AFTER electing post-revolution Egypt's first president, the Egyptian people shouldn't focus on anything else than the writing of the new constitution and the ongoing conflict over its different articles. Regardless of the Constituent Assembly's unbalanced configuration, civil and revolutionary powers should make sure that the new constitution agrees with the principles and goals of the great January 25 Revolution. They should insist that the new constitution includes articles that protect the state's civil identity, respect human rights and equal citizenship of all Egyptians. It is no exaggeration to describe the ongoing debate over the content of the constitution as a fierce battle between civil powers, Islamist groups and the military authority, and all want the new constitution to serve their own goals. However, it is unacceptable that the new constitution contains articles that enhance the military's authority, considering that the revolution meant to topple Mubarak's totalitarian military regime, or others that change Egypt's moderate Islamic identity. The new constitution will determine how Egypt is governed in the future, by presidential or parliamentary rule, or by a combination of the two. In any case, the parliament should be a strong independent institution able to supervise the executive authority's performance under a president or participate in forming a government under the parliamentary system. Herein lies the importance of reconsidering a specific article in the 1954 Constitution. It allocates half of all parliament seats to farmers and workers. Despite the fact that this article meant to enable these marginalised groups to participate in the decision-making process and improve their living conditions, all consecutive parliaments failed to ensure their rights or protect their lives and work from deterioration. Lack of proper education prevented the marginalised from playing an influential role in debating legislation related to their work or in supervising the government. They were ultimately used by the ruling party to get majority approval for whatever laws the regime wanted to push through. Now, while talking about creating a second republic in Egypt, the parliament should play an influential role in the decision-making process. Therefore, parliamentary membership should in the first place be given to well-educated people and not any party or group. However, this doesn't exclude farmers, workers or any other sector. But the 50 per cent quota for farmers and workers should be abolished; it needs to be left to the people to choose their representatives from any category, even if the result is that farmers and workers constitute 80 per cent of all MPs. Different powers and the entire society need to debate the other articles carefully before and after writing the draft constitution and prior to the referendum. This will enable the public to make the right decision.
