Baheyya on myths about protest

Baheyya is back with a new piece. As always she offers us the wider perspective, which is a scarce commodity these days. A must read - Four Myths about Protest.

Mona al Shazly interview with Dubya

Here is the much talked about interview that 10 PM´s Mona al Shazly on dream TV did with George Bush earlier this week in the map room of the White house. It´s only 8 minutes and four questions. On the relations between the U.S and Egypt and the situation for democracy in Egypt. Israel and Palestine as Israel celebrates 60 years since the state came in to being and the Palestinians commemorate al Naqba. Then the question if he still believed in the ¨You´re with us or against us¨ dogma. And then the perception of many Arabs , that the U.S helped in creating the current situation and on how history will judge George W Bush´s legacy as President. The interview is in Arabic, but the White house transcript can be viewed here

I also throw in an interview with Mona herself on how this interview came about. This was done prior to airing the interview with the President.

There is a second part of the show after the interview, a discusssion with the Egyptian ambassador to Washington Nabil Fahmy and an interview with carnegie scholar Dr Amr Hamzawy talking about the interview and US policy towards Egypt, i will post it here as soon as i get my hands on it. There is also a two part interview with former American ambasador to Cairo , Francis J. Ricciardone in Middle East Progress that could be useful for context here(Part I) and here(Part II). The first part is on Egypt´s regional role and the second part on domestic issues.

Hamzawy/Herzallah part II

In April, Amr Hamzawy and Mohammed Herzallah wrote a Carnegie Policy Outlook paper on the local elections in Egypt. I wrote about it in a blogpost . Yesterday the
duo penned an article for WaPo´s Think Tank Town, with the title: Egypt's Unrest in Perspective.

A sample:

Remarkably, the regime seems to have abandoned the option of using political reforms to defuse socioeconomic tensions. Instead it has consistently tried to contain social strife through a combination of repressive measures that included arbitrary arrests, and minor economic conciliatory measures like expanding the welfare beneficiary pool and raising wages in the public sector. This stands in contrast to what happened in the 2003-2005 period. The political openings of those years followed the economic difficulties the country was experiencing as a result of the government's decision to float the national currency. Among the political reforms introduced in this period was eased control over opposition activities, constitutional amendments allowing multicandidate presidential elections, and toleration of political participation by the major Islamist opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.

A similar wave of political reforms by the regime seems far less likely today, as a trouble-free presidential succession, anticipated for 2011, seems to surpass any other considerations. In fact, developments on the ground suggest that the regime has completely recoiled from the reform agenda and returned to old authoritarian habits.

In the next paragraph Hamzawy and Herzallah mentions the 34 amendments of the constitution(the most thorough change in the current constitution since it was introduced in September 1971), rushed through parliament, before taken to a referendum in March 207 as a serious blow to political reform. It was more than that, it was the Dance of Death for top-down controlled political reform for the foreseeable future, that is post-succession, presumably sometime after 2011. What was packaged and introduced to the people of Egypt as the single most important part of political reform, was in fact the complete opposite. It was an integral part in creating the political infrastructure for a de facto continuation of the dominant party within the ¨democratic facade¨ system that has been serving it´s purpose since the re-introduction to multi-party life in Egyptian politics in 1975-76. Creating a chimera of political reform within the existing system, while closing down practically all avenues for the Muslim Brotherhood, who runs in elections as Independents.

It will also limit other Independents from having a fair chance of getting elected. This will of course also have a side effect in terms of fixing the current problem within the NDP with renegade members of parliament not deemed necessary or good enough for re-election on the NDP ticket whom until now, has had the option of running as Independents against the official NDP-candidate in his constituency(the only reason for me chosing the masculine form is to show the lack of female candidates , despite the rhetoric of the higher NDP-officials) , and in many cases upset the official party candidate in the past two parliamentary elections of 2000 and 2005. Clearing the path for people with ¨new vision¨ .

