CAIRO: The stock market’s drastic decline and the parliament’s increasingly heated debates made headlines throughout the week.
“Black Tuesday was Al-Masry Al-Youm’s description of the dive the Egyptian stock market took on March 14. National newspapers, however, were quick to report the market’s revival in the most prominent spots of their front pages on Thursday, although the news regarding the dive failed to claim the same spots on Wednesday.
In Al-Wafd, Abbas El Tarabeily wrote, “In the stock market tragedy, the small ones lose and the bigger [traders] run away with the bounty. El Tarabeily wondered whether the market’s mishap was a result of external or internal plotting to destroy the country’s economy. He also suggested that the government would provide diversified investment opportunities for its citizens, who had reportedly lost thousands in the brief plunge.
Al-Ahram’s editorial shared the same opinion in part, referring to the “small investors’ panic that led them to sell private property to deal with the brief crash. “The stock market’s administration is partly responsible for this lack of awareness and experience, the article added.
The editorial also suggested that the administration should work toward eliminating “instability from its image to encourage citizens to invest in it.
The debates which engulfed parliament throughout last week, whether they were exchanges of accusations between members of different affiliations or attacks on the government, were extensively covered in the papers.
“NDP and Brotherhood members impolitely exchange accusations, read the headline on Al-Masry’s front page on Tuesday, while on Thursday there was more of the “impoliteness in the headlines. The paper quoted members of the parliament as they debated issues including the use of excessive force against demonstrators and accused the government of corruption.
In its coverage of the debates, Al-Gomhouria kept away from internal debates but noted that for the first time that MPs of different affiliations (NDP or the majority, independent and opposition) were united in their accusations of the government.
In Al-Wafd, Sayed Abdel Atty said that for the first time MPs united in expressing the problems and complaints of the “oppressed nation, describing the gap between government announcements and actions. He also referred to the government’s arbitrary decision-making mechanism.
“The MPs’ revolution against Ahmed Nazif’s government, because it ignores the public’s problems, especially the poor and those with limited income, is a warning that the political leadership shouldn’t ignore, added Abdel Atty.
Talks concerning the integrity and the fate of the Omar Effendi deal also received its share of coverage.
In Al-Masry, Soliman Gouda said that the most important issue in this deal is determining the government’s aim in selling the Omar Effendi chain of stores, saying whether the government intends to break down the chain and sell its land and assets separately or it wants to sell it as a project that a buyer would develop and improve would clarify a lot of issues and would refute claims of corruption.
“The government is still to blame for the state of mystery surrounding selling the project. It is also still the worst lawyer in proposing or defending any case, Gouda added.
Ibrahim Eissa took a different angle in his weekly article in Al-Destour. Eissa focused on the workers and their inaction toward issues that directly concern them; the inevitable laying off of workers or putting them on early retirement following the privatization of corporations.
“Now there is the unemployment, from which a whole generation suffers (in the age bracket of 22 to 32) and the artificially made unemployment for men in the 45-50 age bracket [referring to early retirement], that breaks down the skills, qualifications and the giving nature of any man, Eissa wrote.
Mohamed Salah picked up on the issue of manhood in his article in Al-Masry, but in reference to the latest news of smuggling of Viagra pills. “Do Egyptian men need this enormous amount of the Viagra drug to prove their manhood? wrote Salah.
