Tunisian demonstrators call for abolition of RCD, demand new parliament, new constituion. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
By Kaouther Larbi - TUNIS | |||||
Hundreds of Tunisians rallied against their new government on Wednesday, as the leadership tried to defuse public anger over the continued power of the former ruling party and four ministers pulled out. "Ben Ali has gone to Saudi Arabia! The government should go there too," more than 1,000 protesters chanted in central Tunis, referring to former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who fled on Friday after 23 years of iron-fisted rule. "We want a new parliament, a new constitution, a new republic! People rise up against the Ben Ali loyalists!" they chanted at the peaceful demonstration. Some of them waved placards reading: "Down with the RCD!" An opposition leader who has joined the government as regional development minister said the first cabinet meeting would be held on Thursday but a government spokesman said the exact date was still up in the air. An opposition source said the priorities at the cabinet meeting would be to draw up a national amnesty law for victims of the former regime, as well as concrete moves to break up the RCD's stranglehold on organs of state. The authorities meanwhile eased the timing of a curfew that has been in place for days, saying the security situation had improved, but a state of emergency that bans any public assemblies remained in place. Traffic was visibly heavier in Tunis and some shops and offices re-opened. Interim president Foued Mebazaa and Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi on Tuesday quit the RCD, which has dominated Tunisian politics for decades. But Ghannouchi and seven other ministers from the previous government under Ben Ali held on to their posts including the interior and defence ministries. "Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water," Tunisia's Le Quotidien daily commented in an editorial that emphasised the new national unity government was temporary and would prepare for democratic elections. "The resentment is legitimate but it should not transform itself into a blind hatred that blocks the victorious march of the Tunisian people towards liberty," said the independent daily. "The creation of a national unity government is the only path towards this final victory. The participation of the RCD in this government should not be a source of discord or a stumbling block," it said. Thousands protested across Tunisia on Tuesday, with police firing tear gas in the centre of Tunis to disperse demonstrations as four ministers pulled out of the government in protest against the RCD just a day after it was announced. In an apparent bid for political survival, the once all-powerful RCD also officially expelled Ben Ali, who was forced to resign following a wave of protests in which dozens of people were killed. The tumultuous events in Tunisia -- dubbed the "Jasmine Revolution" -- have inspired dissident across the Arab world and sparked protests in various countries including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Egypt. Ben Ali was the first Arab leader in recent history to quit after protests. The United States meanwhile welcomed reforms announced by the new government, including media freedoms and the liberation of all political prisoners, but said political change must broaden and deepen. "Clearly the government has to take steps to meet the aspirations of the Tunisian people.... The interim government is moving in that direction," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters on Tuesday. "We want to see an open process, significant dialogue between the government and significant groups that want to play a role in Tunisia's future," he added. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Tunisia to hold "credible" elections to form a government backed by the whole nation, his spokesman said. On Tuesday, two new ministers and a junior minister from Tunisia's main trade union -- a key player in the protests -- announced their withdrawal after the union refused to recognise the government. The appointed health minister, FDLT leader Mustapha Ben Jaafar, who had yet to be sworn in, also said he would hold off on joining the government. Three opposition leaders including Ben Jaafar were appointed on Monday. Tunisia's new leadership is due to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in the next six months, although no precise dates have been set. Under the constitution, elections should be held in less than two months. The banned Islamist Ennahdha (Awakening) movement said it would seek to acquire legal status as a political party to take part in the elections. One of Ben Ali's fiercest critics, Moncef Marzouki -- who has said he intends to run in the presidential election -- also returned to Tunisia on Tuesday after years of exile in Paris, with emotional scenes at Tunis airport. |
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Tunisia demo calls for government to resign
Wednesday's papers: A new form of protest in Egypt, secrets of Ben Ali's escape and Tunisia's interim govt
Egyptian papers on Wednesday dedicate their front-page headlines to new cases of people setting themselves on fire as a means of protesting conditions in the country. In the independent Al-Dostour, the top headline reads: "Three suicide attempts in less than 24 hours.. One dies." Sub-headlines read: "Mohamed set himself on fire because he was prevented from seeing his daughter.. Sayyed due to financial crisis.. And Ahmed in Alexandria due to unemployment." In the liberal opposition Al-Wafd newspaper the chief headline reads: "The burnt ones shake the government's throne." Sub-headlines read: "Four new Egyptians burn themselves," and "Death of the first burnt ones."
