Ordinary Egyptians say reform debate between political parties ignores their concerns

By Muhammad Mahmoud in Cairo
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-04-09

[-/AFP/Getty Images] Ordinary Egyptians say politicians, like Mohamed ElBaradei, focus too much on political reform and not enough on important day-to-day issues.

Mohammed Abdul Tawab sat with his co-workers on the pavement in front of the Egyptian parliament during their sit-in to demand a pay raise from the ministry of agriculture.

At the same time, they were watching another demonstration that called for the amendment of the constitution, just on the opposite sidewalk. They did not move or show any sign of solidarity.

"Our demands are not political. They are social," the workers told Al-Shorfa.

The recent April 6 movement protests in Cairo called for constitutional amendments and an end to the emergency laws that have been in force in Egypt since 1981. The protests received considerable media attention even though there were no more than 600 demonstrators, most of them political activists.

This raises questions about whether the demands of the opposition represented the demands of ordinary Egyptians.

"What do constitutional amendments, which they talk about all the time, mean? Let them see the suffering and distress we are living in because of low pay," Rida Mustafa told Al-Shorfa.

"My salary is 650 Egyptian pounds [$120] per month, and I have two children in primary school. All I care about now is how to sort out the home's daily spending," he added.

April 6 is a youth protest group that was launched in April 2008 by young and new political activists. They demand social justice and an open political system that is based on plurality and the peaceful rotation of power through fair and free elections.

Egyptian opposition groups, led by the National Association for Change, call for lifting the emergency status and guaranteeing the right for independent candidates to run in presidential elections without any conditions. They also demand judicial supervision of the October parliamentary elections and the September 2011 presidential race.

For the demands of the Egyptian opposition to be met, several constitutional articles have to be amended. These include article 76 on the nomination in the presidential race and article 88 on the judiciary supervision of the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) refuses to carry out any constitutional amendments at the moment. NDP leaders believe that the 2007 amendments of more than 35 articles in the constitution guarantee a peaceful rotation of power between the legal parties and prevent movements banned by law, notably the Muslim Brotherhood, from having access to power.

While the debate between the opposition movements and the ruling party revolve around political issues, reports by civil society organisations indicate a steady rise in sit-in protests and demonstrations for economic and social demands, rather than political issues, with most of them focusing on salary.

A study by the Sons of the Land Foundation for Human Rights revealed that in February 2010, more than 40 sit-in protests, strikes and demonstrations were organised in Egypt. All of them were about the financial rights of the workers in some government agencies and public sector companies.

Human rights activist Khaled Ali told Al-Shorfa that the demonstrations are related to daily troubles. This includes "securing daily home expenses and the prices of commodities and services which are increasing continuously while income remains the same".

He added, "Most of the protests organised by government employees or labour unions are not related to the political demands of the opposition. They call for increasing pay, improving the services and protecting the public sector employees' rights."

"That is the gap between the simple agenda of the citizen and that of the opposition," he said.

Many Egyptians interviewed by Al-Shorfa confirmed that unemployment, housing prices and salaries are at the top of their list of priorities and they trump any political debate between the opposition and the government.

Samer Mahmoud, 26, said, "The government and the opposition wasted a long time talking about local and foreign policies without paying attention to providing us, the youth, with jobs opportunities and housing."

Iman Ibrahim, a housewife, said, "I did not see any opposition leader talking about the quality of education in Egypt. My sons suffer from the deterioration of education in government-run schools, and we cannot afford to send them to private schools."

"Why doesn't the opposition take care of this issue first and before anything else?" she asked.

Meanwhile, Dr. Amr al-Shubaki, an expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told Al-Shorfa that it was necessary to distinguish between confronting the current conditions with protests and "confronting it with an alternative that is capable of creating [progress]."

He said, "All the political movements that were created in Egyptian society over the past six years were formed as a protest that relied on the vociferous criticism of corruption, coercion and the absence of democracy."

"However, they did not succeed in gaining the public trust to become a safe alternative, not just another protesting voice," he added.

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