Egypt's "Committees of the Wise"

February 4, 2011
Cairo Egypt
www.myeyeonegypt.net

Egypt’s “Committees of the Wise”

While protestors holdfast in Tahrir Square, Egypt’s activists, intellectuals and political figures cluster in “Committees of the Wise” to figure out how to manage a transition.

All agree on certain requirements:

• Free and fair elections monitored by the judiciary and maybe international observers.
• Amnesty for those protestors who have been arrested
• Immediate removal of the emergency law which prevents even small groups of people to gather for a common purpose and which has made generous room for the state to arrest and punish those whose opinions it dislikes.
• Permission for candidates from any party to run for office.
• Investigation of corruption and establishment of systems to prevent further abuse. Some groups are likely to want to bring the corrupt to justice.
• New constitution.

More controversial are terms for interim administration of the country.  Some possibilities:

• Mubarak leaves the country and his current vice-president, Omar Suleiman takes over, provided Suleiman agrees to changes in the constitution noted above.
• Mubarak stays in office but delegates responsibilities to Suleiman (who has just announced this an unlikely scenario).
• Mubarak stays as he proposed.
• Someone not yet named leads the interim government. The most likely candidate is Amr Moussa, well-known for his political skill and past leadership. Mohamed al-Baradei, often mentioned in the west, does not have much popular support.

One of Egypt’s richest supports protest

Naguib Sawiris, owner of the Orascom telephone company and one of the world’s richest men , announced his enthusiastic support for the protestors.  He shrugged off concerns about loss of stockholders.

Others involved in the search for a workable transition are Dr. Ahmed Kamal Abul-Magd,  Salama Ahmed Salama, Jamil Mattar,  Dr. Amr Hamzawy, and Abdul Aziz Omar.

 

Modesty of the Muslim Brotherhood

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, long misrepresented by the Mubarak regime asaggressive and dangerous, is taking a modest position. It will not put up candidates for president in the hoped for “free and fair” elections, nor would its members accept cabinet appointments. It would, however, put forward candidates for parliament, as it has done in the past.

It has been illegal for members of the Brotherhood to run for parliament. Those who have stood have done so ran as independents – typically being arrested before voting day came round.

Outside influence

Egyptians are sensitive to any foreign intervention, although America might have more street credit had it spoken in support of the rights of demonstrators sooner than it did.

Still, sophisticated observers understand that America has interests in Egypt and, all things considered, may have played its hand well. It’s definitely awkward all around.

Of greater concern to many are attempts by Iran, in particular, to hi-jack the revolution

 

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Comments

[Todd Boyle]

Thank you Amal for "Outside Influence". Yes, some elements of america would have more influence if they spoke earlier. To that I had two reactions. First, of course the word America conflates so many different things, perhaps you should have said the USG or US media, or US politicians... My other reaction was that we, the ordinary population are preyed upon, economically, just as are Egyptians. We have an endless struggle to achieve any role in policy, just as do Egyptians. It is for them, to learn from whatever works for the social justice movement in the U.S. just as it is, for us now to learn from the wonderful demonstrations in Egypt.