egypt failed?" He tried to provide an answer: "The void Egypt left in the aftermath of the occupation of Iraq led to a dispute over regional leadership, which gave the opportunity to some countries like Qatar, which were ineffective in the past, to find a role for themselves." Writing in the daily Al-Masry Al-Yom, Suleiman Gouda lamented the significant decline in Egypt's regional role. "Any Egyptian would feel sad while seeing Cairo inactive at a time when events in the region are taking place behind its back. In the past, Egypt's role dictated that it had the final word in the Lebanese issue in particular. But the time has come when we see Qatar taking care of this issue and coming up with [positive] results," he argued. There have been reports that Hamas's Foreign Minister Mahmoud El-Zahar went to Doha asking for the emir of Qatar's mediation between Hamas and Fatah to reach a solution like in Lebanon," despite the fact that the leaders of Hamas and Fatah keep visiting Egypt without achieving a tangible outcome. "People have also woken up to news reports about Syrian-Israeli negotiations on Golan Heights with the sponsorship of Turkey. So, where are we with respect to all this?" he wondered. Economics, too, weighed heavily on people's minds. Writing in the daily Al-Ahram, Hamed Ammar, a veteran education expert, stated that, "the Ministry of Finance is unable to find all the funds necessary for the budget of the Ministry of Education in the fiscal year 2008/2009. This means that all the official discourse on a national strategy to develop pre-university education aimed at achieving a breakthrough in the quality of education is hollow and will not take place." In much the same vein, news about the skyrocketing prices of steel made the headlines, especially after the decision taken by Minister of Industry and Trade Rachid Mohamed Rachid demanding that steel producers set a guiding price for this vital product which hit LE8,000 per tonne. "Apprehension reigns supreme in the steel market, amid speculation about a decline in prices," ran the headline of the daily business-oriented Al-Alam Al-Yom. Writing in the daily Al-Ahram, Salah Montasser tackled the draft traffic law which is being debated now in the People's Assembly. "People are afraid of the amendments to the traffic law because they don't offer new thoughts to address the chronic problems which millions of people suffer from," he wrote. "These amendments focussed on intensifying punishments and increasing the value of fines without finding real, effective means to solve the traffic crisis." And, on a rather dissimilar note, Sawt Al-Umma ran a feature about sexual enhancing medicines. "The size of the trade in sexual enhancing medicines in Egypt is LE13 billion," ran the headline of the feature. What is the country coming to?
