Football stars, the economy, political bankruptcy and preachers preoccupied the press, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed The death of Sufi Abu Taleb while on a trip to Malaysia hit the headlines. The papers were full of praise for this most underrated of Egyptian politicians. Alas, much of the praise came after his passing, lamented several commentators. Abu Taleb ruled Egypt for eight days at a most propitious time in the country's history. Sami Metwalli, writing in the official daily Al-Ahram, mourned the death of a man he considered to be his mentor and role-model. Abu Taleb was not simply a politician and legislator, but one of the country's most learned religious authorities. Metwalli pointed out that Abu Taleb was instrumental in promulgating Islamic Sharia laws as the main source of legislation in Egypt. For this he would go down in history as one of the most prominent architects of the modern Egyptian legal system. "Egypt will never forget him," Metwalli concluded. Meanwhile, the decision of Egypt's national goalkeeper, Essam El-Hadari, to play for a Swiss club also aroused the curiosity of many a pundit and was by no means restricted to sports columnists and commentators. The great escape of the national football squad and Ahli's international goalkeeper made the headlines and perplexed pundits. Writing in Al-Ahram, Hassan El-Mistikawi, one of Egypt's foremost sports critics, zinged El-Hadari. "What El-Hadari did is a [big] mistake and unacceptable from an [international] player who was crowned [as African champion]," lamented El-Mistikawi. "There was a contract between him and [Ahli] that the former should have abided by," he stressed. "What El-Hadari did is unethical," he concluded. But not all critics were scathing about El-Hadari. Writing in the daily liberal mouthpiece of the Wafd Party, Al-Wafd, Abbas El-Tarabili defended El-Hadari's runaway. "His age is now 35, and, at best, he will continue playing for five more years before hanging up his shoes," El-Tarabili explained. "He wants to secure his future financial status." The right of football players to make the most of their careers has come under scrutiny. They are entitled to make some money, many pundits conceded. Others, however, felt that the players should put their country first, before personal interests. On an entirely different note, the question of the economy was raised by several commentators. The daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom ran a feature about the government's decision to significantly raise the price of buying wheat from farmers: "The government's decision of raising the price of wheat [bought from farmers] is against the interest of the Americans, and in favour of [Egyptian] farmers." Fighting corruption also emerged as another contentious and critically important theme. Writing in Al-Ahram, chairman of the Press Syndicate Makram Mohamed Ahmed stressed the importance of issuing an information accessibility law to help expose corruption cases. "A new information accessibility law cannot be issued while there remains a set of penal codes imposing punishments on civil servants who contact the press or reveal information about corruption cases. Also, this law cannot be issued at a time when penal codes are still constraining the freedom of expression and publication." Energy and power shortages have emerged as a pressing problem. In an interview with Al-Masry Al-Yom, Esmat Zeineddin, former nuclear programme advisor to late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser, warned of an impending disaster. "The disaster of energy shortage will hit Egypt within 10 years, and the [proposed] nuclear programme will not be of benefit," he argued. The consequences, he warned, would be no less than catastrophic. Commenting on the agreement signed two weeks ago by Arab information ministers to regulate the work of satellite channels, Farida El-Shobashi criticised the agreement in a column in the daily liberal Nahdet Masr. She was particularly critical of the part of the agreement that states that political and religious leaders should be respected since they represent national sovereignty. "Some Arab rulers consider themselves sacred national symbols that are beyond criticism and that should not be held accountable." El-Shobashi derided what she considered the vanity of the political elite in the Arab world. She argued that their political legitimacy can only be secured by their popular appeal. They must not impose themselves on their people. The people must choose their leaders in a democratic fashion. The political establishment was the subject of much heated debate in the press. Writing in the daily opposition Al-Dostour, Rafiq Habib criticised the ruling elite in Egypt. "The ruling elite does not seek democratic transition. It is also unable to champion or positively respond to democratic transition. In addition, it is unable to transform from an elite deriving its strength from the state apparatuses to one reclining on popular support." Foreign affairs, too, were widely debated. Egypt's relations with Israel came under intense scrutiny. The press widely reported the Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufid Shehab's statements about Egyptian- Israeli relations. "Peace with Israel is fragile. We fear them and they fear us," he was quoted as saying in Al-Dostour. "We admit that we don't respect human rights like Britain and France," he added. Preachers, like politicians, were the subject of much criticism. The dubious sources of their income were hotly debated. The daily opposition Al-Ahrar reported that the famous religious preacher, Amr Khaled, topped the list of the richest preachers with an annual income of $2.5 million, according to Forbes magazine. The paper also reported that the source of his income was TV shows broadcast on Arab satellite channels, CDs and tapes. And, as if we had not heard or read enough about the tiresome Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohamed in a less than complimentary light, the papers took up the tedious topic once more. Indeed, the issue of the Danish cartoons slandering Prophet Mohamed dominated columns. Writing in Al-Ahrar, Essam Kamel blamed the Arab media for being unable to come up with a fitting reply to these cartoons. "The world was turned upside down because of the republishing of the slandering cartoons. The Egyptian and Arab media fought a hard battle against those who committed this crime by condemning them and demanding that the ambassadors of the countries [that published the cartoons] be expelled," Kamel warned. "But did any organisation think of replying to the cartoons [by writing articles] in these newspapers using the language they understand, since the whole matter is all about freedom of expression," he wondered.
