THE Parliament, elected in 2005, has gone into summer recess, after supposedly concluding one of its most crucial sessions in decades. As they retreated to the Parliament building to pack their bags to return to their respective constituencies, the MPs belonging to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) received a pat on the back from party whip Ahmed Ezz. Ezz told the MPs that they had done a great job by overpowering opposition radicals during the sessions allocated to debating major issues, such as constitutional amendments. Reciprocating, triumphant MPs told Ezz, one of the Middle East's biggest iron and steel tycoons, that he was a brilliant 'maestro of the majority'. Ezz was also lauded for silencing his opponents in Parliament during tough confrontations and during any attempts to step over the line by embarrassing governmental ministers. It has been alleged that the NDP's biggest achievement in the former Parliament was the endorsement of 34 articles in the Constitution, causing widespread repercussions at home and abroad. The amendments were debated about 15 times before their final approval in March 2007. Ezz must also have received thankyou letters from the Government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif because it has survived more than 150 votes of no confidence in the past five years. The Government was rocked when more than 1,000 people died when their ferry sank in the Red Sea in 2006. It was also disgraced when opposition MPs disclosed that hundreds of thousands of tonnes of bad wheat had been imported into the domestic market. It received another heavy blow from the opposition MPs when a medical company owned by a senior NDP member, Hani Sorour, was accused of manufacturing contaminated blood bags. Sorour, a member of Parliament's Economic Committee, had to resign over the incident. However, the NDP's celebrations of its members' controversial achievements since 2005 were partially muted by howls of discontent from bruised opposition colleagues. Silently licking their wounds, the opposition, led by deputies loyal to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, ridiculed Parliament's inability to protect society from serious economic threats, such as increasing unemployment, soaring prices and a floundering healthcare system. The opposition also complains that, over the past five years, they've tried but failed to pressurise the Government into improving the education system. The opposition says that the Government has failed to make its rosy promises come true. It has also allegedly abandoned young Egyptian men, many of whom drown in trying to cross the Mediterranean, hoping for a better life in Europe, because, as their grief-stricken families say, they despair of Egypt's future.
