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Egypt Today - September 2009 Everyone seems to be talking about the 2011 presidential elections — everyone, that is, except those who might actually run. While the popular vote is calling for a popular candidate, the Constitution limits eligibility for the high office to leaders from the nation’s most viable political parties. In the run-up to the nation’s second multi-candidate presidential race, Egypt Today talks to the parties most likely to field contenders. by Dina Basiony On the streets of the digital nation, the 2011 presidential elections are already being hotly contested. Local and international news sites and blogs are buzzing with speculation about who will throw their hats into the ring. Would-be candidate websites — none of which are actually affiliated with or authorized by the person being endorsed — have sprung up. All of this ignores the fact that not one person has officially announced his candidacy for president of Egypt — not even the incumbent. This month marks the beginning of the two-year countdown to the presidential elections, and in many countries, politicians would already be building their public images in the run-up to nomination. On both the digital and physical streets of Egypt, though, not even the most ardent partisans seem to fully understand who is currently qualified — much less who is actually interested in running for high office. On Facebook, the popular social networking site and playground for young, tech-savvy activists, one group calls for the candidacies of Muslim televangelist Amr Khaled, scientist and Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail and telecommunication mogul Naguib Sawiris. According to the Constitution, however, none of these men are eligible to run for president. They all meet the criteria of Article 75: They are Egyptian citizens born to Egyptian parents and they are no less than 40 years old. The catch is Article 76, which stipulates that would-be presidential candidates must be nominated by the governing councils of state-recognized political parties that have been in existence for at least five years before the election. Up until 2017, eligible parties must have won at least one seat in either the People’s Assembly (PA) or the Shura Council in the most recent election; after 2017, eligible parties must hold at least 3 percent of the seats in Parliament as a whole. Of the nation’s 24 registered political parties, only the governing National Democratic Party (NDP) would currently meet the 3 percent rule. The party holds 339 (68.5 percent) of Parliament’s 456 total seats. The second-largest official party is Al-Wafd, which holds 1.4 percent of the seats: six in the lower house and two in the Shura Council. The left-leaning Al-Tagammu’ has one seat in the PA and three in the Shura Council, while Ayman Nour’s Al-Ghad has one seat in the PA and none in the Shura Council. MPs affiliated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood hold 88 seats, but the group cannot field a presidential candidate because it is not a registered political party. The criteria for multi-party presidential elections were established by constitutional amendments approved in 2005, which were hailed as an unprecedented step toward a fully participatory democracy. The restrictions on qualified candidates, however, has spawned criticism that the path to the presidency was being groomed for an NDP member, specifically for Gamal Mubarak, the NDP’s assistant secretary general, head of its influential Policies Secretariat — and the younger son of President Hosni Mubarak. Since Gamal Mubarak emerged in the party spotlight in 2002, pundits have speculated on the scenario of tawreeth, the hereditary succession of power. As the clock ticks down to 2011, the rhetoric about tawreeth and the election in general is heating up. In an editorial penned for the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm this summer titled “Egypt Is Looking for a President,” political analyst Hassan Nafaa openly worried that time is running out. No person or party has implied, let alone announced, who its nominee would be, let alone taken steps to build the type of nationwide network necessary to run a credible presidential campaign. If this doesn’t change soon, Nafaa argued, “catastrophic scenarios leading to major chaos could come to pass.” Who’s the Leader? “Before you ask yourself who the political leaders are or who represents a good leader, you should understand the political regime of [any given] country,” says Al-Sayed Yassin, a researcher at, and former director of, Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. In Egypt’s case, he says, the political system is authoritarian moving toward liberalism. “The authoritarian regime — such as the one Egypt had under [late] President Gamal Abdel Nasser — permits the presence of at most two or three leaders beside [] the president of the republic. In the liberal regime, however, you find many leaders due to the presence of multiple political parties.” Yassin explains that late President Anwar Sadat introduced change by