The surprise decision by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to propose a constitutional amendment that would allow direct and competitive presidential elections may be a giant step for democracy in Egypt and the Arab World. Westerners used to pluralistic democracy may find it hard to understand what a potentially huge shift this will be in a country accustomed to military rule for over 50 years.
Under the current system, Egyptian citizens can only show up on the day of a presidential referendum every six years and say yes or no to the single name that appears on the presidential ballot. This explains why someone like Mubarak always received over 90 percent of the vote, albeit amid indifferent turnout. Syrian and Iraqi strongmen have done even better with this system, no doubt because they demanded that the names and addresses of voters be put at the bottom of each ballot.
Many people have long argued that democratization in the Middle East will not get far until Egypt becomes fully engaged in the process. Egypt could not truly set out on a path of democratization without first amending its constitution -- to downsize the Pharaonic powers of its president and set limits on his term in office. Mubarak, after all, is already in his 24th year as president. So the announcement that he wants competitive presidential elections is an important first step.
The regime may assume that it will be able to use the process to its own advantage, but events may not be that easy to control once people begin to feel empowered. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.
In any case, Egypt is not the only country in this troubled region that is now embarking on the road of democracy. Turkey at one end of the Middle East and Morocco at the other are already well on their way. The real groundswell this time seems to have come from the close timing and positive outcomes of recent elections in Iraq, Palestine, and to a lesser degree in Saudi Arabia.
The unprecedented demonstrations against Syria's occupation of Lebanon following the assassination of its former prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, show no signs of abating. Egyptian opposition groups, too, have staged increasingly bold marches and other forms of civil disobedience in the last few weeks.
The catalyst for their anger was the arrest and detention of the ailing opposition leader Ayman Nour at the end of January. The government's heavy-handed behavior reinvigorated the homegrown Kifay (Enough) movement, which has demanded an end to the Mubarak regime. Suddenly the popular wisdom that Egyptians are passive and afraid to act did not seem to be holding up. An alliance of local, regional, and international forces is uniting against tyranny-as-usual on the banks of the Nile.
The recent wave of popular pressure appears to have shaken the regime. Only a month ago, Mubarak dismissed demands for constitutional reform as "futile." But, whatever combination of events brought about his change of heart, election initiative should be welcomed. It is a necessary -- but insufficient -- first step for overhauling Egypt's stagnant political system.
Egyptians are already wary of token reforms a la Tunisia, where longstanding President Zine El Abidin Bin Ali created a caricature of a constitutional amendment that appeared to open the door for competitive presidential elections, but then staged a sham contest with a few handpicked ?"opponents." In previous Tunisian presidential referenda, Bin Ali routinely received 99 percent of the vote; he now got 96 percent.
Let us hope that Mubarak is more serious about electoral reform. As a measure of sincerity, he needs to order the immediate release of Ayman Nour and take steps to terminate the 24-year-long state of emergency, which effectively prevents political campaigning from taking place.
Mubarak should also endorse a limit of no more than two successive five-year terms for any president. Equally necessary are confidence-building measures, including open and equal access to the media, which are now state-controlled.
I have announced that I intend to contest this upcoming presidential election as a way of opening debate on these essential reforms. But I would gladly go back to my life as a private citizen once guaranteed a free and open election this fall.
If seriously implemented, these steps will transform Mubarak's legacy. Along with events in Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine, it may well usher in an Arab spring of freedom, one long overdue.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian pro-democracy and peace activist, is a professor at the American University in Cairo and heads the Ibn Khaldun Center. He is currently writing his prison memoirs.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
It is employment pass renewal season in Singapore, and the new regime is dominating the conversation at after-work cocktails on Fridays. From September, overseas employees on a work visa would need to fulfill the city-state’s new points-based system, and earn a minimum salary threshold to stay in their jobs. While this mirrors what happens in other countries, it risks turning foreign companies away, and could tarnish the nation’s image as a global business hub. The program was announced in 2022 in a bid to promote fair hiring practices. Points are awarded for how a candidate’s salary compares with local peers, along
China last month enacted legislation to punish —including with the death penalty — “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The country’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), need to be reminded about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said and done in the past. They should think about whether those historical figures were also die-hard advocates of Taiwanese independence. The Taiwanese Communist Party was established in the Shanghai French Concession in April 1928, with a political charter that included the slogans “Long live the independence of the Taiwanese people” and “Establish a republic of Taiwan.” The CCP sent a representative, Peng
Japan and the Philippines on Monday signed a defense agreement that would facilitate joint drills between them. The pact was made “as both face an increasingly assertive China,” and is in line with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea,” The Associated Press (AP) said. The pact also comes on the heels of comments by former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who said at a forum on Tuesday last week that China’s recent aggression toward the Philippines in
The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that the military would hold its annual Han Kuang exercises from July 22 to 26. Military officers said the exercises would feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure. This year’s exercises underline the recent reforms in Taiwan’s military as it transitions from a top-down command structure to one where autonomy is pushed down to the front lines to improve decisionmaking and adaptability. Militaries around the world have been observing and studying Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have seen that the Ukrainian military has been much quicker to adapt to