A few hours before the results of the presidential elections were announced and Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Mohamed Mursi was declared
A few hours before the results of the presidential elections were announced and Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Mohamed Mursi was declared Egypt’s president, a number of Egyptian liberal political parties announced a coalition of what they termed the “Third Way”. A press conference was held at the headquarters of the al-Misriyoun al-Ahraar, the Free Egyptians Party, during which they explained they were neither for an Islamist regime nor for an extension of the Mubarak regime, hence the “Third Way”.
The participants included the Free Egyptians Party; the Democratic Front Party; the Egyptian Social Democratic Party; and the Tagammu Party, as well as a number of public figures among whom were the activist George Ishaq and the Coptic business tycoon Naguib Sawiris.
The question which begs an answer is: Can the Third Way constitute a substantial opposition to be reckoned with?
Coalition of seculars
In the opening speech, Ahmed Khairy, spokesman of the Free Egyptians Party, explained thatthe Third Way has been formed by movements which refuse to take sides in what he described as “the conflict between the military and the MB”.
The battle today, in Khairy’s opinion, is not between the Revolution and the fuloul, literally remnants, of the pre-Revolution regime, but between an Islamic State and a Security State.
Egypt’s new constitution, Khairy said, is among the pivotal issues that concern the political forces. The constituent assembly charged with writing it, he said, should not be formed by the Military Council alone, but its members should be selected in consultation with the various political forces. They should include law and constitutional experts, politicians, representatives from al-Azhar and the churches, professional syndicates, labour unions, peasants, and public figures.
The Third Way, Khairy said, will be focusing on the coming legislative elections which will represent a golden opportunity for the secular parties and movements to form alliances to contest the elections.
For his part, Effat al-Sadat who heads the liberal Hizb Misr al-Qawmy (The National Party of Egypt), said that his party will join the Third Way by forming a coalition with eight other secular parties or a merger in one party prior to the next parliamentary elections.
Half the electorate
“We are now before a situation unprecedented in Egypt; the president of Egypt was voted in by 51 per cent of the votes,” the activist and strategic expert Ussama al-Ghazali Harb said. “Gone are the days when a president would garner a majority vote of some 90 per cent or more. Yet the ‘democratic vote’ appears to be in contradiction with the mass mobilsation of the Islamists in Tahrir Square and other streets and squares in Egypt, cheering in Mursi even before he was announced the winner, and denouncing rulings by the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC).”
Harb denounced what he described as the “ridiculous American interference in Egyptian internal affairs”. The US, he explained, kept pushing the military to hand over power to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), while the MB appeared happy with that. “But what if the US had applied pressure in favour of the other, non MB, liberal candidate; would the MB have been happy? Or would it have accused all the parties involved of being agents of the US?”
New constitution
Harb insists that Egypt is now suffering form the outcome of the MB insistence, since the 25 January Revolution, on holding parliamentary elections prior to drafting a new constitution, which Harb described as a “gross error”.
“We are now before a disgraceful situation,” he said, “where Egypt’s new constitution appears to be undergoing difficult labour pains. Yet it is not as though Egypt is a newcomer to the field. The country has had previous constitutions in 1923, 1954 and 1971; we also have an elite pool of constitutional scholars. So how can we still stumble over writing a new constitution, simply because of political strife?” lamented Harb.
Harb then moved on to another issue, that of the Islamist criticism of the SCC’s ruling to dissolve the [Islamist-majority] People’s Assembly. “How can any party or group criticise a SCC ruling?” he said, explaining that opposing a SCC ruling is tantamount to challenging the
supremacy of the law.
No giving in
The Third Way is not the sole opposition on the block. Previous [secular] MP Mohamed Abu-Hamed wrote on his Twitter account that, even though the election result caused not-a-little frustration for some half of the electorate, this was not the time to give in. “I believe the time for hard work has begun,” he wrote.
“We must work hard to preserve the individuality of our country and its civilisational heritage; to promote citizenship rights and non-discrimination.
“Whoever thinks we might flee this land [now that conditions may be dire] does not know our mettle. Whoever thinks we can give in to the notion of the hegemony of a new single political party is mistaken.
“No matter what smear campaigns we may be victims of, what exclusion or threat, we will not leave the battleground.
“Our first priority today is to build an effective political force in Egypt, capable of fighting on for the good of this nation.
“In the name of Allah the Most Merciful and Compassionate, we begin.”
…And the Copts
Even as the Coalition of Egypt’s Copts sent Mursi a congratulatory note for his winning the presidency, it reminded him of his pledge of acting as a president for all Egyptians regardless of their race, creed, or colour. The Coalition asked Mursi to serve all Egyptians in wisdom and trust.
The note declared: “We will be among the ranks of your opponents; we will not oppose you for mere opposition, but to work for a better future for our Egyptian homeland.” It demanded that Mursi should work to preserve the identity of Egypt and its famous culture of moderation; also the sovereignty and prestige of the State.
“You have said that if you do not keep your promises to us we are under no obligation of allegiance to you,” the note reminded.
Bishoi Timri, member of the Coptic Maspero Youth Union (MYU), commented that the Mursi win comes amid flagrant US interference in Egypt’s affairs, and sheds light on the possible violation of Egyptian sovereignty under a MB president. The MB, Timri said, is a global movement of whose decision-making circles nothing is known. “If it proves that this may in any way affect Egyptian sovereignty, we will join the ranks of the opposition.”
WATANI International
1 July 2012