Military
decrees are not the way to preserve urban architecture, legalists and conservationists
agree.
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Mona
El-Ghobashy
Anyone would agree that preserving architectural heritage is a priority, but few would argue that issuing military decrees is the way to do it. Other than the government, that is. Prime Minister Atef Ebeid is holding fast to a military decree banning the destruction of historic buildings, even after the State Council--the nation's administrative court system--ruled it unconstitutional for violating the principle of private property. Ebeid has appealed the court ruling. The appeal will be heard on 14 June.
The court's ruling, some fear, clears the path for architectural gems to be now torn down with abandon and for high-rises to be built in their place. Some architectural experts, however, argue that there are far more effective ways to go about urban conservation than issuing military decrees. For their part, legalists applauded the State Council's ruling and saw it as a victory--no matter how small--for the rule of law and the sanctity of private property.
The issue dates back to 13 decrees issued by former Prime Minister Kamal Al Ganzouri in his capacity as military governor, a presidential power delegated to the prime minister under the Emergency Law by which Egypt has been governed since 1981. Though existing building codes already prohibit the destruction of sound buildings, including villas and palaces, developers and owners would use legal loopholes to build high-rises on the expensive plots of land. The decrees were seen as a way to sternly enforce civil laws that were being honored only in the breach and to prevent urban encroachment on agricultural areas. However, on 20 April, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid issued Decree 925 of 2000 revoking the previous military orders. The rationale was that this would ease restrictions on construction and revive the stagnant real estate market. When opposition swelled at Decree 925, the prime minister retracted his statements and asserted that Decree 7 of 1998 banning the demolition of old villas was still in force.
Meanwhile, on 31 May, the State Council issued its ruling that military decrees regulating civil business matters are unconstitutional. The ruling was a response to an earlier appeal against the litany of military decrees before their revocation. The coincidental timing led to more than a little confusion: many thought the State Council's ruling coupled with the revoking of military decrees signaled the end of architectural preservation of Cairo's historic landmarks. But scratching beneath the surface highlights two facts: military decrees regulating non-emergency matters are not only unconstitutional, but a poor way to conserve urban aesthetics. The prime minister's contradictory statements also show the limits of legislating by decree civilian matters that are the rightful purview of the legislative branch."Military decrees are an emergency channel restricted to very specific cases affecting public health and order," says Mohammad Hamed Al Gamal, former president of the State Council. "Unfortunately, they've become abused. Moreover, everywhere including all Arab countries, military decrees are the power of the legislature."
Gamal further argues that it's spurious to claim military decrees are the only way to protect historic buildings. "The solution should be to freeze ownership of the building and compensate its owner," he says. Preventing the owner from disposing of his real estate as he pleases by issuing military decrees violates the principle of private property. In addition to the legal angle, the heart of the issue is how best to conserve historic architecture, especially for ordinary urban buildings not designated landmarks by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). 'Amr Abdel Qawi, an architectural consultant and publisher of Medina magazine, argues that matters need to be clarified further. "First, we need to answer these questions: what do we want to preserve and why? Many of the buildings we're talking about are not in and of themselves extremely valuable, but they do contribute to a pleasant urban environment."
The proper way to maintain the urban fabric is to create incentives for people to conserve the buildings while not interfering with the goals of economic development, Abdel Qawi says. In many urban centers, this is done by giving businesses tax breaks to renovate dilapidated buildings and turn them into viable economic units, like offices, galleries, or museums. Many a dead downtown district has been revitalized through an enlightened partnership between government and business.
The root of the problem here in Cairo is the astronomical escalation of land value, fueled by government land pricing policies, explains Abdel Qawi. "So of course low-rise structures don't bring in the land value, which gives developers the wrong incentive to tear down villas and erect high-rises instead, which leads the government to resort to absolute measures like military decrees as the quickest way to deal with a problem that needs a far more comprehensive solution," he says.
Some steps are being taken to develop a more rational strategy of urban conservation. The Cairo governorate in cooperation with the Fulbright Commission piloted The Historic Preservation project in 1998 and began by plaquing buildings to call attention to their historical significance. The first plaqued building was the Swiss embassy residence in Garden City. The next step is to move from a single structure to the whole street to eventually the designation of whole districts as historically valuable.
Absent a comprehensive preservation strategy and effective incentives, the urban fabric will not be maintained. Military decrees are not even a stopgap solution, but instead lead to constitutional violations and a loss of confidence in official statements. "The controversy over the military orders and the prime minister's retractions have only made public opinion lose faith in the rationality of official actions," says Mahmoud Kandeel, a lawyer with the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR).
As Abdel Qawi reminds, "you cannot preserve something its owner doesn't want to preserve." It seems a basic condition that laws governing the urban facade and city residents' quality of life must take into account the views and needs of those very residents.
