CAIRO: Banks opened on Sunday after a week-long closure as Egypt’s economy, damaged by the political turmoil caused by the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak and subsequent labor protests, struggled to get back on its feet.
New military rulers watched closely as many Egyptians resumed their jobs on the first day of the working week, after effectively banning labor protests and telling workers to abandon their revolutionary fervor.
The Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the pyramids at Giza were among tourist sites that were reopened to the public for the first time in some three weeks. Egypt’s lucrative tourist sector was dealt a body blow as foreigners stayed away due to unrest.
The Egyptian pound edged weaker in slow trade on Sunday, trading at 5.885 to the US dollar, down from 5.877 when banks were last open on Sunday of last week, a dealer said.
"It was business as usual. The market was cautious and professional," said a trader. Some $340 million traded in the interbank currency market, he added.
The pound weakened to as low as 5.96 to the dollar on Feb. 8, three days before the fall of Hosni Mubarak, from 5.816 before political protests erupted on Jan. 25, but rebounded after the central bank intervened to support it.
There were some pockets of protest in Cairo.
The military, trying to placate pro-democracy reformers who want swift change, said at the weekend that constitutional changes permitting elections in six months should be ready soon and the hated emergency law would be lifted before the polls.
"A new constitution is a long-term goal. Let’s first get the flaws out of the system to bring the process along," one expert on a key constitutional change committee said. "The say of the people is the most important factor in this process."
The new military rulers were also facing their first foreign policy test on Sunday with two Iranian naval vessels about to sail through the Suez Canal, causing grave concern in Israel.
In a difficult decision, the military approved the Iranian ships’ passage. Cairo is a US ally, was the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel and has had strained relations with Iran for more than three decades.
Egyptians generally respect the 470,000-strong military, which played a key role in the downfall of Mubarak by not intervening, but some mistrust its intentions in reshaping a corrupt and oppressive system which it supported for decades.
A court at the weekend approved a new political party that had sought a license for 15 years, making it the first to be recognized since Mubarak’s overthrow and illustrating the political earthquake shaking the new Egypt.
The Wasat Party (Center Party), set up by a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, had tried to gain an official license four times since 1996, but each time its application was rejected by a political parties committee chaired by a leading member of the ruling party, a procedure that stifled opposition.
Washington is watching with discomfort the increasingly important role the Brotherhood is playing in politics in the new Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation. The Brotherhood, easily the best-organized group, says it might win 30 percent of the vote in an election. It has a member on the constitution committee, a member on a council to protect the revolution and wants to register as a political party.
Any sign the army is reneging on its promises of democracy and civilian rule could reignite mass protests, and newly empowered political voices are urging the army to proceed quickly with democracy and to free political prisoners.
Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, also reaching out to reformists, said 222 political prisoners would soon be freed.
Rights groups say thousands were detained without charge under emergency laws and many of them may be classed as political prisoners. Hundreds went missing in the protests, they say, but Shafiq said only a handful were detained.
The government said that 365 died and about 5,000 were injured in the bloodshed that accompanied the revolution.
Dozens of customers queued outside branches of state-owned banks in central Cairo, while the branches of private banks in the city’s upscale Zamalek district were operating normally, Reuters witnesses said.
There were no signs of the worker protests outside the state banks that erupted last Sunday and prompted the central bank to shut down state and private banks for the rest of the week.
Sunday was the seventh day that banks had opened their doors for business since Jan. 27, when they were closed two days after protests broke out against the 30-year iron rule of Mubarak and swept him from power in just 18 days, shaking the Middle East.
There were a few dozen tourists at the Egyptian Museum.
"The tour operators said it was safe for us to go, so we gambled. We didn’t know the museum would be open," said Dutch tourist, supermarket worker Sandra de Rooij. "There was no Plan B. it was Egypt or nothing," she told Reuters.
Not everyone in the Egyptian capital heeded the army’s warning that "the Supreme Council for the Armed forces will not allow the continuation of these illegal practices."
About 70 employees were demonstrating in front of the head office of the Omar Effendi department store chain in central Cairo, demanding that the company be renationalized.
Protesters at Arab Contractors were demanding permanent contracts, higher pay and better working conditions. –Additional reporting by Sarah Mikhail, Edmund Blair, Sherine El Madany, Yasmine Saleh, Shaimaa Fayed, Marwa Awad, Dina Zayed, Tom Pfeiffer, Tom Perry, Patrick Werr, Alexander Dziadosz
