Wednesday, March 30, 2011

And we have got a constitutional Declaration

The constitutional declaration has been announced from an hour ago by general Mamdoh Shahin after huge delay we do not understand.
The Constitutional declaration will replace the constitution of 1971 till we have a new constitution. I am highlighting this info because it is very important to understand it.
The constitutional declaration is made of 63 articles including the 7 articles of the referendum. Many people wonder why we have not been asked about the rest of this declaration in this referendum. Already the army made it clear that there will be additional articles added to 7 article because again this is our mini constitution till we have a new constitution. It will organize our political and representative life during this time.
Here is the most important articles in the declaration : 
  • Articles "1,2" : Egypt is a democratic state , it is based upon citizenship, its religion is Islam and its language is Arabic.  
  • The Shura council's powers were reduced. Its term will be 6 years 
  • The 50% labor and farmers in the parliament representation is still there. 
  • The parliamentary term will be 5 years. 
  • The president will be obliged to appoint a VP in 60 days of the start of his presidential term. 
  • Article "4" : The freedom of having unions , syndications and parties according to Law , parties based on racial or religious background are not allowed. 
  • Article "5" : All source of ownerships are supported in Egypt , our economy is based on economic activity and social justice. The rights of labor preserved. 
  • Article "7" : All citizens are equal in front of the law , equal in duties and rights regardless of gender , religion and race. 
  • Article "8" : Personal freedom is a natural right ,according to the law court order or prosecutor's order is needed for arrest or detention or inspection. 
  • Article "9" : If a person is detained or imprisoned , he or she shall not be abused physically or emotionally and anything he or she says anything in previous circumstances or under a threat will be null. 


  • Article "10" : Houses shall not be inspected without a court order based on legal reasons.  
  • Article "12" : The state protests and supports the freedom of belief and expression. Freedom of expression is allowed in the limits of the laws. 
  • In fact articles 8 to 17 deal with personal rights and human rights , they are great. 
  • The rest of articles deal with the presidential powers , parliamentary powers.
Here is the video of the announcement.
The constitutional amendments
This is the second constitutional declaration after February 11,2011.
I do have the full text of the constitutional declaration articles yet so I can’t speak about anything. People seem to be angry in twitter , I think we should keep our anger till we read thoroughly and understand these articles.
FYI this is not our constitution , our permanent constitution insh Allah will be put later , we can change and put anything we want in it.
The AFC FB page has published the constitutional declaration in details.
I am currently reading and taking notices about the new articles.
  • Article No.4 is good for unions and parties, of course the Muslim brotherhood will have a hard time because the parties law and also constitutional declaration make it clear : No for parties based on religious background. 
  • Article No.5 describes the economic nature of Egypt , I like the parts about labor rights and social justice.
  • Articles No.8 to 17 are great and we need to remind the AFC and police with articles day and night. 
  • Article No.21 makes it clear that civilians have their own civilian court so the military tribunals for civilians are non constitutional now. 
  • Article No.51 needs to be explained , it deals with the military law. 
  • Article No.54 speaks about a new security council : The defense security council , I do not know what difference between it and between the current the national security council we have now is!!
  • Article No.56 is quite controversial because it deals with the powers of the army council , the army council has got all the powers of the president. Some people will not like but let's be frank here that we will not be able to change these powers except when we have a parliament and constitution. The only way we can be sure that the army does not abuse these powers is to be very careful and to be awake for the army.
About 80% of these articles are from the old Constitution of 1971 , some people are shocked and I am honestly do not know why they are shocked !!? It is natural to have these articles from the old constitution. After 6 months we will have a new constitution and the army will not made up articles from air. 

13 comments:

  1. Well that was nice while it lasted....revolution is over. You know while the army might say they're not Ikhawani or whatever they're making it extremely diffcult for anyone else to partipate I think.
    They require new parties to publish it's members' names in a offical newpaper, which will probably cost 500,000 pounds or more. How can they expect a party that has just been founded to come up that amount of money?
    People have every right to be angry Zeinobia, it's not everyday we topple a dictator and seeing the army half-assing it is very worrying.

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  2. Hi folks, the procedure of registering a new party in germany is not easy as well. You need a long list of signing in of people with real adress and its controlled by municipallity. As well You have to go through a lot of paper work with lawyers and so on. I witnessed it, when the green movement was founded in the end of seventies.

