Regarding the Constitutional Amendments “Myth And Reality”

Since army’s constitutional announcement or declaration or whatever you can call it and there is a huge debate about the constitution amendments and the constitutional amendments committee.

First of all the army made it clear that the armed forces council will rule only for 6 months. Today the council made it crystal that there will not be “an army” presidential candidate insh Allah in the coming presidential elections. The armed forces council has been insisting in all its communiqués so far that its aim is to have a civil elected state.

Second God created the world in 7 days , you do not expect all the changes we want to happen just in one week or in 6 months. Already I am from the people who believe that 6 months as a transitional period is very short considering that we are not changing only a 30 years regime but rather 58 years mindset.

Third we are not changing the whole constitution now , we are not having a new constitution now , we are only changing the 6 articles about the parliamentary and presidential elections.

Logically you can’t change the constitution as far as I know in this transitional period , you can’t have a complete new constitution without a parliament and civil president. In 10 days or even less the constitutional amendments committee formed by armed forces council from constitutional experts in Egypt should fix these articles.

The articles the committee is going to amend for the current time are articles : 76 ,77 , 88 ,93, 189 and to delete article no.179

Article No.76 : is infamous presidential candidacy article in the constitution which is believed to the longest constitutional article in the world.

Article No.77 : Related to the presidential terms , it was for here to eternity during the Mubarak era , hopefully insh Allah it will be only 2 terms. We do not know if it will continue to be 6 years or 4 years. This can be debated later.

Article No.88 : Related to the judiciary supervision in the presidential and parliamentary elections , we want a complete judiciary supervision in both elections. The committee will restore it.

Article No.93 : Related to the court of cassation’s orders to the parliament. We all know that the parliament in time of Mubarak used to ignore all the court’s orders that nullified most of the NDP seats in almost all the parliamentary elections especially the last 3 elections.

Article No.189 : Related to the constitutional amendments process itself

These are the articles that will be amended insh Allah. Not only these experts will change but also the laws based on them like the elections laws and political rights law. If it were only a matter of 5 articles in the constitution to be changed then it would not take this time.  Changing these articles will enable us to be on the right track for a real democratic life in Egypt

Article No.179 : related to counter terrorism law that gives the police the right to arrest the people without a warrant. This article is to be deleted as far as I know and read.

Fourth the former president Mubarak’s regime remains are trying to spilt the society by spread rumors about article no. 2. The article no.2 is not among the articles currently amended at all now. Speaking about this article now makes believe in the anti-revolution scenario that the Mubarak regime’s remains trying to implement. Already the first person I found him speaking about this article with Naguib Gabriel who was totally against the #Jan25 protests and the Wrath Friday if you remember. I consider Gabriel from the old regime’s era should leave us alone. The old regime is trying to use the sectarian game again.  When the time comes to speak about article no.2 I hope we will be less sectarian and more mature after 6 months or even more.

Fifth I do not know why there is unneeded debate about the armed forces council’s choice to thinker and judge Tarek El-Bishry , Tarek El-Bishry is from the few men in this country that we can consider as real thinkers when it comes to the term “Thinker”. I do not need to speak about his background or history but let’s just say I trust him more than I do trust Yahia El-Gamal with my all due respect and admiration to Yahia El-Gamal. I trust El-Bishry because he understands and respect the Liberal experience in Egypt and he really wants a better democratic future for this county. Choosing El-Bishry was a very smart move because the man was a well known critic to Mubarak’s regime.

By the way El-Bishry said in an interview with Lamis El-Hadidy that he is leaning towards the Parliamentary state when she asked him about the kind of state he preferred for Egypt in the coming period.

Sixth here is the full list of the constitutional committee’s members :

• Tarek El-Bishry
• Dr. Atef El-Banaa : Professor of constitutional law , Cairo university , law school
• Hussanein Abdel Aal : Professor of constitutional law , Cairo university , member of the national human rights council and was chosen as a member in previous constitutional amendments committee formed by Omar Soliman.
• Dr. Mohamed Bahi Yonus : Professor of constitutional law, Alexandria university
• Judge Maher Sami Youssef : Deputy of the supreme constitutional court head , a Christian judge
• Judge Hassan El-Badrawy : Deputy of the supreme constitutional court head and minister of justice’s aide for the parliamentary affairs.
• Judge Hatem Bagato : The head of the commissioners’ committee at constitutional court “I hope that I translated it correctly”. He is considered from the fathers of Criminalizing FGM law in Egypt and he is the man who nullified the law no.100 to regulate the unions and syndications in Egypt in one of the biggest slaps to the regime before the revolution. Bagato is the sectary of this committee.
• Lawyer Sobhi Saleh : Former member of parliament from 2005 to 2010. He is from the Muslim brotherhood. An active member in the bar association and he lost in the last election in front of Abdel Salem Maghoub.

Now there is a panic over the choice of Saleh because of his membership to the Muslim brotherhood. First of all I will assume that these names were approved by the army council , thus there should be no fear from any devilish plan by the MB. Second of Sobhi Saleh is just one member from the committee. Third why all the focus is on Sobhi and we are not paying attention to Bagato and other members who got very interesting and positive opinions about women’s rights !!? As I hinted Bagato was from those who put the FGM law in Egypt !!?

Seventh What is this crappy talk about the exclusion of women in this committee ? As you have seen above these articles have nothing to do with the women’s position in the society and gender equality to the rest of these jazz. This is a temporarily committee in a urgent circumstance as you can see.

I believe the fear of El-Bishry , Sobhi Saleh and also this talk about the exclusion of  women in this committee is another evidence of the counter revolution Gamal Mubarak and his orphans in the media try to spread worldwide.

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