JUNE 06 Newsletter

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Ibn Khaldun’s Annual Conference a Success al-Bastawisy and al-Ghazaly Harb Dazzle

Mohamed Abdel Aziz and Ahmed Shaaban

Leading reformist Judge Hisham al-Bastawisy, deputy head of the Cassation Court, and Dr. Osama al-Ghazaly Harb, a former member of the powerful Policies Sectretariat and the driving force between a proposed new party that aims to fill the shoes left by Ayman Nour’s imprisonment, headlined the Ibn Khaldun Center’s Fourth Annual Conference on Political Reform and Minorities that was held at the Center’s facilities in Moqattam on June 29th and 29th and chaired by Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

The articulate Dr. Osama al-Ghazaly Harb, who is in the intial stages of putting together a new, liberal political party called the Democratic Front, spke about the role of civil soceity in political reform within the context of the past 80 years of Egyptian history, beginning from Saad Zaghoul’s colonial revolt, into to the Nasser era, through the Open Door period under Anwar Sadat and into the present day, with Mubarak’s rule being largely a cautious continuation of Sadat’s policies.

He emphasized that under the liberal constitutional monarchy of 1923-1952, there was civil society and a free press despite the British occupation and the “misbehavior” of the monarchy. “Despite all of its disadvantages,” he said, it afforded citizens a certain degree of political freedom, which allowed the natural “creativity of the Egyptian people”. But the ruling class was unable to “cope with changes in society, and we had a shift into an autocratic republic … from relative openness and freedom to no freedom … from a relatively free media to a controlled or directed media.”

After setting this historical context, Dr. Harb, who is a political scientist, said that thirty years after 1976 and the original launch of the multiparty system, Egypt still does not have a democratic system: “Without democracy, the political party system cannot work, as it is no coincidence that parties like the Togammu, the Wafd, and the Nasserists cannot succeed in this environment. They have been killed by the current system.”

Harb blamed the “decline in the general and public performance” that had been exposed by the Gulf satellite channels on the “lack of democracy in the Egyptian society in general and the lack of progressive change,” pointing out that “education and health and housing policies are at their lowest levels … citizens are living in slums and even cemeteries, suffering from illiteracy.” He called for a discussion of policy issues “without any slogans, based on statistics and international reports.” Rejecting charges in the state-run media that his calls for political reform made him an “agent of the West,” Harb noted that even Saad Zaghoul, the ne plus ultra of Egyptian patriotism, was inspired by foreign ideas.

Dr. Harb made waves in Egyptian politics earlier this year when he resigned dramatically from Gamal Mubarak’s Policies Secratariat, which is playing an increasingly central role in setting policy. The former NDP thinker had previously attracted attention as a maverick when he was the only government deputy to vote against Mubarak’s amendment to Article 76 allowing multicandidate presidential elections.

Judge al-Bastawisy, stressing his lack of ties to any political parties or movements, spoke in general terms about the current situation and the demands put forward by the General Assembly of the Judges’ Club for complete independence from the domineering exective branch. His presentation happen to take place not long after the Parliament voted, over the strenuous objections of the representatives of the Judges Club and their backers in civil society, to pass a new judicial reform law that falls far short of what is needed (for an analysis of the law’s shortcomings, see page 16).

Ambassador Mahmoud Qassem, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee for the Wafd Party, stressed that an independent judiciary is the cornerstone of a democratic system; however, the current Constitution is grossly inadequate and needs to be replaced entirely to reflect the needs of the 21st century.

Mohamed Shalabi, Chairman of the Center for Legal Assistance, agreed that the current Constitution is undemocratic, but suggested that “a lot of amendments” to assure accountability and judicial independence could solve the problem.

Mr. Morsy El Sheikh, a lawyer formerly the Vice President of the Ghad (Tomorrow) Party, spoke about the origins of the current judicial independence movement that began in 1986. Dr. Ayman Yehia El Rifai, the son of Yehia El Refai, who led the initial movement, was also in attendance at the conference. El Sheikh implored the reformist judges to continue their activism and to remain optimistic in the face of setbacks.

Bakhtiar Amin, the Kurdish former Human Rights Minister of Iraq and the new chairman of the G-8’s Foundation for the Future, spoke passionately about his experiences in setting up a longterm framework to protect Iraqi citizens from violations and in investigating Saddam Hussein’s legacy of violence against Iraqis, especially against the Kurdish minority. Despite the current difficulties, Amin was confident that the new Iraqi government was taking positive steps to address the crisis, and was cautiously optimistic about the future.

Also on the topic of minority communities in the Middle East, Dr. Adly Abadir of Copts United spoke via video conference from Geneva on the plight of the Copts. Dr. Al Adek Al Mahdi of the Sudanese Party discussed the future of liberalism in Egypt.