CAIRO: One year after President Hosni Mubarak was reelected president in Egypt s first multi-candidate elections, jailed politician Ayman Nour sent a letter from prison thanking those who elected me and those who imprisoned me.
One year has passed since that day on September 7, 2005 when millions of Egyptians looked for their votes in vain, Nour wrote in his letter. The doors they knocked on were slammed in their faces because those who refused to allow them to vote using the ID cards restricted this right to 25 percent of the citizens to whom they gave the right to choose their ruler.
Nour was indicted in a forgery case in December last year, following a fierce battle against other presidential candidates, with the National Democratic Party s candidate topping the list. The activist politician was sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly forging member applications needed to register and legitimize his liberal El-Ghad (the tomorrow) party.
In February this year more charges were added to the list. The politician was charged with assaulting and injuring members of the ruling party on the day of the presidential elections, insulting and distorting the image of Egypt s regime symbols and president of the state, [and name-calling] President Mubarak, according to Nour s official Web site.
The court of cassation has refused his request for appeal.
Today completes a year of hope and pain, wrote Nour, who is currently spending his term in Tora Mazraa Prison on the outskirts of Cairo. Tora Mazraa is one prison where many prisoners rights have been violated, according to recent reports by local and international human rights and prisoners’ rights groups.
According to Nour, the fight for democracy will continue and the people who desire change and reform are capable of bringing about change with their bare hands, despite difficulties and censorship.
Using his own words, the people s living dreams represent a statement the strongest censor can not erase. He may be able to postpone them but he does not have the power to erase them or avoid their explosion.
Recently, Nour s supporters wrote an open letter to U.S. President George Bush urging the American president for reaffirmation in words and actions on America s commitment to democratic reform in Egypt and the Arab world.
His supporters said they were making the request as Arab and Muslim intellectuals and activists concerned about the promotion of democracy in our region.
It is our belief that the main problem with U.S. policies in the Middle East (in particular in Iraq, Palestine, and elsewhere) is precisely their failure to live up to America’s democratic ideals of liberty and justice for all, wrote Nour s cohorts.
Last week in an interview, Bush praised a group of National Democratic Party (NDP) leaders close to the president’s son and NDP leader Gamal Mubarak. Bush eagerly stated that he was impressed by these young reformers. His statement was taken to imply support, or at least accommodation, for the much-criticized ruling party, a possible blow to the fight for democracy in Egypt.
The politician s supporters, in their letter, stated that even though they realize that democracy must ultimately come from within, they believed that encouragement and support from Western states is badly need[ed] in the Arab world.
The minimum support the people of the region yearn for is . to break with 60 years of U.S. support for non-democratic regimes in the region, and to make that known to the world in unequivocal terms, read the letter. This would be more consistent with the principles of the United States.
In his interview, when asked about the case of Ayman Nour, Bush said he was disappointed, but showed reluctance to openly condemn the insistence of the Egyptian government to keep him behind bars. The American president said he supported Nour s release, but President Mubarak will make those decisions [to release Nour] based upon his own laws.
Commenting, leader-at-large of Kefaya (Enough) movement George Ishaq previously told The Daily Star Egypt that, most probably, after the U.S. State Department saw Islamists such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power, it became indisposed to bolster democracy.
We know that some in the United States, worried by recent Islamist gains . are having doubts about the wisdom of pushing for freedom and democracy in the Middle East, wrote the supporters, touching on the same issue that Ishaq referred to. However, there is no way to advance liberty without inclusion of all elements that are willing to abide by democratic rules and reject violence.
Democratic participation is the only way to combat extremism and pressure all groups, including Islamists, to moderate their stance.
Seemingly in accord with the Kefaya leader, Nour s enthusiasts, in their letter, have also expressed concern that the U.S. attitude toward democracy will be affected by the Palestinian or Egyptian experiments, and thus indirectly encourage government crackdown on opposition.
Perhaps emboldened by the impression that America is wavering in its support for democracy, some autocrats have recently intensified repression, read the letter.
However, Gamilla Ismail, El-Ghad party spokesperson and Nour’s wife, tells The Daily Star Egypt that she sees the American statements in a different light.
They are all diplomatic statements, and they do not mean more than that, she says, referring to Bush s aforementioned statements.
Bush and the U.S. State Department know very well that politically and economically reform is not existent and has not yet been achieved, says Ismail, who adds that she does not believe any American support to the NDP was seriously meant.
Whether the support for Nour has decreased, a notion suggested by some, Ismail said that Nour and his supporters never tried to measure the support the Americans had given the politician before.
We never really gave that much attention to the American support, as to whether it s increasing or decreasing.
Meanwhile, the imprisoned political leader s family continues to fight for his release. In June, his family announced that they had collected signatures of 110 honest representatives in parliament, from different political and partisan backgrounds, on a document calling for a pardon for Nour.
In an Internet statement, the family deemed the representatives’ support a move which rises above political disagreements and that goes beyond party agreement, a [move] that translates the missing spirit which we regain during hard times and find that we all share, regardless of where we stand or our different points of view.
Reportedly, opposition MP Talaat El-Sadat, a controversial figure in parliament and a relative of former President Anwar El-Sadat, has adopted the initiative of pushing to release Nour in parliament. The MP s idea was supported by Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated MPs and leaders from Al-Wafd, Al-Tagammu and Al-Karama political groups, who all signed the petition.
Whether she believes it is effective enough to change the status of the jailed political leader, Ismail said that “so far the petition is getting no response.
Apparently, it’s a personal issue between Mubarak and his family [on one side] and Ayman Nour [on another]. Clearly, the support of America . or even almost two thirds of the [People s] Assembly . will not differ much.
