August #2013’s New Governors Reshuffle in #Egypt

Today 25 governors took the oath in front of Egypt’s interim president Adly Mansour in the presidential Palace.
Six of those governors who have continued in their positions since their appointment by Morsi. I will not comment on the names now. Below there is a list for the governors and short bios for those I managed to found now.
The governor of Monufia is still vacant as the man nominated for the position was exposed as a former Mubarak’s regime remnant, and he had to refuse it due to public rejection. His name was released before other names and people rejected it .

Here are the names of the new faces in the governors’ reshuffle :

• Galal El Saeed : The new governor of Cairo. The former minister of transportation in former Kamel El Ganzoury’s cabinet in December 2011. The former governor of Fayoum till January 25 revolution was not only a member in the National Democratic Party, but he was also a member in the policies committee. He is said to be close to Gamal Mubarak as well.
• Army Major Gen.Tarek El Mahdy : The new governor of Alexandria. The most famous name when it comes to military in this reshuffle. The former SCAF member was appointed first as the head of TV in the early days of revolution and he was so popular among the employees, but had to resign later. Then he was appointed as the governor of New Valley from August 2011 to June 2013. During then He was then appointed as the governor of Red Sea. It was worth to mention in Morsi’s last reshuffle , till the last moment he was tipped to be the governor of Alexandria but in the end we found him as the governor of Red Sea. During then people understood that the Muslim brotherhood could not give up Alex to the army especially that the deputy governor there Hassan El Bernes was the true governor.
• Army Major Gen. El Arabi Sorror : The new governor of Suez. The commander of the Popular defense troops. As far as I know the Popular defense troops’ main mission now is to spread military awareness in the society. In the Past this department used to train high school and university students on combat and so on in order to help in protecting cities. Suez as a Canal City always had a governor from a military background. Current reports from the city speak about huge spread of arms there. It is also a stronghold for Salafists.

• Army Major Gen. Mustafa Hadhod : The new governor of  Beheira.Originally he was the deputy head of military intelligence. He is the new governor of the Coastal governorate.
• Army Major Gen. Ahmed Bahaa El Din : The new governor of Ismailia , a canal city was the former chief of staff’s aide and the head of the signals corps branch in armed forces.
• Army Major Gen. Tarek Saad El Din : The new governor of Luxor. He was the former chief of engineering staff in the armed forces. He was also the executive head of Tourism development authority. 
• Army Major Gen. Mohamed Abdel Latif : The new governor of Damietta. He was the former head of military survey authority.
• Army Major Gen. Omar El Shadofy : The new governor of Dakahlia. He was also the former head of military survey authority.
• Army Major Gen. Mustafa Yosri El Siyad : The new governor of Aswan. He was the head of the air defense institute.
• Army Major General Abdel Hamid El Hagan : The new governor of Qena. He was working in the Administrative Control Authority “ACA”.He used to work in the military intelligence. During his work in the ACA , he used to be among the staff of current head of General Intelligence General Mahmoud El Tahomy. El Tahomy was already accused to destroy evidence incriminating Mubarak’s regime in 2011.
• Police general Ibrahim Hamed : The new governor of Assuit. A former general in State security.
• Police general Salah El Din Hassan : The new governor of Minya.
• Police general Mahmoud Othman : The new governor of Sohag. Interestingly this man was the deputy governor of Alexandria in 2011, and he is famous for his video where he pulled his gun on a group of teachers that stormed his office while protesting. Knowing the Upper Egypt’s fascination with guns, I believe he is welcomed in Sohag because of that gun’s moment !!

From 2011 : Pulling the gun in office

• Judge Ezzat Agowa : The new governor of Kafr El Sheikh. The former head of Judges’ club in Alexandria. He is well known to be against the 25 January revolution. He is accused of forgery in 2005 parliamentary elections by grassroots movement Shayfenkom and was reported to former minister of justice from 3 months ago.
• Judge Magdy El Betity : The new governor of Bani Sawif. He is well known to curse the 25 January revolution and the revolutionaries in court during a court session.
• Dr. Saeed Abdel Aziz : The new governor of Sharkia. He was the dean of faculty of Commerce in University of Alexandria. He denied his affiliation with the National Democratic party.
• Dr. Mohamed Abdel Naim : The new governor of Gharbia.
• Dr. Hazem Atteya : The new governor of Fayoum. He was the deputy chairman of Helwan University.
• Engineer Mohamed Abdel Kader : The new governor of Qalyubia.

