CAIRO: While several thousand people gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square after Friday prayers to protest against the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), increasing numbers of pro-SCAF protesters attracted attention in Cairo's Abbassiya neighbourhood, marching in support of the military. Looking at the amount of people joining the pro-SCAF rally, which was “steadily increasing” the question comes up about what the role of the “feloul”, the Arabic word for remnants, or members of former President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP), are playing and going to play in the future of Egypt. Following a decision from Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court in November, feloul were free to stand in elections, provided they had not been convicted of corruption or other serious abuses – being hardly revisable. In its decision, the court argued that it could not deprive ex-NDP members of “their right to participate in political life,” adding that “the individuals who corrupted the economic, social, political and cultural life of this country are ordinary people who were in charge of running the affairs of this party.” The court's ruling has upset and scared many, fearing that former Mubarak loyalists will steal the government back via the ballot box and could try to undermine the political achievements achieved so far since the February ousting of the aging dictator. “They know they took part in all of this corruption and rigged elections that Egyptians paid for with their lives,” Enjy Hamady, a member of the April 6th movement said. “How will they, today, be my partner in building the country? A hand that used to destroy the country cannot be the hand that helps rebuild the country,” she questioned. However, there are also a lot of defenders. “Not all NDP were corrupt,” said Al-Senousi Razek. He has given one of his three votes to ex-NDP member Mustafa el-Hadi, a local man whose “banners and posters suggested a well-organized election campaign.” Many feloul might be able to gain votes thanks to their cash reserves, their local connections, their old party affiliations, or their local prestige. “It's all about your relations with people,” argued Mohammed Fawaz, who renounced the NDP and joined the Conservative Party after the uprising. While Fawaz said he isn't proud of his history with the NDP, he is putting lipstick on the pig by claiming that he had to join the party to give his village a voice in parliament. People are obsessed by the court ruling, but it is not unusual that members of former militant groups, undemocratic or dictatorial parties, are able to run for election again after their former parties have been abolished. The discussion reminds us of former debates in history, for instance the exclusion of former Nazi Party members in Germany and the difficulties in its enforcement, or the prohibition of the Baath party in Iraq and the reorganization of its main activists in other groupings. In Germany, several members of the Nazi Party passed through a successful political career, including Hans Filbinger, a conservative German politician and a leading member of the centrer-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the 1960s and 1970s, or Kurt Kiesinger, chancellor of West Germany from 1966 until 1969. Egypt is not as black and white. The ban of a party does not abolish its ideas and the people claiming those. However, the feloul in Egypt will face the new situation of being under constraint to democratically earn the vote they could have been sure of in Mubarak's era. And this will not be an easy business. BM