Nothing in the last 14 months suggests a change in that patern, the way the two elections held after the amendments , Shura and local elections was conducted leaves in terms of obstructing the MB as well as the legal opposition from participating. The prolonged military court case of Khairat ash Shater and harsh verdicts. The way of dealing with the opposition press, bloggers, labour activists and facebookists is indeed no new policy. It´s the new vision , with the same old spectacles. If anything the patern has become clearer.

Qawkab ash Sharq on NPR

NPR has a 13 minutes piece on Umm Kalthoum here. Interviews with the director of the Umm Kalthoum museum, Dr Walid Shousha and Virginia Danielson , whom has written Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt on the star, it´s also available in a DVD version here.

Danielson says that in order to describe the lady and how popular she was(and still is) you have to think of the musical tops of Ella Fitzgerald combined with the public persona of Elinor Roosevelt and the audience of Elvis Presley - it´s pretty much what i usually say when being asked the question of her popularity, though i would say that if you combine the popularity of Elvis, the Beatles and Michael Jackson(in the 80´s, before turning bad), then perhaps you will begin to grasp her popularity, callled the fourth pyramid, the only name that perhaps can match her in Egypt during the last 60 years of Egyptian history is Nasser´s. Maybe it´s no coincidence that their respective careers were so intertwined. Her career was huge prior to the 1952 revolution, but she would probably not have been able to transcend the boundaries of Egypt and become the Arab diva of her generation, if not for the parallel political change in the Arab world with Nasser as it´s undisputable leader from 1956-67, and the importance of the radio station Sawt al Arab, that in some way was the equivalent of al Jazeera today, in terms of impact. at the time, her song "Walla Zaman Ya Selahy" (Oh, My Weapon) was the national anthem from 1960 to the Camp David accords 1979.

Her most popular songs are anta oumri and al atlal, and she is the definite voice of her century in Egypt. More about her life and music can be found here, here, here and here.

HRW Statement on Ahmed Maher

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Ahmed Maher two days ago. It urges the Egyptian authorities to investigate the case.

On May 7th, the facebook activist´s car was stopped on the street and he was pulled into a minibuss by eight-12 men in civilian clothes. He was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to the New Cairo(al Qahira al Jadida) police station were he was stripped naked, and subjugated to beatings, mostly on his back and neck.

After roughly three hours he was taken to the SSI headquarters at Lazoughli(Mabahes amn ad Dawla), were he was once again stripped to his underwear and threatend to be raped, and beaten off and on while being asked for the password, and details of group members of the April 6th facebook group.

According to Maher, the SSI officers used lotion on his body in between beatings in order to reduce bruising.

He was released before dawn the next day, May 8th, so he was held for about 12-14 hours, without being charged for anything.

Joe Stork , Deputy Director of the Middle East at the HRW views this as part of a pattern:

“This is the work of thugs, pure and simple.The government must show that those responsible for upholding the law are also subject to the law. Sadly, Maher’s treatment is part of a pattern of abuse and extralegal intimidation by state officials. Egypt needs to put an end to the lawlessness of its law-enforcement officers.”

The occurence of the incident was denied by an Egyptian security official who asked to remain anonymous according to AFP.

Unfortunately the pattern that Stork talks about is as crystal clear as the Alexandria summer sun, we have grown all too familiar with cases like Qandil, Sharqawi, ash Shaér and Imad al Kabir ower the last years, only to name but a few. unfortunately this is most likely, only the tip of the iceberg. Most cases still remain behind the sun.

UPDATE: Amira al Husseini has a roundup of the case here, with a video-clip with Ahmed showing how the upper part of his body looked like after having spent 12 hours at al Qahira al Gedida police station and SSI headquarters at Lazoughli.

Ya sitt ad Dunya , ya Beirut

Majda al Roumi sings Nizar Qabbani´s poem Ya Beirut.

This will be cross-posted on diwan of democracy

Wael Abbas recieves the Hellman-Hamlett Award

The Egyptian blogger/journalist Wael Abbas has recieved the Hellman-Hamlett Award from the Human Rights Watch. Here some more information on the award(no press release yet on the current award winner).

1000 Mabrouk ya Wael!