These are the old governors who continued in their positions from Morsi’s presidency :

• Army Major Gen. Khaled Fouada : The governor of South Sinai.
• Army Major Gen. Sameh Qandil :  The governor of Port Said.Originally the head of reconnaissance. He was appointed already in that position during Morsi’s presidency. He is popular in Port Said as he is the first governor from the locals there.
• Army Major Gen. Abdel Fatah Harhor : The governor of North Sinai.There is a lot of action happening in his governorate and I am surprised that he is still in his position.    
• Army Major Gen. Mahmoud Khalifa : The governor of New Valley.
• Army Major Gen. Badr Tantawy : The governor of  Matrouh. Matrouh is not only a Salafist hot zone, but it could be the only governorate that supported Morsi. Some say that the challenge won’t come from Sinai but rather from Matrouh especially with the arms pouring from Libya and the spread of Salafist Jihadist teachings there.
• Ali Abdel Rahman : The governor of Giza 

Not only the governors took the oath but also their deputy and there are two interesting names from deputies we should stop at. “Thanks to the MB we are paying attention to the deputies”

The NDP poster of Nadia Abdou

• Police General Sami Sedhom : The deputy governor of Sharkia. The notorious police general in Cairo has a black record during the days of Mubarak. This man already should be held accountable for the shooting of the protesters in 2011 especially in Mohamed Mahmoud street. Sharkia got one of the biggest voting blocs in Nile Delta by the way.
• Nadia Abdou : The deputy governor of Beheira. Unfortunately,the first woman to be appointed in that position turned to be an infamous leading member of the NDP in Alexandria. She won in the 2010 parliamentary elections in shady ways according to activists.

Activist Ahmed Alish did an amazing a break down for the governors and their affiliations since August 2011 “The first reshuffle after 25 January revolution and ousting Mubarak”

• In August 2011 “SCAF rule” : We had 14 army officers “One from intelligence” as governors , 2 Police officers “One from state security” and 11 civilians “3 judges , 3 academics , 3 civil servants , One ambassador and One Nasserite”
• In September 2012 “Morsi’s rule , his first reshuffle” : We had 10 army officers , One police officer “From state security” and 16 civilians “5 judges , 5 academics , 1 ambassador , 2 civil servants and 4 Muslim brotherhood”
• In June 2013 “ Morsi’s rule , it was his second and reshuffle” : We had 7 army officers “One military intelligence” and 20 civilians “3 judges, 6 Independent figures , 1 from Al Gama’a Al Islamiyaa , 1 from Ghad El Thawra and 10 Muslim brotherhood”
• In August 2013 “During interim president Adly Mansour’s rule , his first reshuffle” : We have 14 army officers “two from military intelligence” , 4 police officers “ One from state security” and 8 civilians “5 academics , 2 judges and one civil servants”

Did you read the names and their short bios ?? You know in time of the MB , it was a mix between MB and military as well old regime figures. Now it is military and old regime figures.
With my all due respect we do not know how these names are picked for those particular governorates.
We are being told that those 14 army generals are chosen because there are threats of terrorism and so on. “Some self claimed army officer is saying so on twitter and people like retweeting him crazily without thinking”
First many of those army generals are not counter terrorism specialists and according to the famous fact Field Marshal Tantawy did not change the army’s doctrine to include counter terrorism to it despite the American pressures for years. Also,some of these generals actually were not specialized in countering terrorism for God sake and some of them left the military service from years and worked in the civilian sector.
Needless to say,this is the oldest trick book , create an enemy and use a vague word like terrorism to justify what you want.
This reshuffle does not give me the impression that the current regime actually wants to pave the way for a true interim period followed by a true democratic rule. This is a reshuffle does not represent the 25 January 2011 but rather the old 23 July 1952 governors’ reshuffle !! 
It is not a big secret that there is a belief in the army as well the public that border governorates should be governed by military man despite the fact that we are a centralized country where the governor takes his orders from Cairo.
I do not have high hopes in a true revolutionary constitution that speaks about the governors’ elections and ends the deadly centralization in Egypt after that reshuffle seriously. There are indications for reforms and I do see any indication for any democratic reform what so ever especially with this all that nationalist war on terrorism hype.
If you speak against the current , you are no longer accused of being MB member but rather a traitor.
Ironically when one goes back to Mohamed ElBaradei’s twitter old archive , he would find interesting tweets that went back to August 2011 with the first governors reshuffle after 25 January revolution.

18 generals out of 27 governors. All Moslem. Revolution should change the mindset and not just indivduals. When do we begin?
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) August 5, 2011

not a single woman among the 27 governors. What happened to so called equality?
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) August 6, 2011

Amazingly there are no women or Christians as governors and like in August 2011 “Same month” we have the same number of army officers as governors. There are not Islamists or revolutionaries either.
Of course it is worth to mention that Al Nour Islamist party “the only Islamist party ready to speak to the army and presidency” refused to have any governor in this reshuffle.
It is worth to mention that from a couple of weeks ago ElBaradei presented his vision to the interim president regarding the governor’s position. He wanted the governors to be elected.
BY the way,the Pro-Mubarak/Military started to campaign online that electing governors is a bad idea and the Pro-January 28 revolutionaries from youth should not open their bloody mouth because they are not united in one single strong political body.
The Muslim brotherhood members and supporters started to tease the people forgetting how the Morsi’s governors reshuffles made people angry.
As the revolutionaries are angry and blaming both ElBaradei and Tamaroud and Tamaroud activists  are firing back claiming that it is not their responsibility.
Mahmoud Badr , its spokesperson and representative when it comes to the talks with the army as well its representative in the Constitution amendments committee said on his twitter account that it was better to focus on the constitution.
Well I hope he does focus on the constitution and manages to get something better than this reshuffle.