    But - dear Ahmed - this long paper work gives the community as well a chance, that not mafia-like-structures with no real names or hidden names can apply for a legal party, what can be elected to town, city, district or national parliaments.

    If You look at the elections, what took place last weekend in 2 provinces of germany, now, after 30 years, the green party reaches more then 15 percent of votes ... democracy is a very slow horse, but for me its the only way to survive, if You are not with the mainstream ideas. In old days, we collected 5 Deutschmark of all of our friends, parents and relatives to bulid up a first money stock to start and run this green party.

    Just try to get as much supporters in the factories, in the bazar, in the army, in the police as You can get. Political isolation is like sitting in a refrigerated warehouse! Democracy only works from face to face.

    I wish You good luck and a cool hand for further actions. Greetings pu

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  3. One word: 3ak!

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  4. There are several flaws in this constitution compared to true democratic countries like "... its religion is Islam" and it refers to the President as "he".
    You have a long way to go.
    The Canadian.

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  5. رغم ان الشئ الايجابى الوحيد فى التعديلات الجديدة على بعض مواد وبنود
    قانون الاحزاب هو تشكيل لجنة الاحزاب فى المادة 8 من القضاة بدلا من
    اللجنة السابقة المشكلة من وزراء ومسئولين يعينهم رئيس الجمهورية ، الا
    ان هذه التعديلات فى القانون الجديد ابقت على القيود العديدة فى القانون
    السابق بل واضافت اليها قيودا جديدة تمثل انتكاسة خطيرة فى مسار التطور
    الديمقراطي الذى سعت اليه الثورة .
    وليس صحيحا ما يشاع عن ان القانون الجديد يتيح قيام الاحزاب بمجرد
    الاخطار وذلك لان مواده تمنع قيام الاحزاب الا بعد الموافقة بالترخيض لها
    من اللجنة أو بعد انقضاء المدة المحددة 30 يوما بعد تقديم الاخطار اذا لم
    تعترض لجنة الاحزاب ، كما ان القانون قصر الطعن على قرار اللجنة -رغم
    انها لجنة ادارية- على درجة واحدة فقط امام المحكمة الادارية العليا مما
    يعتبر انتقاص لحق التقاضى على درجتين المنصوص عليه فى الدستور .

    وبعد ان كان القانون يشترط عام 1977 ان يقوم بالاخطار 50 عضوا من
    المؤسسين تم زيادتهم الى 1000 عضو عام 2005 ،يأتى المرسوم الجديد ليضاعف
    الحد الادنى للمؤسسين خمسة اضعاف ( 5 الالف عضو )من عشرة محافظات بما لا
    يقل عن 300 عضو من كل محافظة ، مع الزام الحزب قبل الترخيص بضرورة نشر
    اسماء المؤسسين كلهم فى جريدتين يوميتين واسعتى الانتشار مما يكلف الحزب
    ما يقارب المليون جنية . فاى حزب هذا الذى يبدا نشاطه بهذا العدد الكبير
    وهذا الانتشار الواسع ،وبهذه الامكانيات الضخمة الا اذا كان المقصود هو
    وضع القيود لمنع قيام الاحزاب المعبرة عن الطبقات والفئات الكادحة
    والتجمعات الشبابية التى لعبت الدور الرئيسى فى الثورة .ولماذا الخوف من
    قيام عشرات الاحزاب بعد هذه العقود الطويلة من الحرمان والمصادرة ،وليكن
    المعيار الوحيد للحكم على بقائها أو موتها هو ارادة الجماهير وليس اى شئ
    اخر كما فى كل الدول الديمقراطية .

