The new presidential decision to replace 10 governors of various districts in Egypt—including the major cities of Cairo and Alexandria, as well as the important centres of Assiut, Minya,
The new presidential decision to replace 10 governors of various districts in Egypt—including the major cities of Cairo and Alexandria, as well as the important centres of Assiut, Minya, Sohag, and North Sinai—has aroused scathing criticism. Given that two of the new governors—the governors of Kafr al-sheikh, Menoufiya, and Suez—are members of the Supreme Guidance Bureau of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the Ikhwan Muslimoun, and the majority of the others are loyal MB members or supporters, the move was branded as a new wave of Ikhwanisation of the State.
The new governors
Usama Kamal, the new Cairo governor, is a former deputy to the Engineers’ Syndicate and Vice President of Benha University. State Council Judge Mohamed Atta Abbas is governor of Alexandria; Yehia Kishk of Assiut is a professor at Assiut University’s Medical School, and Mustafa Farghali of Minya is also a professor at Minya University’s Medical School. North Sinai now has Sayed Abdel-Fattah, a former chief of the Military Police, as governor; the North Delta governorate of Kafr al-Sheikh has former MP Saad al-Husseini; and Sohag has Yehia Mekheimar, the dean of Sohag University’s Faculty of Engineering. Professor of Engineering at Menoufiya University Mohamed Ali Bishr was appointed to the Delta governorate of Menoufiya; Samir Aglan of the Airborne Oil Services to Suez; and Major General Mohamed Kamel to the Red Sea governorate.
A presidential decision is expected shortly to appoint the deputies to the new governors, but the other 16 governors in Egypt will remain in their posts.
To win the elections
Major General Ahmed Zaky Abdeen, Minister of Local Development, declared that there had been great difficulty in appointing the new governors since many who were approached for the posts declined them. He told the media that he had no objection to a woman governor, commenting the “some women are each worth a thousand men”.
If the new Egyptian constitution, currently in the process of drafting, stipulates that governors are to be elected not appointed, Abdeen said, all the current and newly-appointed governors will have to be replaced by elected ones.
In Suez, the local politicians and activists expressed their anger at the replacement of their [previous] governor Major General Mohamed Abdel-Moniem Hashim. They demanded that the newly-appointed Aglan should leave and Hashim should stay on, threatening to escalate their protest if their demand is not met.
The Suez Wafd Party member Ali Amin said that the MB were moving ahead with their efforts to Ikhwanise the State; they replaced the governors who were not among their followers.
For his part, the Suez leftist Tagammu Party member Mohamed Aref said that the two new governors who are members of the MB Supreme Guidance Bureau have been appointed to the governorates where the MB had lost seats in the parliamentary elections. “That way,” Aref said, “they will see to it that they win these seats in the upcoming elections next October.”
Ikhwanising human rights
A few days ago the Shura Council announced the appointment of Judge Hussam al-Ghiryani as the head of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights (NCHR). Ghiryani, who is known for his Islamist leanings, is the head of the Constituent Assembly that is currently drafting Egypt’s new constitution, and is also the head of the Court of Cassation. The move, as well as the appointment of a number of Islamists as members of the NCHR disgruntled liberals and seculars, and aroused heated criticism. Again, it was taken as a flagrant Ikhwanisation move. The activist George Ishaq denounced the appointment of Islamists with well-known anti-human rights stances as members of the NCHR.
The Egyptian Centre for Human Rights (ECHR) issued a statement in which it expressed its deep concern at the new NCHR which it described as chosen according to ambiguous standards.
All under official umbrella
The statement declared that, under the hegemony of the Islamist current in the Shura (Consultative) Council, the upper house of Egypt’s parliament, the MB’s Freedom and Justice Party has been given free rein to control State-affiliated councils and bodies. Among these have been the NCHR, the Supreme Council of the Press, and the chief editors of the State-owned papers. The result has been that individuals not qualified for their respective posts have been appointed, their only asset being loyalty to the Islamist stream. This should work to sow division and discrimination among the community, the statement said, under the official umbrella of an elected council, the Shura.
The ECHR said it was regrettable that persons well known for the anti-human rights stances, and for excluding anyone who differed with them in thought, gender, ethnicity, faith or creed, have been appointed to the NCHR. Only two of the 25 members newly appointed to the human rights council are known to be rights activists, the statement said.
The ECHR demanded that the Shura Council should publicise the standards according to which appointments have been made, and should offer explanations to why only two human rights activists have been appointed to the NCHR.
Reported by Mariam Rifaat, Lillian Nabil, Ra’fat Edward, and Girgis Waheeb
Watani International
5 September 2012