In the independent Al-Shorouk, more negative coverage can be found under the headline: "Suicide protest fever infects Egyptians," with sub-headlines reading: "Lawyer loses his daughter and so sets his body ablaze outside parliament.. Qaddafi [not the Libyan leader] attempts suicide in protest against his referral to investigations in Ismailiya... Hashim fails to find employment in Alexandria and attempts to end his life... Parliamentary security forces abort fourth attempt."
Al-Shorouk features a small map of North Africa with captions indicating that Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi's act of self-immolation on 17 December led to other such acts in Tunisia, and then to Algeria, Mauritania, and Egypt. Five self-immolations were attempted in Egypt (in Cairo, Alexandria, and Ismailiya; while a sixth person attempted to hang himself due to his unemployment) whereas at least four attempts were recorded in Algeria, and one case in Mauritania.
State-owned Al-Ahram mentions news of these self-immolations in a tiny headline on its front-page which reads: "Citizen burnt to death in Alexandria, two others rescued outside parliament." Only one paragraph on this news is mentioned on Al-Ahram's front-page, and the remainder of the article is buried on its 20th page--the "accidents page." Al-Ahram's largest headline pertains to an Arab summit on economic development to be held today in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh. The chief headline reads: "Egypt convenes Sharm al-Sheikh summit to focus on development." Sub-headers read: "Mubarak opens economic summit in presence of 11 Arab leaders," and "Arab states strive to limit capital flight from the region."
In its coverage of events in Tunisia, Al-Ahram runs another front-page headline reading: "Withdrawal of four ministers from new Tunisian government." Regarding the escape of former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali from Tunisia, its headline reads: "Ben Ali and family flee via secret tunnel." In the independent Nahdet Masr newspaper: "Security bluff leads Tunisian president to flee without even taking his clothes along with him." In another Tunisia-related headline "Politicians: Tunisian scenario will not recur in same manner."
An Al-Shorouk headline reads "Tunisian street moves to bring down Ben Ali's ministers." Sub-headlines read: "Protests in capital's center call for dismissal of Ben Ali's [RCD] Party.. Tunisian General Workers' Union [UGTT] threatens to pull out from government;" and "New Arab measures and precautions to prevent Tunisian 'virus' from spreading... Sudan arrests Hassan al-Turabi, Jordan refrains from imposing new taxes."
In Al-Wafd a quote from the Inter Press Service news agency is featured: "Arab regimes fear bread uprisings/intifadas," and "People are setting themselves ablaze because they cannot bear to witness their families dying slow deaths due to hunger and poverty" is another key headline in that paper.
Egypt's papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhorriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run, close to the National Democratic Party's Policies Secretariat
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Arab Nasserist party
Youm7: Weekly, privately owned
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Egypt pound stabilizes, traders cite central bank
The Egyptian pound stabilized on Tuesday as the central bank apparently acted to support it, after the currency fell to near a six-year low on Monday in response to the political turmoil in Tunisia, traders said.
In the spot market, the pound strengthened marginally to close at 5.8220 against the dollar from Monday's finish of 5.8240. At the end of last week, the Egyptian currency was trading around 5.8000.
Currency traders said that with Egyptian share prices declining, it was almost certain that the central bank was selling dollars to support the currency after Monday's decline.
Dealers say the central rarely intervenes directly, but often buys and sells the currency indirectly by way of one or two local banks.
