Whether Minister of Transportation Muhammad Mansour voluntarily tendered his resignation or was fired, both cases suggest that he alone bore responsibility for Saturday's Ayyat train crash. In other words, he agreed to be the scapegoat for a disaster for which the government in general should bear political and criminal responsibility. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif should have submitted his resignation, along with those of the entire cabinet -- not just Mansour's. A driver or signalman failing to do his job, causing the death of scores of poor people, is the outcome of an indifferent regime that leaves its citizens to die in trains that crash, ferries that sink, theaters that burn -- or even while they are queuing for a loaf of bread. It's not enough to condemn the rank and file of the Railway Authority, which employs a staff of some 86,000. Nor is it enough to suspend investigations because the buffalo that is said to have caused the accident was killed since it did not follow traffic rules. Those who are truly responsible for all these disasters are the ones that should be brought to trial. After the famous 2002 train disaster, Egypt's grand judicial system acquitted low-ranking railway employees and sought to bring high-level officials to trial. But the prime minister at the time simply announced that the train had been set ablaze by a passenger making tea on a Bunsen burner -- the ultimate cause of a tragedy that claimed 361 lives. The poor were also held responsible for the sinking of the Salam 98 ferry boat in which 1401 drowned because they did not follow safety procedures. The poor were similarly blamed for the death of 50 people in the Beni Suef theatre inferno since they did not know the location of the emergency exit. In reality, Nazif's government doesn't care if the train crash was the responsibility of the poor or the buffalo, since it sees no difference between the two. It doesn't want any problems on the eve of the ruling party's annual conference. It doesn't care if even a million people die, as surely we will all die anyway. Mansour's resignation will not appease public anger. He was an unlucky minister who tried to modernize the national railway system, long considered the most neglected of public services. He even launched a lavish television campaign that sought to educate the public on how to keep trains safe and clean. Yet he was working within a wider government that has proven its ineptitude. He can't escape responsibility since he was the transport minister. But he should have known from the outset that he would eventually fall victim to the corruption of others -- others who will never voluntarily resign their posts. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