permitting a limited form of political pluralism. Mubarak, for his part, has pushed constitutional reform and opened the door for multi-candidate presidential elections. These steps have moved the nation closer, but it’s not yet fully there. “Right now, we have economic liberalism,” Yassin says, “but we do not have political liberalism.” Confusing national personalities with political leaders is an act of naivety, Yassin says, adding that in a liberal society, true political leaders are those who are active in the leadership of their parties, not necessarily the most famous party members. “Political leaders practice politics. They have political agendas and are capable of moving the masses. A national personality, by comparison, has no relationship with the masses. Take Amr Moussa: He has a good reputation, but he does not move the masses.” Today’s political parties are not moving the masses either, Yassin admits. “Egyptian parties are very weak and they do not produce political leaders who are respected []. This is the crisis of political parties.” Yassin says he cannot decide who would make a credible presidential candidate. “[What I can say] is that the time is very limited and we have no idea who is going to be nominated. The parties need to present their candidates to the public now; they should have their candidates ready and help them become national personalities with followers and clear policy platforms.” But who are the party leaders? To find out, Egypt Today spoke with the primary parties eligible to field presidential candidates. Al-Ghad Established in 2004, Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) has one member in Parliament and claims a following of about 27,000 people. The current party president is Ehab El-Khouly, but its most visible member is party founder, zaeem (honorary leader) and former party president Ayman Nour, who is not shy about his aspirations. “If the current regime decided to leave at 8 tomorrow morning,” he says. “I’m ready to take over the country to run it at 8:05.” One of the most recognizable politicians in the country, Nour is one of the few — and perhaps only —people to publicly admit he is ready to run in 2011: “It is my duty and responsibility to all the people who support me and expect me to bring change, a new vision and leadership to their country,” he tells Egypt Today. While New Wafd has proposed concrete constitutional reforms, Abaza’s party is perhaps better known for its leadership spat than its public policy statements. Nour is also one of the few with solid campaign experience: He first ran for the People’s Assembly under the Wafd Party banner in 1982. Elected at the age of 30, he was the youngest MP at the time. After 10 years as an MP, he quit Parliament and Al-Wafd to found Al-Ghad in 2004. Nour ran for president in 2005, garnering about 8 percent of the popular vote, a distant second to President Mubarak’s 88 percent. Immediately after the election, Nour was convicted of charges he had forged signatures on the petition that the Shura Council’s Political Parties Affairs Committee requires to certify a group as an official political party. Nour was sentenced to five years in prison and was released in February 2009 on medical grounds. Many lawyers and political analysts have claimed the charges against Nour were trumped up. During Nour’s three-year absence from the political scene, Al-Ghad was split by a bitter leadership dispute between Nour’s backers and a rival faction that culminated in the 2008 firebombing of the party headquarters in Midan Talaat Harb. A week before Nour’s release, the Administrative Court of the State Council (Maglis Al-Dawla) named El-Khouly — a member of Nour’s faction — Al-Ghad’s officially recognized leader. Nour has stayed in the headlines since his release, but not in the way Al-Ghad supporters had hoped. After a spate of bad press, including messy coverage of his divorce from former journalist Gamila Ismail after 20 years of marriage, Nour has been campaigning around the country to rebuild his reputation as a presidential contender. “My policy is to go to people, not wait for them to come to me,” he says. Is Nour tempting fate by being the only man openly campaigning? The politician says he’s willing to take the risk again. “Egypt is a great country, we’re among the first countries to have a constitution, parliament and democracy []. Today the Egyptian system is suffering from atherosclerosis; it has become very old, rigid and infertile and this needs to change.” To bring about that change, Nour says he is offering to “come to power as a temporary president, work for 24 months only to reform the Constitution, establish [a better, feasible] set of rules and policies, then call for new free, democratic elections that all people participate in to choose their leader.” In terms of political competition, Nour doesn’t think that there is any, claiming that El Ghad is “the strongest of all the weak political parties that Egypt has.” The only real threat to his political aspirations, in his opinion, is the Muslim Brotherhood, which he says is not as powerful as people think. “There