Ayman Nour, founder of Ghad Party, called on President Mubarak to hold a constructive reconciliation with all the national forces and open a real dialogue with them, but not like the national dialogue of January 31, 2005 that put him in prison. In his first public meeting at the Alexandria Bar Club on Monday, Nour said: “Politics is not down with Mubarak or long live Mubarak. It is long live Egypt that is threatened with underdevelopment, while the whole world is developing and growing. The problem of our country is not about a president who leaves and an heir who comes, the problem is that we must love our country and that the best man in each location must rule.” He added that everything in Egypt is worsening, including sports, art, the economy and politics. “We are haunted by failure. We are experts in failure. And the lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, engineers and others are angry at the regime,” he said.
Nour denied that his release from prison was part of a deal with the regime, as he had only 4 months to the termination of his term. “We in Egypt are a family working in a single-minded and narrow circle,” he said. On the presidential elections of 2005, Nour said. “I was the strongest candidate, but the regime wants to delude the people that there is no other president than President Mubarak.” He said he learned from the regime that he should work for the sake of God first, then for the country, the political parties and for himself. He added that the whole media hype prison about his imprisonment was just mere sympathy with an oppressed man. And he said he can forgive what happens to him but he cannot forgive harming the country. He pledged to stop appearing in the media and start assuming his role in the street, building a real political entity that can break the monopoly of the National Party. He said his freedom will not be complete unless the last political prisoner is released from the Egyptian prisons, adding that the Ghad Party will not remain silent vis-à-vis the attempts to bequeath power. For his part, Abul Ezz el-Hariri of the Tagamu Party said Nour was not jailed for running against Mubarak, but rather for running against the bequeathing preparations. He accused the opposition of helping the regime with those preparations in return for seats in parliament. Addressing the Tagamu, the Nasserite and the Ghad parties, he said: “Get out of this damn game,” calling on Dr. Rifaat Al-Said, head of the Tagamu Party, to leave.
On another note, MP Talat Sadat, Anwar Esmat Sadat, the Reform Party co-founder, and MP Hamdeen Sabahi have paid Nour a visit to congratulate him on his release and his return to public work. Anwar said he visited Nour because he admires him and his staff that stood by him throughout his ordeal. “And I have no problem with Nour on the April 6 youth movement joining any of our parties,” he said.
