CAIRO - It is not clear yet whether President Mohammed Morsi's decision to set up ombudsman's offices in three areas in Cairo will ease the labour strikes and other protests triggered by personal grievances. A few days after his inauguration as Egypt's first freely elected President, Morsi saw the presidential palace, for long a no-go zone for Egyptians, swarming with thousands of people who'd come from across the nation to air their grievances. The protesters ranged from labourers in dispute with their employers and pro-democracy activists pushing for the release of detainees in military prisons, to debt-ridden individuals seeking urgent help. Morsi's residence in el-Itahdiya Palace in the posh quarter of Heliopolis in northeastern Cairo has apparently eased months-long pressure on central Cairo, where protesters have been rallying since the revolution to vent their anger at the military-backed Government. The venue has obviously changed – but the protesters and their followers haven't. Since mass protests became the order of the day in Cairo 17 months ago, street vendors have always been there, seeking to cash in on the crowds. Tahrir, a hub for the mass protests against Mubarak and later his military successors, was until recently the rallying point for these poor hawkers painstakingly trying to make a living in these hard times. They included tea boys and sellers of the national flag, as well as vendors of cold drinks and lupines. Changing the venue for protests from Tahrir to Heliopolis has prompted the vendors to shift their focus too. For the past few days, the streets surrounding the presidential palace in Heliopolis have seen an increase in the numbers of vendors catering to the needs of the protesters in the scorching heat. This ‘invasion' – seen as a sign of presidential openness and democratisation – has angered residents who love this area because it's normally nice and quiet. “That the presidential guards did not remove us from the site proves that the new President is aware of the sufferings of the poor," an unlicensed street vendor told a local newspaper. Years ago, a young motorist strayed through the gate of another presidential palace in the Cairo area of Hadaaiq el-Qubba and was instantly gunned down. Times have changed and the presidential palaces are no longer off-limits. Last week, presidential guards caught a young protester scaling the palace in Heliopolis in a bid to meet Morsi. They didn't harm him. The ombudsman's offices may be a stopgap method to ease the pressure on the new President. Nonetheless, they may further bog down Egypt's legendary, cumbersome bureaucracy. The best solution to the public's woes is for the new President to swiftly knock his administration into shape and knuckle down to the job of rejuvenating the economy. He has to ensure that the benefits will trickle down to the long-neglected poor, whose voices continue to reverberate across the nation's streets. Listening to them attentively will make all the hype about ushering Egypt into a new era ring credible and auspicious.
