CAIRO: Prominent Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris announced on Sunday evening the launching of his new political party under the name “Al Masryeen Al Ahrar,” or “The free Egyptians.” In a press conference, Sawiris stressed the importance of “positiveness” through the coming five months in which the voices of the silent majority would arise to solve the dilemma between the newly born parties in opposition to 80-year-old entities. The founder of Al Masryeen Al Ahrar welcomed all public figures who would like to participate in the party; yet, the upper hand would be to those who really want to work for Egypt, he said. “All what we need now is to be positive and to start putting our words into actions on the ground and that's why we didn't unite with some other parties because we didn't feel their commitment to do that, they just keeping talking,” said Sawiris. Although Sawiris is an initial founder of the party he is satisfied with being a member of the board of trustees: “I myself won't be the head of the party so as not to let anyone say it's ‘his' party and to leave the platform to the youth to play their role, which they started in the 25th of January [revolution],” he announced. Mohamed Salmawy, the Egyptian novelist praised the theme of the party and Sawiris himself for attracting a large segment of society who were reluctant to participate in the political process. He said that they believe the process of setting the main goals and principles of the party should be carried out by all party's committees to enrich it with new ideas for the sake of Egypt. The major goals stated briefly in the conference aimed at developing the country to achieve equality for all citizens politically, economically, socially, scientifically and to preserve the dignity of all Egyptians inside and outside the country. The guidelines of the party's program revolve around 3 principles: society, economy and politics, as stated by Hani Sarie el-Din, chairman of the Middle East Institute for Law and Development (MILD). The societal axis is based on providing all citizens with proper medical insurance, proper education and media along with paying “great attention to the environmental challenges facing Egypt.” While the political axis will work on constitutional reform and the separation of the religious organizations from the political process with full respect to the freedom of belief, stressing on the necessity of taking “one firm position from the 2nd article of the constitution, and to preserve the rights of Egyptians outside the country to vote in elections.” The economic axis is said to be based on the societal aspect of all economic concerns. In his short speech Ahmed Fouad Negm, the famous poet, stressed the importance of the Arabic dimension in Egypt's foreign relations exceeding the importance of the African affairs. While Haj Ahmed Isaac president of “the Nubian file” committee, said that we should first make sure that we are standing on a solid ground before starting to state our legal demands, which was received by a loud applause from the audience of the press conference. In a final statement, Sawiris stated that the new party is not a Coptic endeavor and is open for all Egyptians who agree with their goals. “I am not against the Muslim Brotherhood as it was claimed,” he said, “yet I am against putting a slogan for the entire country by ignoring one sector by saying that Islam is the solution. We all should be part of the solution,” stated Sawiris. The press conference was held at the Al-Jazeera youth center so as to confirm the concept of equality between the rich and the poor, according to Sawiris. The conference was attended by a large audience. BM