"On a day like today where the stock market went down 3.14 percent you would have totally seen an outflow, and the currency appreciated, so it's clear the central bank intervened selling dollars," said one dealer.
Tuesday's decline in Egypt's benchmark stock index .EGX30 was the biggest in eight months and followed a 2.4 percent slide on Monday, as investors worried that Tunisia's political instability might eventually spread to Egypt or other countries in North Africa.
Economists said the central bank was likely to use its unofficial reserves to ensure that any weakening of the pound was gradual, so that Egyptian depositors did not take fright and shift large amounts of their cash into dollars.
Barclays Capital estimated foreign holdings of Egyptian assets were close to US$25 billion, with roughly half held in Treasury bills and bonds. The high foreign exposure poses a significant potential risk to the currency, Barclays said.
In a research note recommending that investors reduce their Egyptian pound exposure, Barclays said it expected the currency to weaken over coming months, reaching 6.00 in a year's time.
Barclays cited increased political risk, the poor performance of currency trades into the pound last year, the central bank's focus on stimulating economic growth and competiveness, which could cause it to oppose any strength of the currency, and Egypt's deteriorating fiscal outlook.
However, it added that it was reluctant to go short on the Egyptian pound because of high interest rates in Egypt and the central bank's determination to limit the currency's volatility.
Trade in the non-deliverable forwards market, where the Egyptian pound is traded for delivery on a future date, has slowed since Tunisia's president was ousted because of a feeling of increased risk, and deals taking place indicate the currency will weaken in coming months, traders said.
On Monday, the first working day since President Zine al-Abidine fled Tunis, trade in the offshore NDF market dried up entirely. Trades on Tuesday were worth about $30-40 million, compared to daily levels of around $50 million before the Tunisian crisis erupted, said a dealer based outside Egypt.
"There were some offers today," he said. "There were some clients trying to take advantage of the high implied yields on the NDFs, betting that there won't be a problem. But in general the market is much better bid," indicating pressure for the Egyptian pound to depreciate.
A one-month NDF, for delivery of Egyptian pounds in one month's time, traded at 5.90 to the dollar on Tuesday, the trader said.
Obama to Mubarak: Thank you for supporting Hariri tribunal
Washington--President Barack Obama spoke with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday about the US desire for calm in Tunisia and thanked him for Egypt's support for a UN-backed tribunal set up to try the assassins of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri.
Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January after the worst unrest of his two decades in power. The country has been in turmoil as its caretaker prime minister tries to assemble a national unity cabinet.
"The President ... shared with President Mubarak that the United States is calling for calm and an end to violence, and for the interim government of Tunisia to uphold universal human rights and hold free and fair elections in order to meet the aspirations of the Tunisian people," the White House said in a statement.
The uprising in Tunisia has shaken the image of the military-backed governments of long-term Arab rulers as immune to popular discontent and grievances.
Mubarak, 82, has himself been in power for almost 30 years and is widely expected to stand again in a September election, although he has yet to say whether he will seek a sixth term.
Lebanon is also facing a political crisis after a U.N.-backed tribunal issued a confidential draft indictment in the 2005 killing of Hariri. A government headed by his son was brought down last week over the issue.
Obama thanked Mubarak for Egyptian support of the tribunal, "which is attempting to end the era of impunity for political assassination in Lebanon and achieve justice for the Lebanese people," the White House said.
Obama and Mubarak also discussed ways to advance peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
And Obama extended his personal condolences to Mubarak and the Egyptian people for a bombing attack on 1 January on a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria. He urged all sides to ease tensions and work toward improved relations among all religions.
Egypt's Israeli conspiracy psyche
Before former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s unceremonious ousting from power, he resorted to the desperate tactic many dictators attempt when faced with questions they can’t answer. He blamed “hostile elements in the pay of foreigners…manipulated from outside the country.”
When Egyptian leaders employ this tactic, by “foreigners” they might mean Islamic fundamentalists from other countries. But more often than not, it means just one thing: It’s a Zionist conspiracy.
