Egypt’s ‘all-conquering hero’ nominated for a fourth term

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Crescent International

Rabi' al-Awwal 02, 1420 1999-06-16

Occupied Arab World

by Crescent International (Occupied Arab World, Crescent International Vol. 28, No. 8, Rabi' al-Awwal, 1420)

The world’s probably most obsequious elite is still celebrating the Egyptian parliament’s nomination of president Husni Mubarak for a fourth term in office on June 2, with ‘representatives of Egyptian society’ - from Sheikh-ul-Azhar and the Coptic patriarch, to chairpersons of feminist organisations - trekking to the presidential palace to declare their mabaya’ah for the ‘national hero’. Even members of parliament, including those few abstaining during the nomination vote (no one dared to vote against) have joined the mabaya’ah march to the palace.

The vote in the national assembly (parliament) was a resounding 443 in favour, out of a total of 454, with 10 abstaining, and only one, the representative of the Nasserist party, deciding to stay away from the proceedings instead of casting his vote against the nomination. But despite the abstentions, the assembly president, Dr Ahmad Fathi Surur, declared that the president was unanimously nominated for a fourth term - perhaps an understandable slip, especially when Mubarak’s two businessman sons were sitting on the front bench among the government ministers.

An assembly statement on the vote explained that the president was nominated ‘to express the nation’s collective will, which fully recognizes Mubarak’s endeavour’, to reinforce democratic freedoms ‘within the framework of a multi-party system’, strengthen national unity and work for a just peace in the Middle East.

Armed with this eulogy, signed by 445 assembly members, the nations representatives trooped the same day to the palace on what the Al-Ahram daily called a ‘historic march to honour a national hero’. And when Dr Surur, the assembly head, read the eulogy in person at the palace, Mubarak declared that he could not but ‘accept the will of the nation’s representatives’ - adding that ‘the parliament’s decision was no doubt inspired by its desire to protect the country’s high national interest and the comprehensive reform and development movement which the Egypt witnesses today.’

Mubarak, who assumed power for the first time in 1981, after president Anwar Sadat’s assassination, has not appointed a vice-president since and rules as a virtual despot under the national state of emergency introduced then. His nomination by the assembly for a fourth term - by more than the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority - clears the way for his election as an unopposed candidate, in a national referendum.

The referendum is expected to be held in October, but the time and conditions are to be fixed by Mubarak himself in a presidential decree. In the meantime he is basking in the declarations of allegiance of Egyptian high society, who are apparently still lining up to pay homage.

Representatives of the country’s religious establishment have already been to the palace for a well publicised mubaya’ah. Both Sheikh-ul Azhar Dr Muhammad Tantawi and the Coptic patriarch Shenuda led delegations on June 3 to see the president in person. Tantawi at the head of a 19-strong delegation of ulama from the country’s various provinces, said Al-Azhar was seeking to see the president to ‘renew the mubaya’ah on the occasion of his nomination.’

Of the two religious leaders, Tantawi was naturally the more extravagant in his praise of the despot, who has won the support of the secularists because of his savage crackdown on the country’s Islamic movement. And, whether unwittingly or by design, he even quoted modified passages of a speech associated with the late president Jamal Abdul-Nasser.

Dr Tantawi, not looking embarrassed in the least said: ‘We have known president Mubarak to be a man who loves the truth and hates falsehood; loves good manners and hates nifaq; loves justice and hates injustice. We have also known him to be man who unites and does not divide, builds and does not destroy.’ A report in the Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi on June 5 pointed out that Dr Tantawi was paraphrasing a speech by Nasser on the declaration of union between Egypt and Syria, ‘but it was not clear whether he knew he was doing so - as the words were bound to strike a cord in Mubarak’.

But even as Mubarak was collecting all those plaudits for his devotion to democratic rights and economic and social reforms, on June 2 he passed a measure on non-government organisations (NGOs), which seeks to limit drastically the few civil liberties allowed under a 1964 law. The measure, approved by the national assembly on the very day its members were praising the president for securing democratic rights for the nationis so draconian that four members of the original drafting team publicly accused the government of redrafting it to target NGOs.

The four, all leading academics, issued a statement on May 4 disowning the draft legislation, and escalating the various protests against the law organized by the 175 NGOs in the country and by women’s organizations.

The law is aimed at Islamic activists, and seeks to ban all contributions not approved by the government. It also imposes directors appointed by the authorities on all NGOs. And although the US government strongly criticised the draft legislation, Mubarak passed it into law knowing that Uncle Sam was not really exercised about the civil liberties of Muslims or the freedom of action of Islamic organizations.

Muslimedia: June 16-30, 1999

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