Egyptian politics gets messy—in a good way

19 Mar 11 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa

Egyptians are expected to turn out to the polls Saturday in mass numbers to vote on a package of proposed constitutional amendments. It’s a national referendum that seems certain to make history on several levels.

For starters, it’s the first Egyptian national vote in living memory with any degree of uncertainty about the outcome.

Under former president Hosni Mubarak (and all of his predecessors) elections tended to be stage-managed affairs bearing the superficial hallmarks of a functioning democratic process. Egyptian citizens (who have always been a politically savvy bunch) sensed decades ago that the game was rigged and stopped even pretending to care.

That whole dynamic ended with Mubarak’s forced resignation last month in the face of a historic 18-day popular uprising. Now, with the country being ruled by the Supreme Armed Forces Council, Egyptians face the task of building a functioning democratic society. That means deciding which elements of the existing political infrastructure can be repaired and reformed and which elements need to be scrapped entirely and rebuilt from scratch.

This question seems to define people’s feelings heading into Saturday’s vote. Opponents of the amendment package have argued passionately that it is insufficient to simply “fix” the existing constitution and demand a full rewrite — even if that means slowing down the country’s transition to civilian rule.

“The 1971 constitution fell in the revolution. It has no legitimacy,” said Mohammed Salah, a young activist speaking this week at a press conference called by a coalition of secular activist groups who were instrumental in the revolution. “The people want a completely new constitution.”

On the surface, the eight amendments formulated by a military-appointed commission of legal scholars, satisfy many of the basic demands of the protesters who brought the old regime down. They would establish presidential limits of two four-year terms, eliminate obstacles to forming political parties and launching independent presidential campaigns, limit the once-dominant powers of the executive branch and make it much harder for future presidents to govern under indefinite martial law, as Mubarak did.

Approval of the package would place the country on a fast track to parliamentary elections as early as September. Rejection would likely mean a disruption of that schedule and an extension of Egypt’s period of military rule.

Egyptian media has been dominated for the past week by extensive back-and-forth debate over the amendments. Despite a near-universal desire to get the country in civilian hands as soon as possible, an impressive array of political actors has called for a rejection of proposed changes. This includes many of the youth groups who first sparked the rebellion, as well as future presidential contenders Mohammed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa, the outgoing head of the Arab League.

The only significant political player that has endorsed the changes is the Muslim Brotherhood—a development that essentially turns the referendum into a test of the venerable Islamist group’s street power. Flyers distributed throughout Egypt by the Brotherhood are notably short on the usual religious references, but urge its followers to vote yes “for the sake of Egypt’s stability.”

More cynical observers view the Brotherhood’s enthusiasm as a bit of a power play. They charge that the group is trying to speed the path towards early parliamentary elections where its existing grassroots machine would give it a significant advantage before newer political forces have a chance to solidify and organize themselves.

Whatever the outcome, perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the feisty amendment debate is that nobody is pushing for a boycott.

Watching Egyptians peacefully and passionately disagree about the future of their country can’t possibly be a bad thing.

Egypt’s Own WikiLeaks

15 Mar 11 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa

The historic collapse of the once feared Egyptian police state has spawned a Wikileaks-style flood of secret information into the public sphere.

Starting on 5 March, crowds of protesters forced their way into buildings around the country belonging to former President Hosni Mubarak’s dreaded State Security Investigations Agency. The aggressive moves by the protesters were prompted by several days of mounting concern that sensitive documents were being destroyed or hauled away. In dramatic scenes, angry crowds took over the fortress-like state security headquarters in Alexandria and in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City.

In both cases, demonstrators found ample evidence of systematic document destruction. Still pictures and video taken from inside the state security building in Nasr City showed huge piles of freshly shredded documents. They also depicted a luxurious apartment suite attached to former Minister of Interior Habib el Adly’s personal office.

Local activists are working to gather and assess the huge cache of remaining files. A “State Security Leaks” Facebook page has even been created to archive and display the retrieved documents.

One activist came across a CD containing the names and pictures of hundreds of state security officers. He posted all the pictures onto the Flickr photo-sharing site, but Flickr quickly took the pictures down, saying they were not the activist’s originally-created content.

Although it’s likely that the most incriminating evidence has already been destroyed, the remaining documents vividly reveal the extent of state security’s involvement in nearly all aspects of Egyptian life under Mubarak.

In addition to the personal files on thousands of political figures and everyday citizens, the state security reports reveal evidence of local newspaper editors being offered sweetheart land deals in exchange for their loyalty, and a popular television presenter being warned away from hosting a prominent opposition politician on his show; according to the document posted online, the presenter actually apologised for the misunderstanding and promptly cancelled the politician’s scheduled appearance.

The files also indicate the extent of state security’s phone tapping operations and the existence of a special task force for hacking into the email accounts and Skype conversations of prominent opposition figures.

Perhaps the most explosive and incriminating bit of evidence has not been made fully public. Popular television talk show host Mona el Shazly told her viewers last week that she had been provided with a CD containing recordings of phone calls between former Minister of Interior Habib el Adly and senior officials regarding the decision to fire live ammunition at protesters during the early days of the Egyptian Revolution. El Shazly did not actually play any of the calls on the air, but told viewers the evidence had been given to the attorney general’s office.

El Adly was arrested shortly after Mubarak’s 11 February resignation and is currently on trial for corruption charges. But he still faces no charges related to his actions in attempting to squash the revolution.

Arrest warrants have since been issued for 47 Interior Ministry officers for alleged participation in a coordinated effort to destroy evidence. The brief statement issued via the state-run Middle East News Agency didn’t name any of the officers facing arrest, but said investigators had “proved they were embroiled in burning documents and damaging computers”.

The statement also noted that all state security buildings around the country were now under armed forces control. The army has sent out text messages to Egyptian mobile phone users, calling for citizens to return all state security documents to the military or the prosecutor’s office, so they can be properly investigated.