    والقانون الجديد يتمسك فى المادة 4 (ثانيا) بنفس العبارات المطاطة
    الموجودة فى كافة القوانين سيئة السمعة المقيدة للحريات فى عهد مبارك
    والسادات مثل ( الحفاظ على الوحدة الوطنية والسلام الاجتماعى ) تلك
    العبارات التى رفضتها المحكمة الدستورية لانها تحتمل العديد من التفسيرات
    ،وفى نفس المادة (ثالثا) ورغم اتفاق القوي الديمقراطية على ما نصت عليه
    من عدم قيام الاحزاب على اساس دينى لان هذا يتعارض مع جوهر الدولة
    المدنية التى تقوم على اساس المواطنة والمساواة بين المواطنين امام
    القانون دون تمييز على اساس الدين او العرق او الجنس، الا اننا نعترض
    على ما نصت عليه المادة من اشتراط عدم قيام الاحزاب على اساس طبقى وهو
    نفس النص المنصوص عليه فى القانون السابق منذ عام 1977 لانه ينسف جوهر
    فكرة الاحزاب من اساسها،ذلك لان المجتمع يحتوي على تناقضات فى المصالح
    بين طبقاته وفئاته المختلفة ومن الطبيعي ان تقوم الاحزاب كتعبير سياسى
    يهدف للدفاع عن مصالح طبقة او تحالف طبقى معين مما يضمن ادارة الصراع
    الاجتماعى بشكل سلمى وديمقراطي كما يحدث فى كل بلاد العالم منذ نشاة
    الاحزاب وحتى اليوم من وجود احزاب يسارية تدافع عن مصالح الكادحين
    والفقراء واحزاب يمينية تدافع عن مصالح الراسماليين والاغنياء .

    الحزب الشيوعى المصرى
    ----

    http://egyptians.wordpress.com

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  6. After 6 months we will have a new constitution and the army will not made up articles from air.

    ياللغباء الأزلي , حقاً ليس له من علاج.... و الله الموفق

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  7. Its really about which ideology you believe in and follow. the Western Enlightenment seeks to eliminate all religion from political discourse and to rely solely on the human mind.

    But Man, by his nature, is weak, deficient, prejudiced, limited.

    Islam, however, is NOT a religion in the Western sense. Thus, Islam has a political system, an economic system, an ideological foundation which results in practiced methodologies.
    Islam recognizes that the Creator has revealed to Man a Deen, a complete way of life by which he can organize, govern, and lead his life.

    Which one will you choose? God or Western Man?

    It should be expected that those who are not Muslim, who don't know Islam, to thus fear it and dissuade adherence and recognition of it.

    But Egyptians have to move beyond seeking the pleasure and interests of those nonMuslims and their powers.

    Islam is NOT a religion- its much more.

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  8. Thus, Islam has a political system, an economic system, an ideological foundation which results in practiced methodologies. "

    sounds like the holy Roman empire, merge religion-any kind of religion- with politics and you will breed idiots who will take law in their hands and they become unquestionable because they are God servants and only them know what's best. Can't believe I am even having this discussion with you that Europe dealt over with in the middle ages.

    Religion place is in temples only.

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  9. Islam is just a religion like Christianity, Judism. You can make any religion your way of your life, that is your choice but NO ONE has the right to impose religion practises on anyone.

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  10. I have a few questions about the constitutional declaration and I was hoping that maybe you could help me to understand better.
    I have read a translation of article 7 that I'm confused about. In the translation I found it reads "... must not be discriminated against due to race, origin, language, religion, or creed"
    Do you know if this translation is accurate, or is sex/gender included in the article? Would you translate it differently? Is the present article 7 written differently than the old article 40, or are the grounds the same?
    As I understand it "sex" was included in the old article 40, and I have not read anywhere that is not included in the new article 7 so I'm guessing that the translation I have found might be wrong..
    Appriciate any help I can get.
    /Sara

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  11. Islam as a religion that promotes progress and is far too complex for Muslims to understand. if you want to understand what Islam is about ask scientists and the last people you want to ask about Islam are the very people who are least capable of understanding it, like a "mullah" or religious cleric or someone who spends all his day in the mosque or an illiterate or an extremist. This, to a certain measure explains the decline of the Islamic Civilization, the failure to build a knowledge society, or work ethics, both explain the rise of the western civilization. It appears as though the west understood it better then the Muslims themselves.

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  12. For those people who are still debating what Islam is about, the main difficulty is coming to terms with the fact that Islam came to turn a primitive society into a civil society much like what the west did and the Arabs lost. That means man needs to progress through many areas of knowledge in order to understand himself, the world around him and the power of creation and the early Islamic civilization is full of such extraordinary exploits from the translation movement to the Middle Ages. Through that comes the area of appreciation of knowledge and self control, self development and individual contribution to a civil society. Since these concepts were never developed after the fall of the Islamic civilization Muslims remained an undeveloped society, very much what they are now precisely through lack of knowledge. In the end, each Islamic country infested Islam with their own cultural characteristic mainly ignorant or nomadic and often tribal, and we ended up with many false interpretations and less and less understanding of Islam.

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  13. Hello!
    Do you have a link to an English text of the Constitutional Declaration? If yes, can you please post it here?

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