The ruling National Democratic Party and its Government have not been the same since January 25. The weak ruling party and even weaker opposition parties have proven to be paper tigers. The young people in these parties should have talked to the young people who joined in the demonstrations and who don't have any real ideology. The Government should have responded earlier to these youths by giving them convincing answers to their questions about reform. These are the same young people who chanted when the Egyptian national football team won the African Cup of Nations. The social media have proven to be stronger than the Government thought. If political parties were allowed to work in the universities, many of these youths would join them and get involved in the elections, while Parliament would better express their point of view. The Government has dealt with the riots as a security issue. The main cause of the riots is not security. What the protesters want are jobs, a higher standard of living and transparent elections, things the Government has abysmally failed to provide them with. These youths do not object to the main ideology of the ruling party. Both are liberal. They do not represent the Muslim Brotherhood who declared that they would not participate in the protests, but then declared they would. The leftist parties did not participate. The Government has dealt with the nation's problems from the security angle only. The increased community violence, with some people taking the law into their own hands, are signs of social imbalance, while the ruling party and the Government uses the security forces as a sedative, without tackling the problems. Any reform will not succeed unless people's salaries are improved, while land-use policies should change and wealth should be more fairly distributed. We often read about the launching of labour-intensive projects and small businesses for young people to start up with the help of loans. But how should young people go about getting these loans and starting these businesses? They don't seem to know. There's a problem somewhere. Meanwhile, business and politics should be kept separate. Our businessmen manipulate politics for their own ends. Oh for the good old days, when businessmen like Talaat Harb Pasha worked for the good of the Egyptians and their country. Capitalism does not mean irresponsibility towards the community. It should be accompanied by transparency and antimonopoly measures. When the outgoing Minister of Education decides to change the status of schools from national to experimental and to transfer employees from ministerial headquarters to other jobs, but then goes back on his decisions, this means he hasn't studied these issues properly. Education and healthcare are the bases for sound development and should be taken very seriously. The ruling party must deal with these problems convincingly or the Government can expect more trouble from the nation's youth.
