CAIRO: Egypt's ruling military council announced a Cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday, eleven days after the resignation of thirty-year president Hosni Mubarak. The new Cabinet includes a few new positions, has done away with others, and retained some members of the previous cabinet. The new cabinet includes three opposition members: Deputy Prime Minister Yehia al-Gamal is a member of the Democratic Front Party; al-Wafd member and Coptic Christian Munir Fakhri Abdel-Nour has been named the new tourism minister; and prominent leftist economist Gouda Abdel-Khalek, a member of Tagammua, was appointed Minister of Social Solidarity. Another Coptic Christian, Georgette Kellini, has been appointed Minister of Egyptians Abroad and Emigration, a new Cabinet position. However, the cabinet also includes a handful of members from the previous cabinet: the defense, interior, foreign, finance, and justice ministers from the previous cabinet have all retained their positions, a fact many Egyptians are strongly opposed to. Some of the members of the newly revealed Egyptian Cabinet have been accused by the people of corruption. “I side with the public in this matter,” al-Gamal told popular independent newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm. He said he has brought up the matter with Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, who also retained his position in the new cabinet, and that Shafiq insisted it was a matter for the Supreme Military Council to deal with. Demonstrators did win one battle, though: the hated Ministry of Information no longer exists. The ministers of oil and culture have also been replaced. Some of the new appointments have been perceived as a bit unusual, possibly because for the first time in decades Cabinet invitations are being turned down. One notable case is the Ministry of Culture: when prominent writer and poet Farouk Gweida turned down the post, it was offered to businessman Mohamed Abdel-Moneim el-Sawy, who owns El-Sawy Culture Wheel. E-Sawy accepted the position, and has already fallen under fire from critics.
