Intellectual Tāriq al-Bishrī said he was not worried about the question
raised about
an alternative to the incumbent ruling regime, adding that the alternative to disease is
usually the cure and the
alternative to corruption is reform.
Bishrī, speaking during the annual
iftār banquet
hosted by the Muslim Brotherhood, said that hazards have been growing against
Egypt, including foreign ones
embodied in Israel and internal ones embodied in Egypt’s dependence on foreign
countries for meeting its
essential needs, such as wheat.
The gravest hazard of all is the policy
pursued by the current government to
sell everything at any price and to disintegrate state institutions,
said Bishrī, urging the state to
strengthen democratic practices.
‘Azīz Sidqī,
General Coordinator of the National
Front for Change, better known as Kifāyah [Reviewer: the word is an
Arabic for "enough" in reference to
President Husnī Mubārak’s rule], said Egypt is going through a
disaster everyday as a result of
negligence and the failures of state policies.
Sidqī said he has
proposed political and economic
solutions through his front but unfortunately everything is moving towards
the worst, especially illustrated in the
amendment of article 76 of the constitution.
He said that he
has seen with his own eyes unprecedented
“rigging” during recent elections, noting Egypt that is witnessing
its worst phase in history due to some
figures’ monopoly of leading positions in the ruling party and
attempts to dominate the
nation.
Sidqī demanded that a national front, made up of all Egyptian
parties, take power to rescue
the country from its problems, adding that corruption is running rampant and
state-owned factories are being sold
at very cheap prices, like in the case of the ‘Umar
Afandī chain stores deal. [Reviewer: there
was recent controversy about the selling of state-owned Omar
Effendi chain stores for a sum of 300 million Egyptian
pounds to a Kuwaiti company, amidst arguments that
the 82 outlets and their warehouses were worth much more than
the sum offered. For more information about
this issue, see al-Ahrām weekly report about the deal
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/768/ec2.htm].
He wondered who gave the government the right to sell
people’s property without asking their opinions about it.
On the nuclear program announced recently
by
the state, Sidqī said the program and the atomic reactor idea is not new. This program had been the
subject
of study for 40 years and President Mubārak approved it before then withdrew his approval before
his recent
announcement to launch it, he said.
Muhammad Mahdī ‘Ākif, the guide of
the Muslim
Brotherhood, said the state has suppressed the electorate and judges by enacting the law on
judicial power in a way
that guarantees zero independence for judges.
The siege of political parties
and the ban on establishing new
ones is still going on and businessmen’s control over power is growing day
by day, which explains the current
monopolistic practices and financial and administrative corruption, said
‘Ākif.
The
Brotherhood chief said, as a result of this, some people’s fortunes have
ballooned while millions of people in
Egypt are getting poorer and poorer, adding that this has actually
resulted in the disappearance of the middle
class.
‘Ākif said the recent ruling
National Democratic Party (N.D.P.) congress was
convened only to discuss ways to consolidate the father-to-
son transfer of power and to broom up the heir, which he
totally rejects.
