No excuse
Opposition politicians warned the government not to use
Al-Azhar blast as a pretext to clamp down on political reform.
Mona
El-Nahhas reports
Opposition parties and movements were quick to condemn last
Thursday's terrorist attack. They tempered that, however, with a warning
to the government against using the blast as a pretext to stifle reform
efforts.
Most opposition figures said the blast had proven the total
ineffectiveness of emergency laws that have been in place since 1981.
"The attack provided clear-cut evidence of the failure of such laws,"
said Hussein Abdel-Razeq, secretary- general of the Tagammu Party. "If
the government really wanted to confront violence and terrorism, it
would be better off providing more democracy, and combating corruption,"
Abdel- Razeq said.
The Tagammu's statement condemning the bombing also said the
government needed to "conduct fair parliamentary and presidential
elections, liberate the media from the hegemony of the ruling National
Democratic Party, and lift all restrictions on civil society
organisations."
The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group also stressed the necessity of
forging on with reform despite the blast. Mahdi Akef, the group's
Supreme Guide, condemned the attack, saying it was out of synch with
"the nature of the Egyptian people to target the country's stability".
Groups like the Popular Movement for Change, also known as Kifaya
(Enough), are worried that the government will use the attack to reduce
the hard-earned, but still relatively limited, margin of freedom allowed
them to move. The movement's Abul-Ela Madi said Kifaya would not allow
anything or anybody "to dissipate our recent political gains". Sources
close to the movement said Kifaya was planning to hold demonstrations in
nearly 13 governorates on 27 April.
In late March, however, demonstrations organised by Kifaya were
banned. That proved, said Magdi Hussein, secretary-general of the
suspended, Labour Party, that "even if the Khan Al- Khalili attack had
not taken place, the government was already intending to tighten its
grip on freedoms." Hussein predicted that the state would exploit the
incident to silence political activity. "Demonstrations will be banned,
political activists arrested, and the emergency laws extended," he said.
Hussein pointed to a column by Galal Dweidar in the government-aligned
Al- Akhbar accusing the recent wave of demonstrations by
activists of all stripes for being directly or indirectly responsible
for the blast.
Dweidar's column, Hussein said, was just the start of a campaign
meant to bolster support for the further propagation of the emergency
state. He said the government was the blast's only beneficiary. "It
provided them with a ripe opportunity to silence opposing voices --
conveniently prior to elections." The long-time opposition politician
and activist vowed, however, to continue staging demonstrations in
defiance of the government. "The government should not be allowed to
hinder the Egyptian people's march towards democracy and freedom,"
Hussein said.
Liberal Party Chairman Helmi Salem agreed that it was "illogical to
shackle the public with emergency laws forever, in fear of another
attack". Salem said the blast should not be used to backtrack from the
recent steps taken by the government to provide a slightly more
democratic climate.
Over the last few months, in response to internal and external
pressures for democracy and reform, the government has certainly
appeared less aloof vis-ˆ-vis opposition demands. The NDP has been
engaged in a national dialogue with opposition parties since January
and, in an unexpected move, Mubarak asked the People's Assembly in
February to amend Article 76 of the constitution to allow for direct
presidential elections between several candidates.
The most significant change, meanwhile, has been on the streets,
where an increasing number of demonstrations -- many of which centered
on the previously taboo subject of the presidency itself -- have been
taking place. In late March, even the Brotherhood appeared to shift
course after nearly three decades of relative non- confrontation with
the government, staging several high profile, pro-reform protests that
resulted in the arrests of dozens of its members. Some analysts said it
was the Brotherhood's entrance into the fray that may have catalysed the
government's return to a more authoritarian way of dealing with dissent.
Commenting on last week's blast, the Kifaya movement said that if the
government used such a "trivial or individual act as a pretext to
justify the continuation of emergency laws, or to prolong despotism and
oppression", it would be tilling "the perfect soil for terrorism" to
grow.