is a common belief that says that there is no real alternative for the current regime except [the Brotherhood]. This view [] is a stereotype instilled in the public mind by the government to show that the current regime is safer than the Islamist groups that could follow,” he claims. “I ask, why do we have to limit ourselves only between the bad and the worse? “What I present is the liberal, rational alternative that is capable of running the country toward the development it deserves. I spent 10 years in the Parliament and I know exactly what the problems of the average Egyptian, and the Egyptian society as a whole, are.” But don’t expect a clear policy agenda from Nour, who steers clear of laying out an economic, social or political policy platform. Instead, he frequently talks about tawreeth: “It is a disaster, a step backward, as if we throw away all what we’ve accomplished over the years to become a republic, only to get another Mubarak.” Beyond his personal ambitions, Nour is working with Al-Ghad members to help them win seats in the 2010 parliamentary elections. Al-Tagammu’ (The Progressive National Unionist Party) Established in 1976 when Sadat first introduced political pluralism, Al-Tagammu’ has four members in Parliament and claims a following of about 22,000 people. On his office wall across from his desk, party president and Shura Council member Refaat El-Said has a small black-and-white photo of a young man with wide-open eyes, standing against a wall and looking quite uncomfortable. The young man is El-Said; the photo was taken in prison. “A political leader can never give up or lose patience,” El-Said says, looking at his photo. “If an idea [a cause] dominates his mind, there is no way out.” Since the 1940s, the 77-year-old political leader has spent in total more than 14 years in prison. He joined the nascent Communist movement when he was a teenager, leading to his first arrest at the age of 14. El-Said recalls he was “the youngest detainee in Egypt.” El-Said received his PhD in the history of the communist movement in Germany and has authored several books including Hassan Al-Banna: When, How, Why? and Living on the High Floors and Spitting. He believes that none of today’s political leaders have great public appeal. “Anyone who can lead a group of 10 people calls himself a leader [nowadays], but in the history of Egypt, we have only had six charismatic leaders [] Ahmed Orabi, Mustafa Kamel, Mohammed Farid, Saad Zaghloul, Mustafa Al-Nahaas and Gamal Abdel Nasser.” El-Said believes a political leader is one who has charisma and a national cause with a social dimension. “If you looked at all the examples I mentioned, you will find that they all have the national cause in common,” he notes. “The political leader has to get into political fights that express the country and the people.” Al-Tagammu’’s national cause, El-Said says, is to free Egypt from the chains that hinder it from making decisions benefitting its citizens. The biggest obstacle, he claims, “is that businessmen control the decision-making process in Egypt.” Business leaders, he says, “can recommend or suggest [the appointment] of certain ministers, but they shouldn’t become ministers. Look at Egypt: the trade minister is a [big trader], the health minister owns a hospital, the transportation minister owns a transportation company, and the tourism minister has a tourism company. This is madness. It leads the public to believe that any decision [the ministers] take are in favor of their private businesses. Even if [the ministers] are the most dignified and honest persons in the world, they’ll still arouse suspicion.” (When appointed minister of trade and industry, Rashid Mohamed Rashid stepped down as chairman of Unilever Mashreq and essentially placed all of his corporate ownerships in trust. Minister of Health Hatem El Gabali owns Dar El-Fouad Hospital, but stepped down as chairman upon his appointment. Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah owns Garranah Tours, but stepped down as chairman and sold his shares in the company before accepting his cabinet post. Minister of Transport Mohamed Mansour still owns shares in the Mansour Group, whose holdings include an automotive division that assembles and distributes General Motors vehicles.) Al-Tagammu’ also calls for social justice, claiming resources are distributed in favor of urban centers such as Cairo at the expense of rural governorates. Education is another pet issue: “I have seen [students] sitting on the floor in a [public] school in Al-Moqattam. The class is overcrowded, students don’t have desks or even the basic elements of education in their classrooms, and you can rest assured that they’re not learning anything,” El-Said says. “At the same time, governmental officials come on TV and say that we are achieving the highest quality of education in average schools and we are going to match the global standard. Then, they show two kids in a school sitting in front of a computer and moving their fingers as if they’re working — you don’t know if the computer is on or off or whether they just brought it into the