Economic and social matters predominated, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed Until a few years ago it was not easy for people in Egypt to openly criticise the government. Today, the press is inundated with such criticism, a sure sign of the emergence of a vibrant democracy in the country. Much of the news coming out of Egypt in recent months has concerned the complaints of the vast majority of the population whose poverty has been exacerbated by the free-market reforms imposed by the dictates of globalisation, and pressure from the United States to privatise and deregulate the economy while instituting political reform. The demand for human rights has metamorphosed into an unprecedented crescendo. The rights of workers home and abroad has attained a poignancy unheard of before. Fahmy Howeidy, writing in the daily opposition Al-Dostour about what he dubbed "home-delivery torture", was critical of the government's handling of the crisis of Egyptian workers in other Arab countries who complain of oppression at the hands of Arabian Gulf employees, security forces and the police. What is more, Howeidy compared the oppression of Egyptian workers at home with their compatriots in the Gulf. "The Ministry of Interior has widened its services to the people by administering torture at home. What happened to the plumber of Omraniya best proves this point." Howeidy looked at the current crisis of the suffering of Egyptian workers abroad in historical retrospect. "In the past, Egypt was sending teachers and professors to all Arab capitals. Now it sends state security officers who are veterans in making the accused confess." He concluded with a poignant point: the suffering of Egyptian workers in the Gulf is no more distressing than that of Egyptian workers in Egypt. "I wonder why there is all this anger [because of the case of Egyptians who were tortured in Kuwait]... since the Kuwaitis did not do anything to the Egyptians there more than what the Ministry of Interior does to citizens here in Egypt." Writing in the daily opposition Al-Ahrar about the Egyptian workers who were tortured in a police station in Kuwait, Essam Kamel took up the same theme. However, Kamel tackled the issue from a nationalistic, anti-Gulf Arab perspective. He was scornful of the Kuwaitis and reminded them that when their country was an insignificant backwater, it was Egyptian professionals who built the country from scratch. "If [those torturers] are ignorant of history, they might ask their predecessors how the Egyptian teacher came to their alleyways [in the past] to enlighten their ignorance." In much the same vein, Al-Wafd, the daily liberal mouthpiece of Al-Wafd Party, launched a harsh critique against the regime. In commemoration of late leaders of the party, Mahmoud Abaza was quoted as saying: "The government has forsaken Egypt's poor." The writer went on to lambast the government's lack of sympathy with the poor who constitute the vast majority of the population. "Autocracy has ruled out the people and shadowed the nation. Violation of human rights severs the relationship between a citizen and his country." Abaza also linked the suffering of the impoverished majority to economic deregulation policies. Privatisation and economic liberalisation are the cause of much suffering, he contended. "What happened in Banque du Caire is pulling the wool over the people's eyes." He summed up the consequences of government mismanagement: "The people pay the price of the regime's mistakes." Taking up this theme further, Mohamed Mustafa Sherdi wrote in the opposition daily Al-Wafd about the financial hardships Egyptian families are expected to face in September which will mark the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan and the new academic year. "Any Egyptian who can pass next September without sustaining casualties deserves to be included in the Guinness Book of World Records. How can we continue living, and how can an [average] citizen fulfil his needs while prices are skyrocketing and his salary is insufficient?" Indeed, the papers were agog with doomsday scenarios about the onset of Ramadan. This year, the problems are compounded by the fact that Ramadan coincides with the beginning of the start of the school year. Nevertheless, some papers defended the government's record of catering to the wants of the poor and needy. Akhbar Al-Yom ran an interview with President Hosni Mubarak in which the country's leader was presented as a benevolent and benign head of state. The paper's editor-in-chief, Momtaz El-Qott, wrote a piece on Mubarak's keen interest in every tiny detail concerning the life of the low- income bracket. "In all his questions [to ministers] the low-income people are uppermost in the mind of President Mubarak. He knows that the fruits of reform will take time to be reaped." However, Akhbar Al-Yom 's coverage of the president's goals were contradicted by other papers. Magdi Mehanna wrote in the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom about Mubarak's statements in which the president said he would not tolerate the minority opposition which stirs unrest and tries to tarnish "the great achievements achieved by the Egyptian people." Tongue-in-cheek, Mehanna mocked the presidential pronouncement, wondering what these achievements actually are. "Would President Mubarak mention what these achievements are? Is the diminishing Egyptian role in the international arena one of these achievements? Is the policy of selling off the public sector and getting rid of state assets one of these achievements? Are the people's incessant complaints about skyrocketing commodity and service prices and the standard of living getting lower one of the greatest achievements the president would attribute to the Egyptian people? Would you tell us President [Mubarak] what the people's achievements are so that we can defend and protect them from the rogue minority [opposition]?" The question of how opposition parties operate was raised by several pundits. There is the question of mystifying the dynamics behind party politics. In consequence there remains an enormous amount that we don't know about regarding the inner workings of opposition parties.
