CAIRO: Most residents of the Upper Egyptian city of Qena welcomed the decision to appoint Adel Labib as the governor for the second time, while others called for a new civilian governor.
“This man [Labib] turned Qena from a village into a city,” former independent MP Laila Mahmoud told Daily News Egypt.
Labib was the governor of Qena before General Magdy Ayoub, who was described by residents as a “weak” governor who hindered the area’s development.
The Coptic community in Qena hailed the decision as a step towards ending sectarian tension.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf had frozen for three months in February the executive powers of General Mady Mikhael, the former Qena governor who faced strong opposition by the residents, in a bid to diffuse tensions and end a sit-in that lasted 10 days.
Protesters said they wanted a governor unlike Mikhael’s predecessor, Ayoub, who was also Christian and a former police officer.
Beshoy Ramy, member of the Coalition of the Coptic Maspero Youth and resident of Qena, said Labib was firm in applying the law, which defused sectarian tension.
“He never held reconciliation sessions between Muslims and Copts, instead he applied the law and prosecuted anyone who violated it,” Beshoy told DNE.
He added that while other governors had refused to issue permits to build a church in Qena, Labib issued the permit immediately.
Qena resident and graduate of the American University in Cairo Nada Nashaat pointed out that the youth wanted a democratic governor following the ouster of the former “dictator.”
“Labib was sometimes a dictator in his decisions,” Nashaat said, “he did what he believed was right despite peoples’ reaction.”
“However it paid off in the end and most people came around after seeing the amount of development he achieved,” she added.
Mahmoud mentioned that El-Ashraaf tribe, one of the largest in Qena, strongly opposed the return of Labib because he weakened their control and dominance over the governorate.
“Labib was just and fair, he treated everyone the same and of course El-Ashraaf didn’t like that,” she said.
Most of the residents believed that the opposition against Labib would not result in more protests, and instead, people would focus on developing Qena.
Meanwhile, some activists and political powers protested the appointment of Labib, since he’s a former general in the notorious disbanded State Security apparatus.
However Mahmoud challenged them, saying, “We know that he is a good man who didn’t yield to corruption or crime, even under the corrupt era of [former president Hosni] Mubarak.”
Others demanded a new civilian governor.
“He achieve much for Qena’s youth in terms of providing job opportunities or projects serving their best interests,” lawyer and political activist Walid El-Qadi said.
“We wanted a civilian or academic governor who would bring change and show us a new Qena following the revolution,” he added.
Unwelcome in Alexandria
Labib was previously the governor of Alexandria, where residents strongly opposed his decisions and hindered his development projects, according to Mahmoud.
“There are a lot of powerful people in Alexandria who didn’t accept Labib’s attempts to implement the law and develop the governorate,” she added.
Many residents of Alexandria argue that he wasted public funds on what they saw as useless projects.
Leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood and former MP in Alexandria Osama Gado said Labib was a prominent figure of Mubarak’s regime and Alexandrians did not accept him.
Labib was later replaced by Essam Salem who resigned from his post as the governor of Alexandria by popular demand, according the Muslim Brotherhood’s official website.
“Labib will try to prove that Alexandria’s residents were wrong about him,” Mahmoud said, adding that Qena’s residents will also try to prove that Mikhael was the wrong governor for them.
Most of the political powers in Alexandria also opposed the recent appointment of Osama El-Fouly as Salem’s replacement for his affiliation with the disbanded National Democratic Party (NDP) and his involvement in forging the elections of the faculty club of Alexandria University.
“These figures already had their chance in public service and they proved their failure in every post they held,” Gado said.
“We want a governor that wants to achieve the objectives of the revolution,” he added.
Ahmed El-Masry, member of the coalition to protect the revolution in Alexandria voiced Gado’s concerns, adding that the people in Alexandria demanded that Deputy Head of the Cassation Court Ahmed Mekky become their new governor.
“We don’t want anyone affiliated with the former regime to have any authority in our country,” he said.
