Tuesday, October 1, 2019

There will be more political and media reforms in Egypt : Parliament speaker says

The House of Representatives' speaker Ali Abdel Aal said on Tuesday there would be political, partisan and media reforms in Egypt in the upcoming period.
"There will be new measures in the coming period to reactivate Egypt's political life." Abdel Aal said in the opening procedural session of the parliament in Cairo.

Aside from the usual blaming of foreign hostile powers working against the country, the speaker of the House asked the current cabinet led by PM Mostafa Madbouli “not export problems to the president of the republic and to parliament”.
Ali Abdel Aal
A file photo of Parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal "Al-Ahram"


He said the following too according to VetoGate “Hitler had his mistakes but what enabled him to expand East and West was Germany’s infrastructure which is the locomotive that led Germany to become a top-level country and the rich countries are economic countries like Korea and Indonesia”

I do not know but that “Hitler” reference is troubling on many levels because historically the infrastructure that the infamous dictator built in Germany was destroyed after the defeat of Nazis in WWII !! Also, Hitler did not “have mistakes” , Hitler did horrifying war crimes that the world is still paying their prices !!
I do not know what the former professor of constitutional law is trying to justify or say here.
Aside from Hitler and the bad government as well as the promise of upcoming reforms, there were strange quotes in that opening procedural session in the last term for this parliament from unexpected people.

In the same session, we heard Pro-regime MP Mostafa Bakry saying that The war against expressing opinions must be stopped, this is not Egypt that we sacrificed for !!”
Bakry’s TV show on Sada El-Balad which had its share from crazy conspiracy theories and genius children has suspended from a couple of weeks ago.

It is unclear why it was suspended but some hint out that in an attempt to refute Mohamed Ali’s allegations about Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and a presidential rest house in Alexandria made worse. “He appeared claiming that the renovations of that rest house cost LE 30 million and not LE 250 million as Ali claimed”

In his speech in front of the parliament, Pro-regime Abdel Rahim Ali demanded more freedoms in Egypt and here the mic is dropped !!
This is Abdel Rahim Ali who used to air alleged telephone recordings on his TV show to defame 25 January revolution icons and figures like former vice-president Mohamed ElBaradei and activists Wael Ghonim. " In his daily live streams which many find troubling. Ghonim singled out Ali with notorious Ahmed Moussa mentioning how they made his mom spent many nights lying because of what they claimed about him"

It has not stopped at the parliament, Tuesday night suddenly we found anti-25 January notorious Pro-regime extremist Ahmed Moussa saying in his nightly news talk show that “The people are feeling injustice in the governorates” and that “We tell the president that there are problems and the voice of the Egyptians must be heard and it is not wrong to do so !!”
Moussa said also that there would a new governors reshuffle movement as well as a ministerial reshuffle.

It is not the first time I hear this and I think the social solidarity minister Ghada Wali may not continue in her position considering the attack her ministry got in Moussa’s show as he put Egypt’s lower class problems on her failed ministry.

Blaming the cabinet and ministers instead of the president is an old thing in Egypt.

Close to presidency journalist and editor in chief of Akhbar al Youm weekly Yasser Rizk said in a TV interview on Sunday that arresting the opposition party members and activists in the so-called Al-Amal alliance throughout the summer was a “mistake” and “there should be more freedom in the media”

Since late June 2015, several political figures and activists involved in both 25 January revolution and in talks together to form a political alliance to participate in the upcoming 2020 parliamentary elections were arrested in a case commonly known in the media as “Al-Amal alliance” case or “The Hope alliance case”.

I lost count the detainees in this case but it seems that it gathered politicians and political activists from all colors of the political spectrum in Egypt especially from the left.

Even the coordinator of the BDS Egypt Egyptian Palestinian Ramy Shaath was arrested in the same case.
Last month I remember that Hamdeen Sabahi’s party “ El-Karama Current” threatened to freeze its activity due to the current restrictions in political life in Egypt in the past five years.

It is worth to mention that the announcement of the Nasserite party that is considered small and got no public activity like Al-Wafd party, for instance, was met by huge attack in the media as the Pro-regime media and parties consider its statement is “fake news” in order to “defame Egypt” for “sake of Muslim Brotherhood”
Ironically what was said from the Pro-regime men earlier this week as demonstrated above does not contradict what this small “fringe” party said.
The party has got already 12 detainees before and 20 September.

Speaking about the arrest in Egypt, the number of detainees brought before the prosecution and got pre-trial detention since and around 20 September reached 2,285 according to the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social studies.
This list is updated in Arabic and got all the names of the detainees and their cases as well as their locations.

The list includes a University professor of political sciences and opposition figure Dr. Hassan Nafaa  and veteran journalist and former leader of Constitution Party Khaled Dawood along with University professor and the former spokesperson of Sami Anan  Presidential election campaign Hazem Hosni

Back to this sudden change of tune but not in the heart in the mainstream media by some of the staunch regime men.

Many Egyptians are wondering why those men are now advocating for bigger freedom of space and they have too. It seems that there is something in the water of the Nile in those days.

Or maybe it is not the Nile water.
This sudden change of heart is met by a wave of sarcasm online on social media already.

That sudden change in tune came after the videos of whistleblower and self-exiled Mohamed Ali and  protests of 20 September 2019 in at least 5 governorates where economy plays a factor.
Needless to say, Ali has not stopped calling his Egyptian comrades to revolt and to oust El-Sisi from his self-exile in Spain.

Only days will show us what will happen and whether the lessons of the past can teach something after all or not.

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