Egypt's Struggle To Reinvent Itself

A demonstrator waving the Egyptian flag above a packed Tahrir Square in Cairo in April.


After The Revolution

A new state is being born in Egypt in the wake of the revolution. While the old guard is battling to preserve its influence, scores of new parties are jockeying for power, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which is resorting to shrewd tactics in a bid to cement its political clout.

By Volkhard Windfuhr in Cairo
June 27, 2011
Courtesy Of "Der Spiegel Online"

On the banks of the Nile, politicians of all kinds are vying for power in a democratic contest the likes of which Egypt hasn't witnessed in generations. The severity of their clashes shows how rapidly freedom of opinion has developed -- and how limitless that freedom now is. But the dreams of the fearless protestors who took to the streets in January are at risk of being crushed in a power struggle among Egypt's resurgent old guard.

Five months after Hosni Mubarak, who ruled the country for 30 years with a single political party and a clique of corrupt corporate leaders, stepped down at the age of 83, Egypt's population of some 80 million is mired in a political swamp . It is hard to discern the democratic reforms , the long-overdue improvement in living conditions and the more equitable social order that Egyptian protestors longed for. "It's business as usual," wrote the popular weekly newspaper Al-Fagr (The Dawn) in a resigned commentary. "The old powers are still in control."

Very few of Egypt's key government decision-makers have had to give up their posts. Only a handful of prominent officials, such as Information Minister Anas el-Fiqqi and Mubarak's previous long-standing advisor and secretary general, Safwat el-Sherif, were replaced. Their staggering corruption and blatant nepotism rendered them untenable.

The cleaning-up necessary for a credible fresh start has been sluggish, even though Egypt's political parties have gradually been putting pressure on the country's ruling military council. However, even critics concede that some progress has been made: Mubarak's sons have been detained, and the former ministers of housing and tourism have each been sentenced to five years in prison. The government has also asked Interpol to help track down former officials who fled Egypt -- another step forward. But attempts to cover up past transgressions, and the continued delays in prosecuting Mubarak -- who is permitted to order his personal hairdresser to come from Cairo to his residence in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh -- betray the reluctance of the military council and the justice system to deal with the legacy of the old regime.

Egypt May Soon Have More Than 45 Political Parties

Security also leaves much to be desired. Crime is rife due to a lack of police operations. Unknown gangs have meticulously dismantled and stolen some 300 kilometers of train track along an important route across the Suez Canal towards Palestine and Israel.

For weeks, the political landscape 

has been in a state of surprisingly spirited transformation. The country may soon have more than 45 political parties, if all of the announcements are brought to fruition. The approval process is simple. The military council only bars political parties that are based on religon. Religious parties are forbidden.

That rule is no longer being enforced to the letter. But the leader of the Coptic Church, Shenouda III, forbade his 10 million followers from establishing Christian parties. And even the Arabian Peninsula's wealthiest resident, billionaire Egyptian business leader Naguib Sawiris, has adhered to that requirement and limited his political activity to providing financial and staff support to liberal parties. His In-TVhas become the most popular non-partisan television channel. He doesn't transmit pro-Christian propaganda.

The heavily traditional Wafd Party, which has for decades embodied modern secular values, also abstains from any religious symbolism -- with the exception of the crescent and cross which form the party's emblem. To emphasize its openness to all denominations, Wafd established a scarcely credible alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful Islamist movement. But powerful Wafd party members such as executive committee member Mohammed Sarhan quickly rebelled against the alliance, and the anti-Islamist party youth arm plans to establish a "completely liberal" Neo-Wafd Party in a few days.

How Egypt's New Politicians Are Jockeying For Power

Many of the new liberal parties have formed electoral alliances, and some of them even share members. The goal is a new democratic state with a civil social structure protected by the constitution. That is how Egypt plans to circumvent the term "Laicism" that representatives of political Islam have decried as an "attack on God and Islam."

