By Zeinobia of Egyptian Chronicles I will not say a unforgettable night in the Egyptian TV history because this has never been seen before in the Arab world since the start of TV broadcasting in Iraq “Iraq was the first country to have TV broadcasting in the Arab world unlike the popular myth of the UAR's Arab TV” Last night ON TV made a TV history when it hosted the first real political debate between a prime minister and opposition figures in Egypt. This episode started from 10 PM and ended at 2 AM Cairo local time. Originally this TV show was not intended to be like that. Earlier Wednesday we found an announcement on ON TV's news bar that Reem Maged would host PM Ahmed Shafik along with Naguuib Sawiris, Amr Hamzawy and Dr. Kamel Abu El-Maged and after that Yosri Fouda will host Hamdi Kandeel and Alaa Al Aswani in his show. It was from the start good preparation and programming because we all knew that whatever Shafik would say , Al Aswani and Kandeel would fire back afterwards. Reem's show started and it was actually terrible one , a counter revolution episode in front of us and Amr Hamzawy who seemed to speak logically in front of the PM from my point of view was not given enough time to speak. Shafik defended the state security and considered its role as holy and this shows where we were going. Sawiris also was mad on how Ahmed Ezz , Garana and Maghabi were arrested despite he did not name them. As I described it , it was a counter revolution show to scare the people from the revolution thanks to Shafik and Sawiris. For an hour and half I felt so angry from Shafik and I was not alone actually because twitter and FB were full of angry comments as well. Then came the golden announcement on Yosri Fouda's twitter: Al Aswani and Kandeel will join the PM afterwards in an open discussion and it was the announcement of something unprecedented in the Arab world. We know Kandeel and Al Aswani as outspoken opposition figures who were fought explicitly during the Mubarak era and paid the price for this , we know that they do not want Shafik and want him to step down. We know that this was not arranged according to our knowledge “we do not know yet how it was arranged actually on set” We know most importantly that we can expect the unexpected from these two vs. Shafik on air and this is why it was something completely new in the Arab world where shows are tailored to please the prime ministers and officials. In our Arab world questions and answers are prepared in advance and usually the interviews with ministers do not include any other guest not to mention opposition figure in a debate like show. The second part of the show started with Yosri Fouda giving the first real question to PM Ahmed Shafik then Alaa Al Aswany took it from there along with Hamdy Kandeel and for the first time we watched a prime minister being criticized and attacked like that on the air. Shafik lost his temper especially with Al Aswany for about three time in the show. The last clash was the ugliest as he accused Al Aswany of wearing patriotism mask and reminded us that he “killed and got killed” and history was behind him !! Al Aswany of course had to fire back and reminded him that it was from right as Egyptian citizen to ask. Now Al Aswany is being accused of rudeness in the Facebook and twitter also in several Egyptian websites for standing against the prime minister, of course those people who attacked Al Aswany have never seen a prime minister being really interrogated and roasted in a parliament before and actually they have not lost someone dear or lost any eye because of Mubarak's regime !! With my respect Shafik insulted the martyrs at Tahrir more when he spoke about the garbage at Tahrir square that should be cleaned to justify his Hyde Park's plan for the square. He insulted hundreds of martyrs and thousands of injured when he spoke arrogantly about how he wanted the army to distribute meals on the protesters of Al Tahrir !! He did not give a direct answer when he was asked on the contrary except once or twice , he was so irritated and seemed not to be opened for any real criticism. His body language was clear to all of us that he was nervous and not comfortable. Hamdy Kandeel was a pro , he is a veteran TV host who knew how to corner Shafik calmly and smoothly , a great smooth killer he was. Kandeel wondered about the minister of foreign affairs and the Egyptian candidate for the league of Arab states' secretary position. I will not comment about Sawiris because actually he should have left and Amr Hamzawy stayed. Even in Lebanon where the prime minister mocked freely and explicitly in the comic show ,nothing like this happened before there and I am a person who watches Lebanese political shows very well. I will complete this post in this morning because actually now it is 3:33 AM and I need to get a sleep. Again this episode was a TV history made in front of us. **This blog was originally posted here by Zeinobia, who writes the Egyptian Chronicles blog, on March 3
