(Photo by Mahmoud Fikry)
Like many Egyptians he is anxious and concerned for the country, he does not see a specific approach pursued by the government, he objects to the poor performance in the economic field and warns that the patience of the people must have incentives. He stresses that the current scene shows that Al-Sisi works in a direction while Mehleb’s government works in a whole different one, separate from each other.
In an interview with Daily News Egypt, Lieutenant General Hossam Khairallah, who is the former head of the operations room of Egyptian General Intelligence and former presidential candidate, angrily addressed the ruling regime and the executive arm of the government. He objected to the false information regarding the new capital and the Suez Canal development axis, as well as the elections which he said the state could hold any time provided that they have the desire to do so.
Will there be parliamentary elections?
The question is, does the state want to hold elections or not? If it wants to, it will.
Would the presence of parliament now be good for the state?
I hope it would be in the benefit of the state; Arab states have required us to have a parliament to be able to help us, especially that the arguments for the delay are not convincing.
Why did you enter the parliamentary race late?
I did not enter late. I had no intention to enter at all but someone convinced me to. The delays gave me a chance to re-evaluate and “screen” the lists. I rely on the local man who everyone recognises, I only bet on public figures in a minimal range. I work strongly in Upper Egypt and Chancellor Tahany El-Gebaly leads the Delta group.
What about funding?
I rely on participants of the Republican Coalition for funding.
Do you think the next National Assembly will be able to fulfil its responsibilities?
I hope the next assembly would have the capacity to fulfil at least 60% of its monitoring and legislative roles because the road to democracy is long and here comes the role of the media monitoring authority.
What are the main demands you intend to present to the parliament once it is in session?
I will demand votes on legislations be taken in the presence of all members, except those who have a lawful compelling reason for absence.
I have suggested a while ago that the president to is given the authority to send 5,000 soldiers outside the borders in cases of emergency, provided that he refers back to the parliament within a week.
Why this suggestion?
Assume someone is attacked by pirates in the sea. for example. Do you wait for the parliament?
The matter is subject to a system and limited restrictions on the authority, withinthe framework of achieving national security.
(Photo by Mahmoud Fikry)
Who will the public choose?
Unfortunately, the public is indifferent and unconcerned.
Aren’t you afraid of political Islamists?
Their percentage in the parliament will not exceed 20%.
Who has the ability to mobilise?
No one. We have about 115 parties, as the next party’s total membership is less than 1% of the population of Egypt. Nevertheless, the state must provide the elements of success of the elections, and you should know that Upper Egypt, due to tribalism, is more concerned with voting in the elections.
What about political Islam?
Political Islam still exists, but its presence will not make it a striking force in the next parliament, and they will not exceed 20%, as I’ve said.
But some of the political powers believe that they will have a negative impact on the parliament performance?
Contrast and opposition are inevitable healthy symptoms. They work as a shield in front of external pressure. Israel used that in the peace negotiations with Egypt after the October war. However, Anwar El Sadat did not use it and dissolved the parliament, where he asked for confidential voting on the treaty. He knew that 84 parliament members opposed the treaty, while there were only 13 opponents in the parliament. So, he asked the voting to be public by the raising of hands; the result was that only the 13 known opponents raised their hands. After that, he dissolved the parliament, despite the fact that he had a vision and no one then was in the same line with him in executing this vision. However, it was possible to use the opposition card in time of negotiations, if he wanted.
Would you be part of coalitions, in case you win a seat in the parliament?
After elections come to an end and a worthy percentage is acquired, we will look at allying with others. We seek to form a coalition which exceeds 30% out of the total number of seats, in order to be a striking power.
But will you compete for all lists?
There is no complete list, and even those who claim that they have four lists are not sincere; map of ideological blocs is known. For instance, Beheira, Alexandria, and Marsa Matruh are blocs of Salafis.
What about candidates to single seats?
If you do not coordinate with candidates to single seats, you will not win. Single seats will support lists; we are working on this coordination from now.
Do you not believe that the regime has a trend of excluding group of 30 June from the political scene, like Al Zend, El-Sayed El-Badawi, and founder of Tamarod, Mahmoud Badr?
