Government offers concessions to groups including Muslim Brotherhood – but critics say proposals do not go far enough
Chris McGreal in Cairo and Julian Borger in Munich
The Guardian
Monday 7 February 2011
The Egyptian government has offered a series of concessions at the first talks with opposition groups, including the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, in an attempt to end the mass pro-democracy protests across the country.
But opposition leaders said that Egypt’s vice-president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, did not go far enough in his proposals for greater political freedom and pledge of free elections.
In Cairo, demonstrators again packed Tahrir Square to demand President Hosni Mubarak’s immediate removal from office as a prerequisite for any deal, undermining the government’s attempts to get people back to work because of the huge economic losses caused by the crisis.
While the mood was relaxed in the square for much of the day on Sunday, with even a wedding taking place, the army fired warning shots after dark in an apparent confrontation with some protesters. There are concerns that demands by the military to remove barricades blocking roads are a move towards breaking up the demonstration.
A government statement said that Suleiman, who is apparently playing an increasingly powerful role, agreed to a number of measures including the formation of a committee of political and judicial figures to oversee changes to the constitution which would scrap provisions that limit the ability of the opposition to run for the presidency.
The government said it will also immediately release “prisoners of conscience of all persuasions” and end legal restrictions on the press. However, it gave only a partial commitment to lift the state of emergency, which gives the president considerable powers and has been used to jail opponents, saying that it will be rescinded “based on the security situation and an end to the threats to the security of society”.
The meeting was greeted with scepticism by Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, who is now a prominent opposition voice.
“The process is opaque. Nobody knows who is talking to whom at this stage. It’s managed by Vice-President Suleiman. It is all managed by the military and that is part of the problem,” he said on NBC.
Another member of ElBaradei’s group, the National Association for Change, who attended the talks with Suleiman, said they had been “positive” but did not go far enough.
“We demanded a full democratic transformation and not partial reforms,” said Mustafa Naggar. “But Suleiman responded: ‘Democracy comes in stages and I am keen that there is a peaceful transitional period and civilian rule.'”
Suleiman held separate talks with Muslim Brotherhood, currently banned by the government. The Islamist organisation said it did not regard the meeting as negotiations but as an opportunity to hear the government’s position. A Muslim Brotherhood leader, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, said it was not pleased with the results because Suleiman had failed to respond to the central demand that Mubarak resign. He also said that if the government was serious about political reform it should immediately dissolve parliament, which was elected in a tainted ballot from which the Muslim Brotherhood was banned. The group said it would meet on Monday to decide whether to continue the talks.
The Egyptian prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, has said that Mubarak would not resign before elections in September.
Washington has backed the talks, with the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, “cautiously welcoming” the meeting between Suleiman and the Muslim Brotherhood. But many pro-democracy activists are suspicious of US involvement, fearing that Washington, which backed Mubarak for 30 years as a force for stability in the Middle East, is seeking to perpetuate that policy with its support for Suleiman’s oversight of the political transition.
That view was reinforced by remarks over the weekend by the US special envoy, Frank Wisner, who argued that Mubarak should stay in power through the transition to democracy. The fond tone of his comments, claiming that Mubarak “has given 60 years of his life to the service of his country” and therefore deserved a chance to shape its future, was seen as particularly damaging.
The US state department insisted the remarks, made to an international security conference in Munich, represented the personal opinion of the 72-year-old retired diplomat. But European officials said they seemed to reflect a real shift in Washington’s policy towards acceptance that the transition would be managed by the Egyptian government according to a timetable followed by Suleiman.
Egyptian banks opened for the first time in a week on Sunday, drawing long lines of people desperately short of cash for food and other essentials. But despite the government’s appeal for a return to normality, many shops and factories remained closed, and a plan to open the stock exchange on Monday was called off.
The government estimates that the crisis has cost the country more than $3bn, a large part of it because more than 1m tourists have left.
It is contest between Egyptian government and protestors. It is a question of who run of steam faster and the question of whether violence will be resorted by the desperate side that runs out of steam!
Whilst there is no question that Mubarak led government has lost legitimacy and should not be allowed to have its way, the fact is there are some truths in the government’s contention that a hasty resignation of the entire government without proper handling of the transition may be a flashpoint for anarchy as there necessarily exist forces at work that will try to derail highjack or overtake the process to pursue their own specific agenda inimical to the longer term interest of Egyptian rakyat.
September (as sugested by Mubarak) may be perceived by detractors as too long for election to be held. It is putting the cart before the horse!
To break the impasse, they should have an immediate interim stakeholder government now comprising representatives of both Egyptian government led by Mubarak’s handpicked vice president, Omar Suleiman as well as those opposing it led by Mohamed El Baradei, with the majority 51% say vested in the latter group.
Such an interim government – supported by rest of the world including US government- will then prepare the nation for election and polls asap, giving the time line of when (whether before or after September) fair and free nation wide elections are to be held.