It took less than two days for some prominent members of Egyptian society to blame a Zionist conspiracy for the five Egyptian copy-cats of the Tunisian man who burned himself as a form of protest against the government.
In an effort to analyze the would-be suicides, member of the Al-Azhar-affiliated Islamic Research Academy Magdy Mehanna told Al-Youm Al-Sabei newspaper, "[Suicide] is an objection against God. [...] How can a Muslim do this? [...] It must be related to the Zionist plans to bring down the Arab and Muslim world.”
From orchestrated power outages to remote-controlled killer sharks, Egyptian accusations against Israel range from the plausible to the ludicrous. The frequency and sometimes absurdity of finger pointing in the Israeli direction has left Egyptians vulnerable to ridicule in the foreign media.
Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal went so far as to dub Egypt “a nation of political imbeciles.”
Stephens was particularly incensed by the audacity of some so-called intellectuals to include Israel in their pool of possible suspects for the bombing of the church of St. Mark and St. Peter in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve.
Ammar Ali Hassan, a political analyst who Stephens first singled out, says, “from a subjective and natural perspective, Israel is still considered an enemy of Egypt, and has overtly targeted Egyptian interests by illegitimate means up until recently when Egypt discovered an Israeli spy ring working in Egypt.”
Writing in response to Stevens, Hassan commented that “the imbecile is he who does not assess every single possibility, no matter how small it is."
Egyptian authorities meanwhile blamed "foreign entities" for the bombing, but didn't clearly signal whether they meant Israel or Al-Qaeda.
Although it happened over 50 years ago, the Lavon affair may bolster Hassan’s justification for including Israel in his selection of possible suspects.
The Lavon affair was a failed Israeli covert operation in which Egyptian Jews were reportedly recruited to plant bombs at American and British-owned targets, with the ultimate aim of the Muslim Brotherhood, communists, and others being blamed for the bombings.
Times were different then, with hostilities still fresh from 1948 and just two years to go before the 1956 war between the countries. The veracity of the claims does not irk some Egyptian intellectuals as much as the negative effects the whole Zionist conspiracy psyche has had on Egyptian society and discourse.
“In the end, we shouldn’t let [the issue of] Israel divert us from the fact that we have real local issues to deal with. Israel or not, we have to deal first with the fact Egypt does have fertile ground for breeding terrorists,” Iman Hamdy, an AUC lecturer on Egypt-Israel relations, says.
According to Hamdy, part of the problem is that, while Israel may not always be clean, Arabs--and Egyptians in particular--like to assume that injustice is perpetrated against them, and never consider that they created a situation internally that allowed certain events to happen.
“In Lebanon we talk about Israel’s sinister role since the 80s, and somehow we forget that they are the ones who had the civil war and invited them in the first place. In the Alexandria bombings we are willing to look into conspiracy theories about who organized the bombing, but we are forgetting that the situation was such that they were able to carry it out,” she says.
The current strain between Israel and Egypt stems from a more substantiated conspiracy theory: Israel’s involvement in the Nile basin, which threatens Egypt’s water security. Israel has long been playing an active role in the looming secession of southern Sudan from the north, which Egypt generally views as a threat.
“Israel is probably involved in the Nile basin issue, but I don’t see why we need to claim conspiracy theories. It is expected. This is just normal regional diplomacy. We compete with them regionally and their involvement in the Nile basin is known,” Hamdy says.
When Egypt experienced a blackout in 2010, and internet outage in 2008, Israel was also a prime suspect. The theory was given credence when reports suggested that a captured spy said Israel was in fact behind the internet outage.
Over the past five years, however, Israel has been accused by Egyptians of being involved in far more than trying to destabilize Egypt through bombings and the disruption of basic services and natural wealth. Theories have included blaming Israel for sending GPS-directed sharks last December to eat our tourists and hence kill off Sinai tourism, and for flooding the market with chewing gum that alters sexual behavior in 1996.