school an hour before the TV crew showed up.” Because the media does not give opposition parties the chance to present their views, says El-Said, the public lacks awareness of opposition party platforms and candidates. El-Said last appeared on national TV in November 2008, when he and Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin debated the government’s privatization program on El-Beit Beitak. El-Said pulled no punches, criticizing the minister and insisting that the privatization plan is nothing but a scam to rob the poor Egyptians of what little money they have. After the show, commentators lauded El-Said as a champion of the people, but faulted his aggressive debating tactics after he practically shouted down the more diplomatic minister. “After [El-Bait Baitak], I think those who work on national TV said to themselves, ‘aaleel el’adab (this ill-behaved person) will never appear on TV again’,” he asserts. El-Said says. “There should be equality in using the media; there is no democracy without equality. Look at how many times I [or any opposition leader] appear on TV against how many times [NDP or government leaders] are on?” El-Said also claims that the Emergency Law’s restrictions on public gatherings make it hard to get the party message out. “Someone needs to tell the public that there have been many disadvantages happening in the country as a result of NDP [policies],” he says, “but how can people support me or my party when they don’t see me [on TV] and never attended a conference [or any gathering the party organizes] due to the security restrictions?” While he’s determined to press on, El-Said doesn’t believe that the status quo will change any time soon. Social change, he says, comes when society as a whole becomes aware of a threat that demands urgent change —and that change may take time. “The leader who gets into politics and believes that he can cause change the following day is wrong and should leave politics.” El-Said was circumspect about Al-Tagammu’s plans for the coming elections. Party vice president Amina El-Naqash — who is the nation’s first female vice president of a political party — says that the party is currently vetting members for nomination in the parliamentary elections. While El-Naqash thinks El-Said is the most qualified, well-established leader to run for presidency, she says that she might consider running herself if she earned the party’s support. The New Wafd Party Established in 1978 as a resurrection of Zaghloul’s nationalist party, which was founded in the early 1900s, the New Wafd Party has eight members in Parliament and claims a following of about 60,000 people. Its president, 61-year-old Mahmoud Abaza, has been part of the nation’s political scene for 40 years. Abaza doesn’t expect much of the coming elections, saying, “As long as the results of the elections in Egypt still represent the desire of the government that organizes these elections and not the desire of the public that votes, then it’s natural that people don’t have much trust in political parties or their power.” The lack of trust in political parties often has as much to do with the antics of the parties themselves. In 2006, the New Wafd was embroiled in a very public dispute between Abaza and former party president Noaman Gomaa, who placed third in the 2005 presidential elections with 3 percent of the vote. The party’s supreme committee, headed by Abaza, ousted Gomaa, claiming his campaign tactics and decisions had deviated from what the party expected. The war of words escalated to physical violence when Gomaa and a group of his followers were allegedly denied access to party headquarters and tried to force their way. In the melee that ensued, the office was set on fire and at least 20 people were injured. Abaza secured his party’s presidency shortly afterward by winning an internal election in which he was the only candidate. He says that his role now is to try to restore people’s trust in leaders. “[People] are passing through a severe crisis. They feel they are caught in the middle of a triangle: The first angle represents their longing for the past’s achievements; the second is their refusal of the ugly status quo and the third is their fear of a mysterious future.” This tension has manifested, he claims, as a political awakening evidenced by public strikes. “The government is supposed to be a means to an end, and the end is the good and welfare of the citizens,” Abaza says. “Unfortunately, the government now has become an end in itself. The citizen doesn’t feel that he owns the country, he feels like he’s just a resident.” On Abaza’s list of national problems are the deteriorating quality of education and health facilities, public services that do not contribute to the citizen’s welfare, and corruption. No single party can solve these problems, Abaza says. “We’re trying to create a coalition with some [strong and active] political parties to unite our goals and work on offering alternatives to all the problems we’re seeing in the society.” It’s a long-term project, he adds. “Political work, like in any other aspect, needs time to grow and