The American University in Cairo decided to postpone the opening ceremony of the Model Arab League(MAL), which was supposed to be opened yesterday by Ayman Nour, the founder of Ghad (tomorrow) Party. Meanwhile the AUC attributed the postponement to "procedural" problems; students saw it as an evidence that the university does not want Nour to deliver the opening speech. For his part, Nour commented on such a step by saying: "this is a serious development in the security arm's ability to control private universities."
Mayada Al-Sayed, secretary-general of the MAL, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, said the university started to fabricate "procedural obstacles" when it asked the committee organizing the MAL to take new procedures.
She added: "We were surprised during the opening day (last Thursday) by such procedures and when we started to tackle them, the university staff left their offices after the end of their working hours. After that, they said: "We did not want Nour to deliver the opening speech and your measures were wrong."
In a phone call with Al-Masry Al-Youm, Amr Ezat Salama, the AUC Counselor in Cairo and member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Policies Committee, said: "Nour has nothing to do with the postponement of the opening ceremony." He attributed the postponement to that fact that students did not take the required measures. For his part, Nour expressed surprise at the decision, describing it as a "serious development" in the security arm's ability to control private universities in Egypt. He blamed the NDP Policies Committee for canceling the opening ceremony. He called on students to hold the MAL outside the university to bypass the ban.
