Ruling party holds major conference amid skepticism over reform plans to pave the way for his son to succeed CAIRO: A meeting of Egypt s ruling party Tuesday offered President Hosni Mubarak a chance to consider new steps toward reform amid widespread criticism that moves for greater democracy have stalled in this top U.S. ally. Gamal Mubarak, the son of President Mubarak, a key Western ally in the Middle East, hit out at U.S. ambitions to export Western-style democracy to the region. We reject these foreign ambitions to erase Arab identity in the framework of what they call the Greater Middle East initiative, said Gamal Mubarak, who heads the ruling National Democratic Party s political committee. Gamal also urged his father s party to consider a proposal to develop nuclear energy, taking a controversial stance as he seeks to position himself regionally as a serious politician. We will continue using our natural energy resources, but we should conserve these resources for our future generations. The whole world is looking at alternative energy - so should Egypt - including nuclear, Gamal Mubarak told party members. We will not accept initiatives made abroad, said the 42-year-old politician. Egypt is a big country and plays a leading role and will continue to do that. Opponents say that the ruling National Democratic Party will do nothing to bring real change, and that the three-day party gathering really aims to increase the power of Gamal, to step in after his father s term ends in 2011. During opening remarks on Tuesday, Safwat El-Sherif, the party s secretary-general, pledged that reforms would continue. We are in a new takeoff and the march of reform will continue on all tracks, El-Sherif told some 2,800 party delegates. He also praised the president s son for his effort to inject new blood into the party. The Bush administration has called greater democracy in the Middle East a top priority, and at one time it wanted Egypt to be the centerpiece of reform. But critics say the United States has backed off pressuring Cairo, more concerned with keeping its help in the region s numerous crises, including Iraq, Lebanon and Iran, than pushing to loosen Mubarak s 25-year authoritarian rule. Last week, President Bush criticized the slow pace of reform in Egypt. But he also gave what some saw as a tacit praise of 42-year-old Gamal Mubarak, pointing to young reformers who are his allies, including Trade and Industry minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid, whom local press has mooted as the next prime minister. There s an impressive group of younger Egyptians, the trade minister and some of the economic people that understand the promise and the difficulties of democracy, Bush told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. Gamal Mubarak is touted by supporters as an advocate of reform, particularly economic liberalization. But many critics believe he will maintain the lock on government of the ruling party, which they say fears any move to bring greater democracy will allow its top rival, the Muslim Brotherhood, to sweep any free vote. This regime cannot reform itself. Reform means it is committing suicide, said Khalil Al-Annani, an analyst at the Cairo-based journals International Politics. At the top of the conference agenda are proposals to amend Egypt s constitution, which for more than 30 years has restricted the formation of political parties and given the president overwhelming power, including emergency laws to imprison opponents. Opposition parties and rights activists have been pushing for a new constitution that will establish a full-fledged parliamentary democracy, rather than the current system dominated by the president. A top demand is that the door be opened for the creation of political parties without government approval. Another proposal would virtually prevent the powerful Muslim Brotherhood from entering the next vote. The Muslim Brotherhood is officially outlawed, and its candidates ran in last year s election as independents. Despite widespread violence and allegations of fraud during November and December s voting, the Brotherhood won an unprecedented fifth of the parliament s seats - a sign of its power at the ballot box. The 78-year-old Mubarak kicked off his reform agenda last year by allowing the first-ever multi-candidate presidential elections. He easily won the September vote, which opponents dismissed as a token change. After parliamentary elections, the government backed off promises to end the emergency laws, postponed local elections for several years and launched a violent crackdown on street protesters, and arrests of Brotherhood members. This is a despotic police state, it cannot carry out reform, said Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the Brotherhood leader. Some prominent NDP members, such as Hala Mustafa, editor of Egypt s most respected political quarterly, Democracy, share the opposition s skepticism. We cannot talk about reform in ceremonial open forums while sidelining and marginalizing others. Reforms means giving others the right to form their own political parties freely, Mustafa told AP. Party leaders, and Mubarak himself, deny Gamal Mubarak is being positioned for the presidency. But many are not convinced. Gamal Mubarak has risen rapidly through the NDP hierarchy, first leading its policy planning committee, then adding the position of deputy secretary-general. The main objective of the NDP is to put Gamal Mubarak on the seat of power, and this conference will ensure that happens, opposition lawmaker Talaat Sadat, nephew of late President Anwar Sadat, told the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper on Sunday. A key member of Gamal Mubarak s policy committee told the ruling party s newspaper Al-Watany Al-Youm on Tuesday that the president s son is one of the most important leaders in the party. It s our right as a party to nominate who has the leadership qualities, and it's his right to accept or reject. This is not inheritance [of power], because at the end, this should take place in a context of transparency and democracy inside the party and society, Hossam Badrawi said. Agencies
