By Rania Al Malky
CAIRO: The debate over the pros and cons of holding legislative elections as early as next September has polarized Egypt’s political class, and in turn the newly politicized Egyptian street, both negatively and positively.
The camp lobbying to postpone the elections — self-proclaimed liberals made up of a handful of parties under formation — argue that early elections will benefit the organized Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.
The emerging scene has been one of ideological tug-of-war pitting a “reactionary” Islamist current against a “progressive” liberal one, in fact resurrecting the duplicitous discourse of the previous regime vis-à-vis the Muslim Brotherhood, and hampering efforts towards reaching national consensus over the best way forward. The fear of Islamists has been so deeply engrained in the “liberal” psyche, that subconsciously, even those who fought in the past for the MB’s right to participate as an official entity in the political process, have contributed to this extremely counterproductive attitude of “us” against “them” which ultimately led both sides to adopt an arrogant, false sense of entitlement based on inflated egos and an obsessive focus on identity politics.
One cannot deny that over the years despite the violent political and social repression the Islamists endured, they continued helping underprivileged communities nationwide by providing essential services through their charity networks. Hence they believe that the sacrifices they made for more than six decades gives them a superior right to reap the fruits of their labor after years of suffering.
Their detractors, on the other hand, argue that since the Brotherhood did not ignite the January 25 Revolution, then they have no right to benefit the most from it, and claim that they have a de facto moral superiority through their unwavering commitment to democratic ideals (which ironically they have yet to prove) and which casts unfounded suspicion on the Freedom and Justice Party’s pronounced commitment to a democratic state, where all are equal before the law, which they too have yet to prove.
Such an atmosphere is not conducive to the kind of consensus building necessary to set sound foundations upon which to build a truly democratic state where guarantees of peaceful rotation of power, respect for inalienable human rights and a commitment to social justice are not solely decided by the ballot box.
Instead of chasing windmills and fighting a lost battle, which in itself constitutes an end-run around democracy, by insisting that the constitution must be drafted first before elections (even though I personally believe that this would have been the best possible scenario), Egypt’s liberals need to move on and focus on the real battle of how the constituent assembly that will draft the new constitution will be chosen. The article concerned with the process of choosing the assembly in the constitutional decree that has replaced the 1971 constitution has been left — perhaps deliberately — vague. This, as well as the process by which articles in the new draft constitution will be decided upon and approved (whether by consensus or majority vote) within the constituent assembly itself, is where the real negotiations must be made.
The exaggerated focus on the outcome of the next People’s Assembly elections at this moment in time is misplaced for two main reasons. First because we still do not have a PA law that will define basic issues such as the electoral process, the number of constituencies, the number of PA seats to be contested as well as the regulations governing how much money is spent on elections campaigns, party funding and even the nature and mandate of the electoral commission etc; and second because at the end of the day this will be the first real general election following decades of apathy on the side of both the electorate and the political parties. The process is all too new to indicate anything more than perhaps an ability to run a free and fair election and to re-instill confidence that voting can make a difference in peoples’ lives.
If there is a case to be made for postponing the elections a month or two, it most certainly is not so that parties can be better prepared — they won’t be before at least two years of hard work, and so the new players must be very realistic when it comes to how many seats they plan to contest and how many they will actually clinch without waging an ideological war.
Any postponement should be made solely to ensure that voters, not parties, are better prepared, that they understand how the system works and what their respective choices will entail. More time is also necessary for the media to figure out how the chosen electoral system — which could be relatively complex — works, and hence be able to explain it and cover the elections professionally.
The one positive outcome of this generally negative polarization, has been that all currents have realized the importance of creating allies and coalitions with other groups and of being pro-active in coming up with an electoral law, for instance, such as the recent agreement between unlikely bedfellows like the Freedom and Justice Party and Al-Wafd who will work on a joint party list and who have invited other parties to create a committee that will draft a PA law instead of waiting for a law to be imposed on them from the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
A rally bringing together seven liberal parties including the Democratic Front, the Free Egyptians, Egypt is Freedom, Social Democrats in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Minya two days ago has also been a positive step that may bode well for the upcoming elections since it has at least clarified which new players are likely to end up in which camp. Positive ideas like agreeing on “meta-constitutional” articles that will guarantee that future winners at the polls will not undermine the basic principals of a democratic state must be embraced again as a step towards national consensus.
Speculation, finger-pointing and accusations of clientelism to foreign agents will only poison the political atmosphere and play into the hands of those who seek to destabilize Egypt. If we stop this “your-apple-is-redder-than-mine” attitude there could be hope that our progress towards full-fledged democracy will take place sooner rather than later.
Rania Al Malky is the Chief Editor of Daily News Egypt.
