Monday, February 21, 2011

The New interim cabinet

The new interim cabinet has been announced unofficially , we should have a full official statement in the coming 24 hours. This cabinet is formed after the public refusal for the NDP cabinet that loathed in front of former president Mubarak and included unpopular ministers from the previous era.

Al Ahram newspaper portal reported the names of the new ministers then it was confirmed by Dr. Yahia Al Gamal on air on Dream TV2. Here is the new cabinet as far as it was announced.

  • Ahmed Shafik as prime minister.
  • Dr. Yehia El-Gamal as the deputy of the prime minister for the national dialogue. “I think Dr. El-Gamal who was a minister during the Nasserite era is the oldest minister in Egypt now. He was from the founders of the democratic front party”
  • Mounir Fakhri Abdel Nour as the minister of tourism. ‘The first name to be leaked since afternoon, the first official member of opposition to be chosen in interim cabinet. He is very active member of Al Wafd party. The famous Christian politician comes from long time Wafd family’
  • Dr. Gouda Abdel Khalek as minister of social security “ The famous leftist professor of economics has been long time critics of Mubarak’s economic policies. He is a member of the unionist leftist party in Egypt and has been from the strongest candidates to head it after Rafaat Al Said.”
  • Mohamed Abdel Manam El-Sawy as minister of culture “ The founder of the famous El-Sawy culture wheel, his name was the along the minister of culture’s candidates list since the time of Hosni Mubarak. Ironically his father was the minister of information and culture in 1977. There is a split in opinion about him.”
  • Dr. Georgette Kelliny as minister of the newly founded Egyptian expats ministry 
  • Ahmed Abdel Fatah as minister of oil “he headed previously the oil exploration authority and it is said that he did not go along with Sameh Fahmi”
  • Dr. Maged Othman as ministers of telecommunications “ he headed the IDSC
  • Dr. Hany Sarie El-Din as minister of commerce and investment “The chairman of the MIL and used to be the head of Egypt capital market authority. Here is his bio from his official website. I am not comfortable to anyone who headed any financial authority during the Mubarak era.”
  • Dr. Ahmed Gamal Al Din Moussa as the minister of education. “He already served as minister of education from 13/7/ 2004 to 30/12/2005. Here is his official website.He was accused of being close to the Muslim brotherhood ”
  • Dr. Amr Salama as the minister of scientific search. “He served as the minister of high education during the Mubarak era in 2004 and his father was a minister too during the 1960s”

Amr Hamzawy was said to be the next minister of youth in Egypt and strangely he denied any knowledge with this news , nobody offered him the position and if it were offered ,he would reject it according to his statements to the original Dostor website. I do not understand this game actually , how the council chose someone and announced his name like that without notifying him !!? Already I believe we do not need ministry of youth in Egypt.

And there is no ministry of information in Egypt !! Yes no ministry of information !! This is from the achievements of the revolution I suppose.

Mofid Shahab, Aisha Abdel Hady and Ahmed Sameh , the new minister of health were excluded. Ahmed Abu El-Gait is still the minister of foreign affairs unfortunately. There is no news about Siyad Mashal, the minister of war production.

Mofid Shahab ,the former state minister for parliamentary affairs has not only lost the ministry but he also lost the candidacy to the League of Arab states. Shahab was groomed by the Mubarak regime to become the new general secretary of the Arab league but thank God for the revolution , this nightmare is over.

Shafik is searching for minister of manpower , he wanted the infamous Hussein Megawer as minister of manpower but the armed forces council refused. Choosing Megawer makes me wonder how Shafik thinks , all people know that Megawer and Aisha were so much hated. Choosing him as a minister is like an open invitation for strikes in almost all public sector factories !! The armed forces council knows what makes the people angry for sure !!