Al Zend, for health reasons, became unable to complete giving; he has to take a warrior break. El-Sayed El-Badawi is the most one harmed of the Wafd Party; Tamarod was not the idea of Mahmoud Badr, who took more than he deserves.
Where does our economic regime take us?
Don’t we have contradictions in all numbers? How can we have all this contradiction and at the same time want people to invest in our country? And worse, when the country decided to halt importing from inside to free zones, as if it combats the national economy, meaning that if you want to import long staple Egyptian cotton in order to export it to abroad, and you have factory in free zone, you will not be able to do so. The same thing goes with other domestic materials, like leather for instance.
Investors look for security, stability, promising market and competitive advantage to work and achieve profits. What do you have to offer to investors, that nobody else does?
Why do I feel that you are not excited about the new capital?
Why do we fool people and claim that the new administrative capital is 45 km away from Cairo, while it is only 15 km from New Cairo? My question comes because I believe that the decision will increase traffic jam in Cairo. 15 km means that it will be part of Cairo’s urban space within a few years.
My second question is where will you get water for the new administrative centre from? We have 32 water sources near Maadi, and New Cairo was suffering from water shortage last year, although less than 20% of its supposed residents live there, meaning that after it will reach its expected population, which is 5 million, there will be a disaster, and you as a state increase burdens. That is why I wished, for many reasons, some of which are strategic, that it would be in the West Nile, near Fayoum for instance. That is why I wished to have parliament, to not allow things to pass this way.
Why? Would it object?
If parliament carries out its mission, which will not be aiming at crippling regime, but assisting it, not looking for mistakes.
What is your vision about the New Suez Canal?
The new canal branch is good; however, what is your bet? Do you bet on 1,000 ships to pass through it next August and make the revenue resulting from these ships to reach $13bn? Sure, practically, this will not happen. Lieutenant General Memish told me that this is targeted by 2020.
What do they bet on here?
Here, the bet is on logistic services; 4% of the international trade passes through Panama Canal, and it makes $40bn, while 8% passes through Suez, and achieves $5.5bn. The difference between them and us is in logistic services. The hope to reach $100bn with the new branch or axe is in completing the system by international level logistic services. Moreover, this depends on security in Sinai; terrorism in Sinai must be eliminated fast.
Is the war against terrorism about to end?
Supposedly, the state knows about every span in Egypt so why did the war take so long there?
My background is military and I can see that there are a lot of questions about some events taking place; for example, how was Al-Arish police station bombed? Why don’t we supply the police station with heavy weapons? Why don’t we extend the space of allowed distance to be 300 metres instead of 50 metres? Also there are planes without pilot that can be in the air for 50 hours, so why doesn’t the army use these planes?
Is the Peace Treaty standing in the way of heavy weapons entering the country?
Israel is no longer an excuse. The planes and weapons that were banned before, according to the treaty, are now allowed in the war against terrorism.
How do you evaluate the performance of Al-Sisi’s government and Mehleb?
The president is working hard, but unfortunately there is a big gap between his performance and the government’s.
The president believes it is a long way and sacrifices are needed, what do you think?
This is not logical. Before an operation you are given an anaesthetic dose in order to bear the pain. This is how it also goes in politics and economics. We have to motivate people in order to calm them down and help them be patient.
Why hasn’t he yet chosen his consultants?
The president said that he will select his consultants even on long terms. Being surrounded by consultants who are not fully qualified is better than having no consultants. Afterwards he could replace those semi-qualified consultants with others till he achieves the best component for his advisory body. In Egypt there are many loyal efficient people who are unable to reach the decision-making positions in order to benefit our country.
The president is surrounded by a scientists council with an international educational level, maybe this is the reason?
Scientists are different from experts. Consultants should be the ones behind any decision, even concerning politics. They should be with various points of views so that that their discussion ends with the best solutions.
Maybe this is due to his military background?
Do not judge people with military background. In the army, when it comes to making a decision, it passes through unbelievable phases until the final adequate decision is made.
What about Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb?
