A number of activists have in complete secrecy started a campaign, collecting the signatures of intellectuals, public figures and members of parliament to the founding statement of the so-called ‘Egyptian Coalition for Change' that Dr. Abdel Wahab el-Meseiri had called for before he died. The statement calls for “a national coalition of the grief and longings of the Egyptians, using peaceful resistance and civil disobedience to gain freedom.” The statement was signed by a large number of intellectuals and public figures in Egypt, such as Bahaa Taher, Alaa el-Aswani, Gamal Zahran, Hamdeen Sabahi, Saad Abboud, Yasser el-Lehami, Abdel Moneim el-Tonsi of Al-Ghad Party Committee of Wise Men, Abul Ezz el-Hariri, a prominent figure in the Tagamu Party, Kamal Khalil and Kamal Abu Atteya, the political activists, and Dr. Abdel Halim Kandil, Dr. Abdel Gelil Mustafa and George Isaac, the leaders of Kefaya movement.
The statement, which Al-Masry Al-Youm got a copy of, calls for the rule of the people through a transition period of two years, during which the country would be run by a neutral presidency and a national coalition government that would restore Egypt's leading role in the Arab world. The statement assigns the transitional government with a number of tasks, including terminating the emergency law, protecting freedom of the press, granting freedom to political parties, NGOs, trade unions, faculty and student unions, and workers and peasants syndicates. It should also immunize against unfair layoffs, ensure labor rights, freedom of demonstration and peaceful strike, and the full independence of the Judiciary and its complete administration of all elections and referendums. The statement also called for stopping the gas and oil exports to Israel, and consulting the people in a referendum as to whether the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty should be canceled, the privatization program stopped, and the U.S. aid ceased. The signatures are expected to reach 200 in the next few days, when the coalition would be declared in a press conference.