Now this cabinet is in very tough position because people dislike because Ahmed Shafik himself according to my view. The people can’t forget that Shafik loathed in front of Mubarak and he is his long time student and friends plus lately there was this news that his wife Zeinab is actually Khadija El-Gamal’s aunt. “Some denied it”

Shafik made a lot of mistakes since he had been appointed, from two days ago he even provoked the people when he said that the ministers are approved by the president and then quickly added the military council. People do not trust him.

In any other time this cabinet will be welcomed , in fact I see if we had this cabinet on January 28th or 25th many people would welcome it but not now , it is difficult people demand a new prime minister.

Now to the ministers them , it is a clever choice some because the armed forces council tried to please everyone. we got two Christian ministers, we got three ministers officially affiliated with three opposition parties “ Fakhri , Abdel Khalak and El-Gamal” , we got one minister with a connection to Muslim brother “ Moussa”. The thing is that the New Al Wafd party has been a pet party to the NDP just like the unionist with my all due respect to Abdel Khalak. Already personally I think Abdel Khalak should not have accepted this position

We need a technocratic interim cabinet more than a national unity cabinet. Our demands are clear and simple ,we do not need to have a dialogue with Ahmed Shafik but rather with the armed forces council.

There is no news about the ministers of finance or interior or defense. In fact Dr. El-Gamal was so disturbed when Dr. Diaa Rashwan, the famous researcher asked him on air about the minister of defense. Of course the minister of defense now heads the armed forces council. It is kind of confusing actually.

P.S There is a strong word in the street that Egyptians will return back to Al Tahrir square next Tuesday to down Ahmed Shafik.

9 comments:

  1. To be honest, Shafiq and his regime should be out of the spot light and its a time for new temporary government chosen by people to run the country and not appointed by Shafiq and the old regime. I hope people will go down on Tuesday to get rid of this regime. Dont trust Shafiq he is a snake!! further more Egypt dont need Egyptian expats ministry, Ministry of Youth and all this crap. Check other Government system in other countries. all this unwanted Ministries is a waste of money which needed to build the country!

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  2. It is my opinion that any person who supported the Mubarak regime or affiliated with it should not be near any position of power. So why Ahmed Shafik still the PM, he should be removed immediately. The people on the street should maintain pressure on the Army to rid the country off all Mubarak’s cronies including the TV and News paper personalities that spread the regime propaganda. Anybody says that all this demonstrations and protests are damaging the economy of Egypt, is delusional, the country economy, its culture and knowledge have been in decline for the last 30 some years even longer. We need to be vigilant until all the country demands have been met 100% without compromise.

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  3. Dr. Amr Salama, the new minister of scientific research, has a reputation of being not very bright, and having his Mubarak era appointment only on the basis of NDP loyalty.

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  4. Rest of the cabinet should turn against Shafik. He totally undermines the credibility. He really can't talk himself out of the mess, but hey Military junta is Military junta, isn't he like old military crony?

    You people really should get a people chant against Shafik next time on square. Otherwise it will be a new advertisement for military junta.

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  5. Amr Hamzaway plays a dirty game. HE SHOULD NOT BE TRUSTED. remmber he was the one who formed the council of stupid men and wanted Suleiman to take over exactly as the U.S and Israel wants. the Carnegie endowment he works for and heads its mideast dept. is a tool for U.S foreign policy and CFR and works directly with IMF - these are facts not conspiracy theories. Amr Hamzaway appears to be pro-democracy but this charade he wants a managed democracy that serves his masters. Please google Carnegie and its IMF/mossad/CIA/NWO connections it's all over the internet.

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  6. It would be hilarious to see Shafiq chanted out. Especially after seeing these joyful pics of Shafiq and Cameron together.

    From that one gets the feeling this Shafiq guy is real hero of the revolution, not extension of Mubarak like he is.

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  7. Hi Zeinobia,

    Thanks for the post. One question: what is the ministry of manpower? And what is its official Arabic name?

    Thanks!

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  8. Hey Jason , it is القوة العمالة

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