PM Ahmed Nazif on BBC´s hardtalk today
Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif will be interviewed by Stephen Sackur on my favourite BBC world show, HARDtalk today.
Here are some soundbites:
It begins like this:
Q: Is Egypt a democracy?
A: Well, Yes it is, because a democracy is not something you can switch on and off, it´s just a process that takes place over time. Will you call the US, a democracy 50 years ago? Will you call it a democracy 10 years ago?, or 200 years ago? It depends in the stage of democracy, of democratic reform you are in. I think we have taken very good steps, towards becoming a full-fledged democracy.
Q: How would you explain then , the fact that after your (inaudible) of election, presidential and parliamentary elections , the international community reacted with a great deal of scepticism, just to qoute one respected group, Human Rights Watch, they say ¨that the elections was marked by extensive irregularites and in some cases, serious violence¨.
A: Well,I think you have to put things in context, if you compare that election with the previous one, maybe five years ago, you will see a marked improvement in the process itself, i give you many examples, one: we had transparent ballot boxes for the first time in Egypt, we had Presidential elections with multi candidates , we had equal time campaigning on public televison for all candidates, so many many improvements.
Many other subjects, the Muslim Brotherhood,human rights, al Ghad, which he calls ¨a very superficial party, made up of people here and there, no ideology at all¨.
Interesting comming from someone from the superideological NDP!
Questions about the vicepresidency, Gamal, Condi and relations with the Americans. There is much more, so go and watch!
HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 03:30 GMT, 0830 GMT, 1530 GMT, 1830 GMT, 2330 GMT(Cairo GMT+2), or you can watch it on the net later via the above link, probably from tomorrow, and they keep it on their website for a week). They had Gamela Ismail(Ayman Nour´s wife) on the show a couple of weeks ago.
I would also like to recommend another show on BBC world. HARDtalk´s legendary host Tim Sebastian , now hosts the Doha Debates. They had a debate on the theme - Does the Arab media need to learn from the West?
with Mona el Tahawy, Marc Lynch, Abdallah Shleifer and Khaled Hroub.
Ahmed Nazif, Egypt, BBC, HARDtalk
Here are some soundbites:
It begins like this:
Q: Is Egypt a democracy?
A: Well, Yes it is, because a democracy is not something you can switch on and off, it´s just a process that takes place over time. Will you call the US, a democracy 50 years ago? Will you call it a democracy 10 years ago?, or 200 years ago? It depends in the stage of democracy, of democratic reform you are in. I think we have taken very good steps, towards becoming a full-fledged democracy.
Q: How would you explain then , the fact that after your (inaudible) of election, presidential and parliamentary elections , the international community reacted with a great deal of scepticism, just to qoute one respected group, Human Rights Watch, they say ¨that the elections was marked by extensive irregularites and in some cases, serious violence¨.
A: Well,I think you have to put things in context, if you compare that election with the previous one, maybe five years ago, you will see a marked improvement in the process itself, i give you many examples, one: we had transparent ballot boxes for the first time in Egypt, we had Presidential elections with multi candidates , we had equal time campaigning on public televison for all candidates, so many many improvements.
Many other subjects, the Muslim Brotherhood,human rights, al Ghad, which he calls ¨a very superficial party, made up of people here and there, no ideology at all¨.
Interesting comming from someone from the superideological NDP!
Questions about the vicepresidency, Gamal, Condi and relations with the Americans. There is much more, so go and watch!
HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 03:30 GMT, 0830 GMT, 1530 GMT, 1830 GMT, 2330 GMT(Cairo GMT+2), or you can watch it on the net later via the above link, probably from tomorrow, and they keep it on their website for a week). They had Gamela Ismail(Ayman Nour´s wife) on the show a couple of weeks ago.
I would also like to recommend another show on BBC world. HARDtalk´s legendary host Tim Sebastian , now hosts the Doha Debates. They had a debate on the theme - Does the Arab media need to learn from the West?
with Mona el Tahawy, Marc Lynch, Abdallah Shleifer and Khaled Hroub.
Ahmed Nazif, Egypt, BBC, HARDtalk
posted by Ibn ad Dunya at 9:41 AM
3 Comments:
Hi raf,
Yeah i totaly agree, Abu Aardvark didn´t exactly benefit from coteammate, both Abdallah and Mona were brilliant, excellent, etc...! Enjoy the show! Vintage Ahmed Nazif!
Would love that(You doing the interview!) Well he´s no Tim Sebastian, but i think the answers from Ahmed Nazif speaks for themselves, and says more about the way the ¨new generation¨ thinks, about reform, precisely the same way as the old. How they patronize the Egyptian people, the way he talks about 7000 years of strong leadership, etc etc That he could get away with what he says is of course not good, but this is not the first, and probably not the last time that will happen. The level of knowledge amongst journalists generally about Egypt, is not that good! ,or the region as a whole. Mr Lloyd of the FT, being a recent case in point....
That is to say, journalists who dosen´t deal with the region on a day to day basis.
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