In the past year alone Egypt has gone through four Cabinet reshuffles, with ministers barely getting a chance to settle in their seats before public outcry called for their dismissal.
After late November’s clashes between Central Security Forces (CSF) and protesters in Tahrir Square left nearly 40 dead, outgoing prime Minister Essam Sharaf handed the reins over to a so-called ‘national salvation government,’ that would side with the people and set a road map for the country.
Kamal El Ganzouri, prime minister during the late 1990s, was reinstated to his old post and reportedly handed presidential powers by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF). Unhappy with SCAF’s decision to appoint a Mubarak-era politician, a group of protesters started a sit-in at Cabinet headquarters. The crowds were violently dispersed on December 16, leaving at least 14 dead and hundreds injured.
With everything working against the so-called ‘salvation’ government, will it stay in power long enough to get its foot, quite literally, in the door? And what is a salvation government, anyway?
NEW, OLD PRIME MINISTER
When El Ganzouri first held office from 1996 until 1999, he was labeled the ‘minister of the poor’ and ‘minister of opposition,’ based on his policies to help those with limited incomes. During his tenure, poverty rates dropped from 21% to 17%.
El Ganzouri’s Cabinet initiated several major projects, mostly related to developing agriculture, including Toshka, a system of canals meant to irrigate Egypt’s Western Desert. Although highly ambitious, the country has yet to really benefit from this costly project. El Ganzouri was dismissed in October 1999, reportedly because Mubarak grew wary of his popularity.
El Ganzouri’s 2011 appointment was met with mixed reactions: Some support him as a strong leader while others criticize him for being part of the old regime. Other critics have ridiculed his old age, with jokes about the 78-year-old making the rounds across social networking websites Facebook and Twitter within hours of his appointment.
The country waited anxiously to see the make-up of El Ganzouri’s Cabinet, as the prime minister measured his choices a couple of times. The new Cabinet was Finally sworn in on December 7, the new Cabinet has 28 ministers, including 10 from Sharaf’s lineup and two from Mubarak’s era, including the long-serving Fayza Abul Naga, minister of international cooperation and planning.
On the same day the Cabinet was sworn in, SCAF delegated presidential authority (judicial or military matters not included) to the new prime minister.
JUST FOR SHOW
According to Gamal Eid, the founder and executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), El Ganzouri’s Cabinet has no real authority.
“The presidential authority handed over to El Ganzouri is false,” he says. “They have simply replaced the secretariat of Essam Sharaf with that of El Ganzouri.”
Eid believes the Cabinet will not fulfill the role of a ‘national salvation government,’ that effectively replaces the rule of the military council, can meet demands of the revolution and protect people’s rights.
The opposition April 6 Youth Movement also rejects El Ganzouri’s Cabinet. “We still haven’t seen anything from them yet, their authorities are only words,” says Mahmoud Afifi, spokesperson for the April 6 Movement. “They’re only claiming that El Ganzouri’s government has licenses in order to appease public opinion, but we can’t believe their promises.”
Afifi adds that even though El Ganzouri has claimed he is meeting with members of the youth, it’s false publicity. “They’re not really meeting with anyone, it’s all for show to appease the public,” he says. “I want to see something happen on the ground.”
A WORRIED CROWD
The Cabinet sit-in started on November 25, as clashes on Mohamed Mahmoud Street were subsiding, when a group of demonstrators moved from Tahrir Square to Cabinet headquarters on Parliament grounds to protest El Ganzouri’s appointment.
Protesters set up camp in front of the Cabinet and declared they would not leave until a proper salvation government was appointed.
Two days before it was broken up by security forces, Egypt Today visited the sit-in. Around 20 tents were set up on each side of the street facing the Cabinet’s building with a group of almost 100 protesters.
Soldiers stood guard behind barbed wire set up inside the fence of Parliament grounds, which also held an army tank with its gun pointed toward the sit-in.
Tensions at the sit-in that day were high. Mahmoud Al-Masry, protester and April 6 member, approached with caution to ask if I was a journalist. Almost whispering, he proceeded to say, “I heard that the sit-in will be forcibly dispersed today. Please spread the word so that more people join us.”
Although Al-Masry is not against El Ganzouri personally, he believes he is not fit for this position now. “El Ganzouri himself is fine, but he can’t mobilize the country. He’s over 60 years old so naturally he lacks creativity and problem-solving skills,” he says. “Our request is a young Cabinet to be able to represent Egypt.”
Crouched outside a small tent, Mohamed El-Meliny was typing away on his laptop, working on formalizing that very request. A member of Al-Adl Party, El-Meliny says protesters had come up with a list of members they would like to head the so-called national salvation government, including Mohamed ElBaradei, presidential hopeful and former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“This [current] government does not have any authority, and Al-El Ganzouri is not a supporter of the revolution,” says El-Meliny, who criticizes the prime minister for not being during during or after the revolution.
“Where is your political presence? We would only see him sitting front row at all the National Democratic Party conferences.”
El-Meliny adds, “We’re [...] demanding a national salvation government, one that supports the demands of the revolution and restores the rights of the martyrs.”
The protesters say that the sacrifice of the martyrs should be honored, and their families receive their rights. Many parents have been waiting for a year with little-to-no compensation, such is the case with Khalifa Ahmed, who lost his son, 19-year-old Ahmed Khalifa, when he was in the chest on January 28 as he was leaving a mosque following Friday prayers.
“The wound is still fresh and my heart still aches,” says Ahmed, who is seeking legal justice for his son. Rubbing salt into the wound, Ahmed claims, is the police officer who allegedly offered him money to drop the case against his son’s alleged killers.
“What if a government official’s son had gotten killed,” queries Ahmed. “Wouldn’t they [give him] his rights?”
FOREIGN ELEMENTS. AGAIN
On December 16, clashes suddenly erupted between army soldiers and protesters at the Cabinet sit-in during the early hours of Friday morning, leaving 12 dead and hundreds more injured.
There was a heavy exchange of rocks and Molotov cocktails between both sides, with army personnel seen on the roof of the building throwing large rocks at the protesters, as well as taunting them with obscene gestures.
Photographs and videos taken on the day of the crackdown show the soldiers dragging and kicking protesters and beating them with batons.
Speaking on December 17, El Ganzouri accused ‘foreign elements’ of inciting the clashes and said military police exercised self control in dealing with protesters. “Everything that is happening now has nothing to do with the revolution, instead it is intended to ruin the revolution,” he told media at a press conference.
Protesters and other opposition groups were outraged at El Ganzouri’s statement. “This is not the government that we were calling for,” says April 6 Movement’s Afifi. “This is not a national salvation government; this is a SCAF salvation government.”
The April 6 Movement, which was heavily represented at the sit-in, lost one of its members, Ahmed Mansour, who was shot dead on December 17 as the military was dispersing the sit-in.
The youth movement demanded that the violence be stopped immediately, and that any escalation would subsequently be blamed on the ruling military council and the new government.
ANHRI’s Eid says the clashes have discredited the so-called national salvation government. He and other opposition groups now say that as soon as the newly elected parliament members take their seats in January, the arena should be open for presidential candidates and one should elected by February. The SCAF has set presidential elections for June 2012.
“With [El Ganzouri’s] statement regarding the Cabinet clashes, it [is] clear that they have sided with SCAF,” says Eid. “The Cabinet has no role now.” et