With all due respect to our prime minister, he is an executive employee. The job of the prime minister here is totally different from the one in the developed countries. Every day he is inaugurating a new establishment, so how could this convince me that our government is targeting for the future? When will he stay in his office to think and plan for the future? He does not have to inaugurate the bridge himself!
What is the problem?
There is no board or council through whom proposals should be filtered before raising them to the decision maker and executive. The responsibility of this board lies in investigating the proposal and elaborating a scenario for its implementation in case it is eligible for implementation. Unfortunately the discussion of these proposals is made among an inner circle, “the circle of the trusted people”. A clear example is Damietta Port that is now facing a logistic issue. The problem is that any idea presented and approved by the Presidency is being considered as a magical solution to pass the crisis.
On the other hand there are a lot of entities which can provide solutions to our problems; unfortunately these solutions were not considered. To set examples, the Ministry of Scientific Research invented big-sized bags to preserve wheat during 14 months without being infected or wasted. Instead of experimenting this in Egypt, it was done in Sudan, and the result was positive. However, we are still sticking to the bunkers, which have a construction cost of $2.5bn. Thus, if we had qualified consultants, the costs would have been much less, while the rest of the money would have been directed to fund other projects.
How is it possible that the government cancelled the summer time zone change 15 days before the change? This, consequently, led airline agencies to complain to the state. The decision should have been taken since January at least, in order to give the chance for all concerned parties to be ready.
Take Omar Effendi as an example of a board that does not think in favour of the country. What will you do when you acquire it? Will you rent it? How much will be the income from the rent? Will it be EGP 30m? I have an idea for you that is worth EGP 2bn: what if we make the big shops of Omar Effendi scattered in all the governorates into small ones in each branch? This way the place will turn into a centre or mall, where we can rent the shops to the youth, while keeping the limited number of branches with historical buildings. Isn’t this a better idea that would help develop the trade wheel and employ young people? The idea could be discussed to see how applicable it is.
How can you promote to these ideas to the public?
A public opinion, in general, is formed through introducing the idea via one of the popular means. When all points of views are formed, societal approval, or disapproval, is decided and a decision is made upon it. This is an efficient way to implement the idea.
How do you see the “board” of the president?
The circle of consultants has to be bigger, with different views, because the more various they are, the bigger the vision and the more accurate the decisions.
We have to encourage ideas. For example, we suffer from a water deficit, and we have a researcher who was able to make a crystalline fertiliser that can keep up to 70% of water in a week without being absorbed by the soil. He also told me that cultivating rice consumes a lot of water, and we can save 60% of the water used in cultivating it. This fertiliser can also maintain its quality for a period of four to six months, and this way it can be used in desert cultivation using rain water.
Why didn’t you present your ideas to the presidency?
The President meets with some of the poor people for humane purposes, but it is hard for you to meet him for a general purpose, and sometimes even impossible.
What about the prime minister?
An appointment was set for me to meet up with the prime minister but I did not go because I need to meet up with someone who would make decisions. I had a team from Italy who had an idea that would help eliminate illegal immigration, but the cabinet did not respond even though the Italian team was going to do everything.
How do you explain the media attacks on the Ministry of Interior?
The conflict between the media and the Ministry of Interior is intentional, and the state allowed it at this time. However, even if the police was violent with citizens, what happened was a stab in the back. The conflict could have been resolved in cooperation with the ministry instead of such strong attack.
Sadly, the ones attacking citizens are junior officers, and you will not find major officers with respectable ranks violating the law.
We also have a new category of officers who are involved in the society, forcing everyone, whether shop owners or drivers, to give them bribes.
What do you think of the timing of laying-off of former interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim?
The layoff was done so late and it was not in favour of the ministry. The minister was forced to be on the side of 30 June because everyone in the ministry was against him.
You did not like his policy?
He used the retaliation policy because he was weak, unlike General Magdy Abdel Ghafar who uses the pre-emptive policy.
So are you suggesting that we fight corruption in everything using the pre-emptive strikes policy?
I do not want to be unjust nor do I want anyone saying that we began a war on corruption without first finishing the fight on terrorism, while corruption is much more deadly to the society and war against it will need our full time.