become mature.” And the state, he claims, is not making it easy for the would-be coalition to get on with its business. In terms of the current political climate, the New Wafd president says the NDP has no clear agenda, noting that the governing party is led by ministers who cannot and do not disagree with the country’s president, who is also the head of the NDP. “If you removed the president of the state from the party, what will be left? Nothing.” Like Al-Tagammu’’s El-Said, Abaza asserts that the NDP always wins a majority in the elections because “all the services and resources of the state are facilitated for its candidates, including easy public and media appearances.” He may sound defeatist, but Abaza says his party will never give up. “Giving up means that we close our [party’s] doors and stop working, but we will never do that. What we do is have a realistic vision of what’s going on and work accordingly. We participate in every election and we got ‘slaughtered’ [in the last election], but we’re still here.” Voters should not be looking for a savior with a magic pill for solving all the country’s problems, he thinks, but rather for a leader of a strong political party who has a clear agenda that can be feasibly implemented. “[The New Wafd Party] developed amendments to the Egyptian Constitution that could be considered as a comprehensive and complete alternative for any political reform that will happen in our future.” Among the amendments the party suggests is a two-term limit on the presidency. The party’s platform also calls for a continued public-sector presence in the economy. The privatization effort, the party claims, has created an “inequality between the public and private sectors which made national unity impossible.” To keep the public abreast of its thoughts, the party has published versions of its reform plans on its website and in the opposition daily it owns, Al-Wafd. Reform is more possible than some might believe, Abaza says, noting that at tipping points such as the one he says Egypt is at, what might normally take five years can be done in five days. “This nation that we call ignorant and that the [current] prime minister called ‘democratically immature’ knew what they needed and who to choose during the 1919 [Revolution] and set in motion the overthrow of British colonialism.” Right now, Al-Wafd is focused on the upcoming parliamentary elections. Pressed about plans for presidential candidates, Abaza declined to comment, claiming it would be counterproductive to announce candidates more than 90 days before the elections. What he can say is that “[We] have a good program and we’ll try to gain the majority of votes to earn the right to turn our program into reality. But at the end of the day, [the winners will be] whomever the government allows to succeed.” The Arab Democratic Nasserist Party In July 2006, as Egyptians took to the street to protest Israeli attacks in Lebanon, many protestors carried small signs with the picture of former President Gamal Abdel Nasser with zaeemona (our leader) written at the bottom. Those same signs reappeared in January 2008 during demonstrations against the Israeli attack on Gaza. It is a reflection of the lasting charisma of the late president and his goals of Pan-Arab unity. The Nasserist Party was founded in 1992 by Diaa El-Din Dawood, a lawyer and the minister of social affairs under Nasser, as a call to revive the late president’s national and regional vision. Current party leaders have not, however, managed to revive the charisma or public appeal of the former zaeem. The party claims a following of about 50,000 people, but has no representation in Parliament. Its public role is currently limited to producing the weekly opposition paper Al-Araby, arranging events commemorating the 1952 Revolution, and commenting on current affairs (the latter largely through written statements dispatched to the media). Dawood remains party president, but his advanced age and failing health keep him at home in Damietta. Day-to-day affairs are overseen by one of the party’s other founders and current secretary general, Ahmed Hassan, who says the Nasserists are gearing up to be a strong presence in the next presidential elections. “The Nasserist Party’s biggest goal today is the implementation of [Nasser’s agenda],”Hassan says. “I don’t care about the name [of the leader who emerges]. If he is capable of bringing back social justice and the equal opportunities that have disappeared from Egypt and put us back on the real development wheel, hadrablo ta’zeem salam, (I’ll salute him).” People should be evaluated based on their qualifications and hard work, not their social class — a virtually non-existent practice here, Hassan says. “We want to reach a state where a person does not feel ashamed or looked down upon because he’s coming from a poor family,” Hassan says. “The equal opportunity for which we call means that if you’re a person who worked hard enough, cultured and educated yourself and earned the necessary degrees, you can be a university professor or a minister or reach the position your qualifications permit. All