By Safaa Abdoun
CAIRO: Political scenarios, media, education and gender equality dominated discussions at the “Cairo Dialogues” conference this week where participants compared Egypt’s transition to that of Spain, Portugal and Turkey.
“As Portugal inaugurated what was called the third wave of democratization, here in Egypt it seems to me that we are witnessing an ongoing fourth wave,” said former President of Portugal Jorge Sampaio.
“Whatever path it will follow, you initiated your democratic process as an expression of the right to political self determination.”
Sampio is also the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations. He spoke at the closing of the two-day conference, held at the Arab League under the title of “The Cairo dialogue in Building democracy — exchanging experiences, confronting challenges.”
Panelists from Spain, Portugal and Turkey continued to pass on the experience of their countries in their transition towards democracy at the conference held by the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Panelists tried to offer suggestions on how Egypt could benefit from these experiences as it goes through a critical transitional period.
Turkish Ambassador in Egypt, Havni Botsali, advised Egyptians to “put their act together.”
“Egypt needs security and to get security on the street, Egypt needs a functioning economy,” he said adding that Egypt needs to become an attraction for FDI and tourism.
Furthermore he said that “[Egypt] needs a vibrant middle class, needs an empowered middle class, as that’s the only way to sustain democracy.”
Who will govern?
In the plenary session titled ‘Political parties, participation and representation’ Professor Andre Freire form Lisbon University Institute, explained two models of democracy answering the major question: who will govern?
“They are two opposite solutions, both democratic and both dependent on free and fair elections but answer different goals,” he said.
The first is having the concentration of power in the most voted party, hence a single party government. In this case there will usually be two major parties, one is the ruling and the other is the opposition.
The second model would entail “as many people as possible governing,” Freire said. It also entails proportional representation in parliament and a multi-party system ensuring representation of all parts of society. “The point is sharing power and it is best suited to heterogeneous societies like the Arab society and the Egyptian society,” he explained.
However, there is no such thing as finished democracy, he noted. Drawing from the Portuguese experience, he said the reform process would be continuous.
Private media and conspiracy theories
Media is a great tool in building democracies, Portuguese journalist, Candida Pinto noted. Access of information, she added, is important during the transition phase as “more information [leads] to better decisions.”
“Media should always look at why things are happening in a certain way,” she said.
In Egypt, the privately owned media is being shaped by the interests of its owners, Al Masry Al Youm journalist Noha El Hennawy said, stressing that such media should be labeled as “private” not “independent.”
She cited the expulsion of TV host Dina Abdel-Rahman this week by the owner of Dream TV, Ahmed Bahgat, as an example of interference.
Conspiracy theory was also another feature of media in this transition period. DNE deputy editor, Sarah El-Sirgany, said it “has taken a life of its own” in post-Jan. 25 Egypt.
Text and pictures available on social media is now being used as a source of “facts” without any verification in mainstream media, El-Sirgany said. “There is a loss of professionalism … with no inquisitive mind in investigative reporting.”
Education
Democracy and education are interrelated, argued the panelist of one of the sessions, noting the impact of the political process on the educational field.
The keynote speak at this debate, Professor Antonio Novoa, President of Lisbon University, said education has an important role in promoting social cohesion and giving opportunities to people. Yet problems in facilitating education persist, in terms of creating schools for poor and others for the rich as among ways that create some type of division in society.
“[School is a] place for dialogue, a place to learn from each other and to speak to one another,” said Novoa.
In education, equilibrium between different perspectives has to be achieved even though it is very difficult to construct, he added.
“We need to have a language, a language to speak to each other, but at the same time we have to be different, so we could have something interesting to share with each other,” he said, noting that education isn’t limited to school, but also in social life, media and family.
Women’s role
Fatma Khafagi, member of the Alliance for Arab Women, described how women fully participated in the mass protests that ousted the president. As common in other countries in the aftermath of revolutions, women were then sidelined, she added.
The revolution, she continued, gave an opportunity to groups that have conservative views regarding women to come out and voice these opinions.
Speaking about the Spanish experience in its transformation from an oppressed regime to a democratic one, Irune Aguirrezabal Quijera, head of the representation of the Basque government in Madrid, said, “Gender balance requires profound structural changes but also a change in the minds and souls of the people.”
She noted that other reforms were given higher priorities on the pretext that the pursuit of women rights was distracting, leaving the job mainly in the hands of leftist parties.
“[Women rights are the] core of profound political change, how could we say in a better place if half the society are oppressed,” she added.
Former Egyptian MP and journalist, Amina Shafik, pointed out that women can not be sidelined during this period as “we have rights and duties to take part in [building] the new Egypt.”
Helena Barroco, special advisor to Sampaio, spoke about the Portuguese experience.
“Constitutional amendments allowed change [as they] concentrated the principles of equality,” she said.
However, Barroco pointed out that the real change was in attitudes and value systems, “If you can’t change the minds and hearts of the people, it won’t be a long-standing change.”