The Freedom and Justice Party of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which has, since its foundation in 1928, never held government power, runs a propaganda network unlike that possessed by any other political group. Internet, Facebook and YouTube experts are working to sell the Brotherhood as a normal democratic power with an Islamic ideology.

The Brotherhood's leader, Mohammed Badie, has set the ambitious goal of seizing 50 percent of parliamentary seats. He wants to institute Sharia law, the Islamic code of justice that has been seen as the "first source of jurisprudence" since the era of former President Anwar al-Sadat. In order to gain acceptance socially and in the international political sphere, the Muslim Brotherhood, among whose stated goals include that of establishing a caliphate, says it agrees with the principles of civil government. But the flaw can be found in the details. Prominent spokesmen and members of the Muslim Brotherhood's leadership, like Professor Salih, reveal in talk shows how far their supposed concession to a multi-faith society really goes: "Even the state of the Prophet Mohammed was based on a civil society," said the normally eloquent Salih.

The Brotherhood has opposed suggestions that the parliamentary elections currently planned for September be postponed. This could, and would, help the new liberal parties, especially the politically-inexperienced revolutionary youth, by giving them more time to cultivate their image -- to the detriment of political Islam.

The pious are fighting for their future and they have no qualms about the tactics they deem necessary to win. The Brotherhood offered Christian lawyer Rafiq Habib the post of the party's deputy president. He accepted. Many in the Christian community criticized the move as an act of treason.

The presidential candidates are still far from achieving political breakthroughs.

• The ranking compiled by neutral Egyptian media is topped by Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister who was Secretary-General of the Arab League until last week. Many Egyptians, both Muslims and Christians, are pinning their hopes on him. They were impressed by his open support for the revolutionaries from the very beginning, his political distance to President Mubarak who had removed him as foreign minister because of his growing popularity, and his criticism of the US policy on the Middle East.
• At the bottom of the list is Ayman Nour, the founder of the small, liberal, chameleon-like El Ghad party (Ghad means Tomorrow). Washington had long described him as the most promising candidate. But even the army's poll of presidential hopefuls published this week gave him just 1 percent.
• Mohamed ElBaradei remains an important candidate. He campaigned for democratic change, which gained him support especially in the West. He is working with political think-tanks on drafting proposals for a new democratic constitution. But others had already done so before him, such as members of the Wafd Party and various youth forums following the start of the revolution. The first brave Egyptian to call for democracy and freedom of opinion was the Catholic founder of the mass movement Kefaya, George Ishak.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood is making headway in its campaign in the villages and city slums where imams are trying to persuade the faithful that everyone who denies the party of the Muslim Brotherhood his vote is betraying Islam.

Liberal Parties Taking Action Too

But the liberal parties are now engaging in similar agitation and aren't doing badly, even though they joined the fray fairly late. The liberal parties want to exercise control over the Brotherhood, which poses dangers to them. They have entered into an electoral alliance with the Brotherhood in which all participants must commit to refraining from religious election propaganda, discrimination based on gender and membership of a social group is forbidden and all political principles that apply in the democratic West must be adhered to. "We pay very close attention to that," Kefaya leader Ishak told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Anyone who doesn't stick to these rules isn't our partner anymore."

This Tuesday several revolutionary youth organizations will announce the formation of a "Party of Revolutionary Change." The popular 24-year-old politician Mu'adh says: "We will set sail with our feluccas (traditional Nile sailing boats) under the right wind. New million-strong protests on Tahrir are possible."

If the army sticks to the timetable, there will be a democratic Egypt in less than one year, even if parliamentary elections are delayed for several months. The question of whether there should be a new constitution before the parliament and president are elected isn't as crucial as critics claim. The basic elements of the new constitution have already been set since March: free elections, a presidential term limited to five years, the removal of religion from all party propaganda, equal status for all citizens, and the construction of a free civil society.

May Allah provide a strong wind to the triangular sails of those feluccas.