good opportunities should not be limited to one segment of Egyptian society. “Corrupt political, social and economic systems in Egypt have resulted in the emergence of a group of awfully rich businessmen making maximum profits at the expense of having an awfully large percentage of marginalized, miserably poor people,” he adds. Hassan says that if his party gains influence —whether through holding seats in Parliament or finding a Nasser-influenced leader in the presidency —the most important issue on the agenda would be industrial reform. He claims that the statements of today’s Ministry of Trade and Industry about industrial reform are worthless, given that 9.3 percent of what he says is a 25-million strong workforce is currently unemployed. “Those who cannot find jobs have many social, health and moral problems. Imagine a person who is over 30 years old, still cannot find a job and cannot afford to have his own apartment or get married,” Hassan says. Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is another top priority on the party’s agenda. “We see Palestine as a fully Arab country,” he says. “Arabs have responsibility to not rest until the Palestinian issue is resolved. The Zionist entity hates and works against the development and the progress of the Arab world.” The secretary general says that Egypt’s role in mediating the Palestinian-Israeli issue has actually declined compared to the Nasser years. “Smaller Arab countries that didn’t even have a role before now challenge Egypt and think that they lead the Arab world. These countries are empowered now because they have money and resources while we are suffering economically.” Like other opposition leaders, Hassan also blames security restrictions for his party’s lack of influence, claiming that any gathering of 10 or more leaders draws the attention of the police. “Right now, we cannot afford to clash with the authorities,” he says. The party is focusing on the 2010 parliamentary elections, but has not finished vetting its candidates. “At the right time, we will present our candidates to the public. I would say it will be around four months before the elections,” he says. “In the coming period, we want to directly influence the life of the Egyptian citizen in all fields such as health, education, work and marriage. [When we reached power in 1952,] the condition of the Egyptian society was even worse. Now if we reach power we’ll definitely know what we need to do.” The National Democratic Party The governing NDP was formed in 1978 as the party of Sadat after he allowed political parties to form. It has held a majority in Parliament since its inception, and the party claims some 2 million members. A frequent criticism of the governing party is that it is removed from the lives of citizens. While opposition leaders hold relatively modest jobs and make a point of getting out to meet people, members of the NDP’s senior leadership have been appointed to top posts in government and business. While critics argue that the distance this puts between NDP chiefs and the nation is detrimental, voters seem to take a more pragmatic view. “Logically, NDP candidates are the people working with the government and our government doesn’t change,” says 55-year-old Hassan Shennawy, explaining why he voted for the NDP. “[Opposition or independent candidates] don’t come to power so they won’t do me any good.” Another oft-leveled criticism is that the NDP would not be the party it is today were the president not its leader. “Yes, the NDP is significant because its president is the president of the country,” says Mufid Shehab, the minister of state for legal and parliamentary affairs as well as the NDP’s assistant secretary general and secretary of parliamentary affairs. “Would the NDP be less powerful or have fewer members if Mubarak were not the president? Yes. But, this is not a shame.” Shehab credits the party’s appeal to Mubarak’s influence and charisma as a political leader — and to the fact that he is a father figure to the nation. “[Mubarak] gives power to the party because he is a national leader [] the party will be weaker without [him], but it will not vanish.” The minister, who holds a PhD in international law and served as president of Cairo University from 1993–97, says a political leader is a person who is well-educated and has a strong sense of patriotism. A good leader, he says, has a clear policy agenda that he can communicate to the public. People should trust, listen to and be comfortable around this leader. Asked if the current crop of leaders in the nation’s political parties measure up to his definition, however, Shehab says, “This is a question to which I cannot respond. My responsibility [as a scholar and a man of law] is to give you the theory and you have to apply this theory to your reality. I shouldn’t be mentioning a few specific leaders because I would be directing the public mind to consider only these people I named, while there are others who might be more worthy of recognition.” Opposition party officials have criticized the minister for saying that political life in Egypt is anemic. “We have 