The interim government’s primary duty is to ensure a fair and free election based on following standard features: freedom to register as voter ie universal suffrage for all eligible Egyptian men and women to vote and to run for office; freedom of speech for candidates and political parties and to assemble for political rallies and campaigns (without violence); freedom of Press to disseminate objective information on election campaign running to the polls; an impartial or balanced system of conducting elections and verifying election results – trained election officials must either be politically independent or those overseeing elections should be representative of the parties in the election; accessible polling places, private voting space, secure ballot boxes, and transparent ballot counting; secret ballots – voting by secret ballot ensures that an individual’s choice of party or candidate cannot be used against him or her; legal prohibitions against election fraud – enforceable laws must exist to prevent vote tampering (e.g. double counting, ghost voting); foreign independent observers of the election, and more important the political neutrality of the Army and the pledge of security forces to support the government elected through such a free and fair election.
PR’s effort to use Egypt political crisis failed. Malaysian nowadays are smart enough to judge what happened in Egypt is poles apart from Malaysia’s political landscape.
Anwar Ibrahim in particular wanted to take advantage of what’s happening in Egypt. It’s Anwar’s leadership style to take on his fight to the street. Anwar is far off from upholding democracy in Malaysia.
Anwar wants to create anarchy and chaos giving him the perfect chance to rise as a hero. So childish of him.
What we are witnessing in Egypt was the result of an over-stayed dictator doing the work of the West, particularly, Uncle Sam! To dislodge this expired leader
will be painfully slow…
Malaysia is in no better position after 53 years abuse of
power from this corrupted mob. If you think Egypt is
undergoing a difficult period, Malaysia will be ten times worst! These deranged low beings from the present administration will behave like ruthless thugs with no respect to the rule of law.
We have to go through even more pain before our rakyat will wake up and start taking to the streets like the Tunisians and the Egyptians. UMNO will continue to steal until there is nothing left to steal, then the UMNOputras will all migrate to places like the UK, Australia and Switzerland to live off their ill-gotten gains. UMNO will abandon the country once they realise that the rakyat is going to throw them out, by hook or by crook.
The abuse of power will ultimately catch up with the abusers.
Just bumped into a brit at the car workshop this morning. Boy. He has nothing good to say about the gobermen at all. But like the rest of us, he has no problems with the country. Its just the umno gobermen.
Somehow I cant see malaysians taking to the streets with such anger like the egyptians. Frankly, we are not even comparable to the indons and the filipinos. A lot of chinese in the country already have their respective plan Bs ready. So basically they are not terribly concerned. They just rely on the ballot box to show their disapproval. And the malays in this country are peaceful people. They are too complacent (or ignorant? esp the kampung folks) to be bothered by umno’s abuses. Indians of course are capable of throwing up some serious fuss to trouble the umno gobermen. Sadly, they lack the critical mass in terms of numbers.
Nevertheless, the voice of dissent – it seems to me, is enough – to unsettle umno in putrajaya. However, in any event problems will finally surface when umno’s immigration policy backfire. Notably the policy of welcoming indons, filipinos, thais and generally muslims from other parts of the world; and turning them into citizens of this country. They are demanding and aggresive in personality, unlike the kampung malay folks we now have.
Good luck cintanegara. Hold on to your rambutan trees.
21st December 2012 is not the end of the world yet as many speculated.
It’s just a major shift and changes around the world as what is happening now and then.
More uprising here and there and more disaster and catastrophes everywhere, just to punish mankind of their evil doings.
Man are not only polluting mother earth but are commiting evil deed as well, just to satisfy their needs as most of them thought that they’re gonna get away scot-free.
With all the money and armies or even millionaires bomoh that you have, you’ll shit thru your pants before you or your love ones will perish.
Just count on how many sinful acts you did and pray that it’s not up to your turn to be “terminate” yet.
To the mamak fella who really think that he can live long to create more troubles ahead, just set your clock ticking and laugh your way against the warning.
I used to believe that it’ll be truly difficult or impossible for the opposition to win in the next GE but after going thru the “prediction”, I was truly wrong!
Truth is that, it’s not what we wanna things to be but it’s just the happenings that are going to be.
Some says it’s karma and some says it’s god’s wrath for it just could be any but to me I do only believed in dimensions.
World will shift thru the time after the “major screening and cleansing” as a new world will start after the date.
You may say that I’m bullshitting or it’s my wild imaginations but it’s up to you to decide.
What inspired me to write these are the dreams which I’ve been having thru continuously for the past three nights.
Call it a hoax if you want ‘cos it won’t takes long to prove my words.
Be forewarned, especially to UmnoBN fellas, for the sinful acts that you’ve done and are far more greater than any ordinary criminals around.
///The fond tone of his comments, claiming that Mubarak “has given 60 years of his life to the service of his country” and therefore deserved a chance to shape its future, was seen as particularly damaging.///
No country/outsider should dictate the destiny of Egypt. Let the Egyptians decide their own future and the kind of leader they want.
///The ABC television network in the United States ran a report suggesting the Mubarak family fortune is as high as $70bn (£43bn).
The figure would make them as rich as Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim and Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates put together.
The family is believed to own properties in Manhattan, Beverley Hills, California and London’s upmarket Belgravia area.
The Mubaraks are also reported to have large cash deposits in banks in Britain and Switzerland, and to have invested heavily in hotels and tourist businesses on the Red Sea.///
Some of our ministers are no different from Mubarak! One of them from East Malaysia owns many pieces of land and properties in Canada and London.