CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), withdrew its members from the advisory council elected by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in response to statements the latter made to foreign press on Wednesday. In a statement Thursday, the FJP, which won 36.6 percent of the 9.7 million valid ballots cast for party lists, said that SCAF's statements prove that this advisory council would interfere in electing the new constituent assembly responsible for drafting the constitution, describing this as “illegitimate.” The advisory council was created by SCAF to assist the new government headed by newly appointed Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzoury and SCAF in its responsibilities. “The upcoming phase mandates the respect of the Egyptian people's will and cooperation between all sides, especially SCAF, the interim government and the elected People's Assembly (PA),” FJP Secretary General Saad El-Katatny said in the statement. FJP head Mohamed Morsi and the party's assistant Secretary General Osama Yassin had initially agreed to join the council before the controversial statements by the military ruler were published. SCAF held a press conference Wednesday with a select group of nine journalists, eight American and one British, in a bid to downplay the power Islamist parties will have in the new parliament, despite their sweeping win of around 68 percent of the seats in the first round. SCAF General Mokhtar Al-Molla said in the conference that the new parliament didn't represent all of the Egyptian people, slamming Islamist parties especially the Salafi Al-Nour Party. “Do you think that the Egyptians elected someone to threaten their interests and Egypt's economy and security and relations with international community?” Al-Molla was quoted as saying in the New York Times (NYT), “Of course not.” While Al-Molla maintained that he respected the fairness and integrity of the elections, he said that “given the unstable situation, parliament is not representing all the Egyptian people,” the Guardian reported. Political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah said that SCAF's statements were “unconstitutional,” and will cause a rift with the Muslim Brotherhood. “This was a message to the international community, especially the United States, to reassure them that the Islamists won't control writing Egypt's new constitution,” Abdel Fattah told Daily News Egypt. The NYT suggested that the comments, made in the absence of Egyptian reporters, “may have been intended to persuade Washington to back off its call for civilian rule.” Abdel-Fattah said that SCAF didn't want this message to reach the Islamist parties or revolutionary powers within Egypt because it might lead them to revolt. Mohamed Abbas, member of the Revolutionary Youth Coalition and candidate on the Revolution Continues' list in Banha, agreed, likening SCAF to ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime. “SCAF's statements to the West are contradictory to their statements to Egyptians just like Mubarak … they can't face the Egyptian people,” Abbas told DNE. In a meeting with some political powers on Thursday, other SCAF generals reportedly gave contradictory statements. Emad Adel Ghaffour, head of Al-Nour party which garnered 24.4 percent of the vote, said that SCAF Generals Sami Anan and Mohamed El-Aassar withdrew these statements during the advisory council's meeting on Thursday. “We are against the idea of boycotting meetings; instead we should discuss things with SCAF,” Abdel Ghaffour, a member of the advisory council, said. “As long as they withdrew their statements which were against democracy, everything will turn out fine,” he added. SCAF said it would appoint a civilian advisory council comprising party representatives, artists and intellectuals, to approve the constituent assembly, along with the interim government. Al-Molla told the group of foreign journalists that the military won't intervene directly in the constitutional process. Instead, the advisory council “would make suggestions to the military council while also representing the military council to parliament.” According to the March referendum and the constitutional decree based on it, the PA should be responsible for selecting the 100-member constituent assembly responsible for drafting the new constitution. “Over 14 million Egyptians voted in favor of the PA electing the constituent assembly; SCAF is ignoring the people's will and their elected parliament,” Abbas said. The FJP stressed on many occasions that this constituent assembly would represent all the Egyptian people and not only the majority in parliament. On Nov. 18, mass protests took place in Tahrir Square against a document of constitutional principles regulating the selection of the constituent assembly and guaranteeing the secrecy of the military budget. An unrelated sit-in the following day ended with violence that lasted for days between security forces and protesters leaving over 40 dead and more than 2,000 injured. Al-Molla appeared to find the idea of scrutinizing the military's budget “ridiculous,” saying he knew of no military whose budget was public, according to the NYT. Abbas and Secretary General of Al-Tagammu Party, Sayed Abdel Aal, slammed SCAF, saying it insulted the Egyptian people by assuming they weren't ready for democracy. “These statements show that SCAF doesn't believe in democracy or the Egyptian people,” said Abbas. Abdel Aal echoed Abbas' sentiments, saying that although his party, a member of the liberal Egyptian Bloc, didn't necessarily approve of a parliament dominated by Islamists, it respected the people's choice.
"But we will keep fighting for a parliament that respects personal freedoms and advocates the establishment of a civil democratic state," he added. However, Margaret Azer, Secretary General of Al-Wafd Party, supported SCAF saying that over 40 percent of Egyptians are illiterate and easily influenced by Islamist parties. Azer and Abdel Aal both welcomed the idea of an advisory council that would represent the more liberal parties that have been calling for supra constitutional principles to guarantee the establishment of a civil state, rather than an Islamic one. "We need to protect Egypt's identity as a civil state from the Islamist movement which has dominated the PA," Azer said, adding that an advisory council would guarantee the representation of all of Egypt's factions in the constituent assembly. "This coming period will see conflicts over the legitimacy of the military which has ruled Egypt since 1952 and the elected PA and Islamic parties which refuse to go down easily," Abdel Fattah said.