24 parties in Egypt, very few of which are active in reality. Even those who are active — including the NDP, Al-Wafd, Al-Tagammu’ or Al-Ghad — their visions are not clear to the people or even to the members of their parties. People do not feel the presence of these parties and their real participation in life,” Shehab says. “I’m not even satisfied with the NDP’s role in Egypt — it is way beneath our aspirations.” The NDP has been changing over the past six years, Shehab notes, reaching out to a wider constituency and reactivating the work of its governorates’ headquarters. Critics contend that NDP success stories are being used to bolster Gamal Mubarak and pave the way for tawreeth. “Gamal Mubarak’s joining the party led to the restructuring of the party. It brought fresh blood to new committees and made better arrangements overall,” Shehab says. “Is this one of the reasons why the party became more vital recently? Yes. But is Gamal Mubarak alone the person who made the party more active? No. Would the party be less vital without him? No.” The younger Mubarak’s significant role, explains Shehab, is changing public perceptions of the NDP from being the party of old people to a party with the activism and enthusiasm of youth. “But the young group on their own cannot run this party. They still need the wisdom and expertise of the old [members] to be able to accomplish their plans.” Shehab in turn criticizes opposition parties for constantly blaming security restrictions for the lack of significant accomplishments. “This is an unacceptable excuse. [Security restrictions] might have happened once or twice for some reason — and I’m not defending a wrong deed here, I’m just assuming what could have happened. We cannot, however, say that security systematically oppress the political parties’ work or ruins their plans every time they want to gather.” The minister thinks that the opposition parties should stop their infighting and focus on achieving goals and plans for the national good. “I think that it’s our responsibility primarily as the NDP to help boost the parties’ activities by collaborating on national causes such the global financial crisis’ effect on Egypt or raising awareness among the public about threat posted by swine flu.” An optimistic thought, but the NDP has not made any official overtures to its opposition colleagues. What Shehab would propose to his party, though, is to leave more room for others in parliamentary elections. “We don’t have to get 80 percent of the total number of seats every time. We can get 70 percent and leave room for others to nominate good candidates in different areas. We [the NDP] need to believe in this, because our success is not to have more votes, but to have real, successful multi-party representation in the parliament.” Shehab, who was on the committee that amended the Constitution in 2007, denies accusations that the amendments were drafted to favor NDP members in presidential elections. He points to article 76, which established multi-candidate elections. “Since the time of Pharaohs we had never had presidential elections. We either had someone coming after a revolution, or the PA nominated a person or we had a referendum on the [incumbent],” he notes. “If we wanted only one specific candidate to win, we would have left [Article 76] as it was. “There will be at least five or six candidates running now and this is great, we don’t need more than that,” Shehab continues. “In any country in the world there are only two or three people running for presidency. If you have 24 people running, it will get very confusing for the public.” Preparing the Public Said Sadek, professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo, has a straightforward answer for those who call for revolutionary change: “Spread enlightenment first, change culture second and then search for a leader.” The sociologist notes that Egypt has the oldest bureaucracy and most-established central government in the world. Ancient Egypt was ruled by a god/king, casting a sacred aura around the ruler; would-be rebels were considered traitors. The tradition of branding potentially popular opposition leaders as traitors has continued, Sadek asserts. “Look at the [smear] campaigns against neo-Arab liberals in the official Arab media, which assassinate the character, identity and reputation of challengers and describe them as agents to America and Israel,” he says. As an example, he points to Nour, who during and after the 2005 elections, was labeled an agent for the United States by a number of national TV stations. Based on his research, Sadek says that most Egyptians favor the status quo, with gradual, calculated change, not radical transformation. “Don’t search for a hero or leader to save you from yourself. Search for ways to change culture and create viable institutions to save the entire society. The age of the charismatic all-powerful leader who can fix everything in the society is dead and buried. Arab tombs are full of would-be heroes or leaders who got it all wrong — that’s why they ended up there.”

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