Within a few days the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) will hold its fifth annual conference under the slogan "New Thinking for the Future of Our Country - a lackluster motto that does not seem to provide anything different from the slogans it launched on the eve of previous conferences. At the policy level, I do not think that the NDP will propose anything new to its members. The issues to be discussed in the fifth annual conference will spring from the usual issues that have been discussed at previous conferences, such as education, health, sanitation, housing, agriculture, citizenship and poverty. Three major issues will, however, impose themselves on the NDP annual conference and should be discussed seriously. First is the issue of economic orientation. This is important not only because of the repercussions of the global financial crisis on the Egyptian economy, which will take its toll on opportunities for economic growth, but also because of its negative impact on the capitalist-oriented approach and uncontrolled privatization adopted by the NDP's new guard, especially under the general feeling among citizens that privatization and economic liberalization policies over the past three years have not improved their economic and social conditions. Average citizens are no longer won over by the numbers. Despite the high annual economic growth rate of 7.5 percent, and $14-billion foreign investments, there is a general sense that the sole beneficiary of this growth are a small group of businessmen who finance the NDP and maximize their gains through their alliance with the authorities, especially that nearly 40 percent of Egyptians still live below the poverty line, not to mention the 2 million people living in shantytowns. The government's public service performance has not been good over the past year. The country has seen many disasters, the most famous of which were the fires that broke out in the Shoura Council (Upper House of Parliament) and some state-owned factories and buildings without an efficient response from the government. There were also corruption and moral scandals, involving influential NDP members, hence tarnishing the party's reputation. Therefore, it is logical that NDP leadership statements focus on issues of poverty and social development policy. Second is the issue of decentralization, a very important issue that has only received a casual reference in the NDP leaders' statements. It has only been addressed theoretically, but it is still a vague idea and there is no clear strategy for dealing with it. The 2007 constitutional amendments provided for the decentralization of local authorities through the amendment of Law No. 43 of 1979, but the NDP has not yet moved to achieve this. The third issue is the support of democracy and expansion of freedoms; an issue that will remain a black spot on both the NDP's and the government's record. During the past year Egypt has not taken any steps forward in political reform. On the contrary, the NDP's dominance over the local elections held in April was a setback because of the party's failure to reform the authoritarian system of laws, such as the political parties law and the law on the exercise of political rights, let alone the fact that no national dialogue between the ruling party and opposition parties has taken place. On the level of civil freedoms, the NDP's record was the worst. Four editors of independent and opposition newspapers are being tried. Muslim Brotherhood figureheads have been given excessive sentences that reached seven years in prison. April 6 demonstrations and others were repressed and a draft law to control the press, satellite channels and radio transmissions is in the pipeline. In short, the NDP has failed to convince people that it made real achievements over the past year. It seems that we'll have to wait till next year to see anything new. Khalil Al-Ananiis an Egyptian expert on political Islam and democratization in the Middle East and is a senior fellow at Al-Ahram Foundation. E-mail: [email protected]
