Access to public information is one of the basics of free expression. It is difficult for people who are unaware of facts within their society to pick up the cudgel to defend them. Yet access to accurate and updated information on society is an almost impossibility in Egypt, even if the information concerns ordinary affairs. The number of Copts in Egypt, for instance, is one of those closely guarded secrets. CAPMAS (The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics) reports have ceased to publish accurate statistics on the number of Copts, and the issue has become subject to inaccurate and exaggerated estimations. When General Abu-Bakr al-Guindy, head of CAPMAS, was asked on the issue last April following the latest census, he refused to give a figure, saying: “Ask about anything but this matter which is bound to bring us a headache.”
Benefactor not servant
This thorny and complicated question has lately been the subject of much controversy, and is closely linked to the structure of the Egyptian State and government. Egyptian bureaucracy acts as the benefactor rather than an apparatus for civil service in the modern sense. Instead of providing public services, State bureaucracy restricts its role to imposing its own will and authority. Strangely enough, on the other hand, the State suffers from a chronic administrative weakness despite its extreme centralisation. The decay is apparent from the contradictory information released by statistical bodies on issues such as poverty and the number of people living below the poverty line. I remember two researchers squabbling at a public meeting because they had different information on poverty figures in Egypt.
Foreign sources
It is regrettable that while Egyptian researchers complain of the difficulty in accessing national data, our experience is that reports released by embassies and foreign bodies working in Egypt are full of data, especially those related to the economy. Is it not disgraceful that Egyptian researchers have to depend on foreign sources to obtain the facts necessary for their theses and research?
This problem originates in the State perception of information as a political issue associated to stability and national security. In this context, it has become a political decision to announce the real temperature on very hot summer days. In the meantime ignorance of the facts has become the cause of many current problems, including the limitations of public rights and the absence of accountability.