ICDS News

CDS Weekly Forums for July 2005

The Ibn Khaldun Center's weekly forums during July featured two sessions: one to discuss political reform in Egypt and the other to discuss the prospects for a free media in Egypt.

The consensus was that although the present political climate is marked by a conspicuous lack of freedom that has had a severely detrimental effect on both the economy and the educational system, still the domestic and external pressures for change have already gained a strong momentum making political reform in Egypt inevitable. The only question is the pace at which the reforms ought to take place. Most participants advocated a rapid one. Recent U.S support and pressure for democratic reform in the region was welcomed as indispensable, noting that, so far, it has played a crucial role in supporting the Egyptian opposition and contributing to its recent more aggressive stance in its demand for liberal reforms. To render this external support more potent it was suggested by numerous participants that foreign donors should tie aid to the Egyptian government to significant reform measures taken by the regime. Such a condition, many believed, would be the surest and fastest means to force the Egyptian regime to democratize.

Participants noted the remarkable shift of people's interests to include the issue of domestic reform alongside regional causes. This was mainly attributed to increasing popular political awareness and to the discontent caused by declining economic conditions over the last decade that significantly lowered people's standard of living.

Without a dissenting note all participants were agreed that there could be no real democratic freedoms in the absence of free speech and a free press. Thus the call was for lifting the present restrictive laws and bylaws the govern the press in Egypt, including most notably the statute that enables the regime to imprison journalists for allegedly offensive publications

Panelists stressed the need for co-ordination among Egyptian opposition political movements calling for reform in order to achieve greater effectiveness and ensure the attainment of specific goals. The oppressive authoritarian regime's practices have provided a fertile soil for the creation and spreading of corruption and the breeding of terrorists. It is only through the implementation of true freedoms that such terrible phenomena can be combated effectively and overcome. Only then would the Egyptian people shed their widespread cynical political apathy and regain their long lost hope for real economic progress and a decent life.