CAIRO: The majority of political party representatives who attended a meeting with deputy Prime Minister for Political Affairs Ali Al-Selmy, rejected Article 9 of the draft constitutional principles document under discussion, which guarantees the secrecy of the Armed Forces budget. Al-Selmy had called for the meeting to reach consensus over non-binding basic principles that would govern the new constitution and the criteria for the selection of the constituent assembly that will draft it. Islamist political parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party had announced from the outset that they were boycotting the meeting, as they regard any such discussion as a run-around democracy and the government's way to circumvent the will of the people determined by the constitutional referendum. "The main issue that triggered heated argument was the secrecy clause protecting the military's budget. It would have been acceptable if they suggested that some items are confidential, but the military budget must be made public," said Farid Zahran, member of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party. According to a report in state-run Al-Ahram's website, Ahmed Shukry, founding member and official spokesman of Al-Adl party, walked out of the meeting objecting to what he described as “catastrophic” clauses in the proposed document that would give the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces the power to intervene in the process of drafting the constitution. He told Al-Ahram: “SCAF would have the right to object to any articles it deems contradictory to the constitutional declaration.” Shukry also criticized the fact that the last article gave SCAF the right to replace the constituent assembly if it fails to draft a constitution within the designated six-month period. Like Shukry, Zahran criticized the atmosphere of the meeting, and the criteria on which parties were invited. “No one can have a decent dialogue with such a large number of attendees,” he said, adding that some of these “cartoon parties” should not have been invited in the first place. Al-Wasat Party said it withdrew from the meeting. The original invitation was to a meeting about the criteria for the selection of the constituent assembly. “The hall was filled with prominent members of the disbanded National Democratic Party and cartoon parties. In addition, the government presented an additional point to the agenda which is the ‘draft announcement of the basic constitutional principles',” the party said in a statement. Abo El-Ela Madi, Al-Wasat Party head, left the hall in objection. The party statement echoed the same objections raised by other parties about powers given to SCAF on the expense of any elected government. “The protection of the constitutional legitimacy was withdrawn from the people and their representatives and handed to the military council. The discussion of the biggest part of the state budget was withdrawn from the parliament and handed to the military council as well. While there was general agreement on the reaffirmation that Egypt is an Arab Republic and that Islam is its official religion, arguments broke out when some insisted that all 22 principles should be made mandatory and placed in the new constitution not simply be used as guidelines. Mohamed Bayoumi, general coordinator of Al-Karama Party, which was not invited to the meeting, told DNE that there is no need for such supra-constitutional principles. "It is the wrong time to reopen this subject,” he said. “The whole society is now focusing on the parliamentary elections, after that we can start discussing the new constitution.” The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Salafi Al-Nour Party and the Islamist group (Al-Gam'aa Al-Islamiyya) boycotted El-Selmy's meeting. The FJP's Saad Al-Katatni, told Al-Selmy on Sunday that broaching this issue at this time, when Egyptians are engaged in parliamentary elections, would lead to more divisions which is not in Egypt's national interest. "Al-Selmy is interested in reviving dead issues," Yousri Hammad, spokesman of Al-Nour party, told the ONTV show Baladna bel Masry on Monday, insisting that the decisions of the meeting will not be binding to them because the current cabinet is a temporary caretaker government. A number of human rights organizations issued a statement refusing to participate in the meeting called for by Al-Selmy, whether to discuss the criteria for selecting members of the constituent assembly, or anything else along the same lines. These organizations include the Hesham Mubarak Law Center, the Arabic Network for Human Rights information (ANHRI), El-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR), the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), and the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression. The NGOs announced their boycott would continue until Essam Sharaf's cabinet and the military junta proves their respect for the dignity and the rights of the Egyptian people, who were “unfairly” driven to military trials.