Egypt's intellectuals have almost uniformly deprecated the tendency to so quickly spread such frivolous accusations. “When it came to the shark issue, you have to note that almost every scientist and intellectual immediately came up against the rumor that Israel was behind it. A line has to be drawn between credible considerations based on historical precedence and conflict, and absurd wives’ tales,” Hassan says.
The Egyptian government has been criticized for allowing the public's suspicions to be diverted toward foreign elements in order to take the spotlight off of their own iniquities at times. “Any government in crisis tries to find a foreign scapegoat against which to direct public angst,” Hassan says. 2010 was indeed a year of crisis for the Egyptian government, which had to cope with labor unrest, food crises and sectarian violence; capped off with elections widely seen as fraudulent.
“The [government] doesn’t always blame Israel directly. They point to 'foreign entities,' as happened with the Alexandria bombings, and they let public consciousness do the rest,” Hamdy says.
Some of the more ridiculous theories--like the shark one--came during periods when Israel was already much referred to in the Egyptian press. Mentioning Israel in the media tends to strike a chord with the population.
Hamdy believes this inherent mistrust and popular desire to accuse the other is not entirely confined to Egyptians. Israelis assume that, for Egyptians, the situation between the countries is more of a “long truce” than anything else. “The problem between the countries is more of an existential one, and that is bound to be a constant source for conspiracy theories,” she says.
Along with many other Egyptian intellectuals, Hamdy says that ultimately it is pointless to keep pointing to conspiracy theories in our country, with all of the other internal and local crises begging to be resolved first.
Al-Azhar: Protest suicides not allowed in Islam
Egypt's Al-Azhar University, the chief center of religious learning in the Sunni Muslim world, has said that Sharia Law outlaws suicide as an expression of anger or protest.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, the university said that Islam strictly prohibits suicide for any reason, and those who recently attempted suicide by setting themselves on fire might be suffering from a mental or psychological disorder that compelled them to do so.
Five people have set themselves on fire in protest over the past two days in Egypt. They are believed to be copycats of a Tunisian man who set himself on fire in front of Tunisia's presidential palace last month.
Security forces on Tuesday thwarted a fifth attempt at self-immolation when they prevented 65-year-old accountant Ali Sayyed from setting himself on fire outside of the parliament building by dousing himself with alcohol and setting himself alight. He later said he was not trying to take his own life.
On the same day, also in front of parliament, 50-year-old lawyer Mohamed Farouk Hussein also attempted to set himself on fire.
In the evening, 53-year-old Mohamed Ashour Mohamed likewise tried to set himself on fire in front of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate in downtown Cairo. He was stopped by building security before he could carry out the act.
Just one day earlier, 49-year-old restaurant owner Abdo Abdel Moneim Gaafar set himself on fire in front of the parliament building and was taken to hospital.
On Tuesday, a young unemployed man in Alexandria died from the injuries he sustained after setting himself on fire on the roof of a building.
Arab Economic Summit to address sectarian violence, foreign intervention
The Arab Economic Summit opened on Wednesday in Egypt's Sharm al-Sheikh resort, attended by a number of Arab presidents and officials.
The agenda is expected to include issues such as the impact of the recent Tunisian political crisis and the protests that have erupted in several Arab states in part due to rising prices.
The summit is expected to endorse an Egyptian proposal to formally reject "foreign intervention" in Arab affairs, according to an Arab League source.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Cairo was seeking Arab support to counter Western calls for the protection of Christian minorities in Iraq and Egypt.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossam Zaki said Egypt would propose that participants discuss a resolution condemning “Western interference in domestic Arab affairs under the pretext of protecting Christians.”
“Egypt categorically rejects these claims,” Zaki said, adding that such calls would only serve to aggravate sectarian tensions in the Middle East.
Four European governments have asked EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to take up the issue of recent attacks on Christians in the region, according to Poland's Foreign Ministry.
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