The dawn must come.

The dawn must come.

Thursday 8 December 2011

Cause and effect.

By: Ahmed M. EL NAHAS – Montopoli, December 07th 2011.
Just like Mubarak’s stubborn resistance from 2009 until his fall, holding tight to the last bit of power he could reach, desperately trying in vain to avoid the inevitable; I am afraid that the “Supreme Council of the Armed Forces” and its “Marionette Cabinet” designated and assigned to do whatever is necessary to withhold the country’s reins, starting with the only practice they have known for years: “the Stick and the Carrot”.
Watching Mr. Ganzoury’s performance on TV in the Press Conference by which he should have named his cabinet, which he didn’t, one could obviously notice his reluctance and hesitation to commit himself to whatever statement that may result contrary to his employer’s wishes or directives. We are still held hostages of that resiliently surviving breed of the various “Richelieu” and “Fouché”, whom for decades have infected our political and social lives, capable of converting ideas, colours and banners at will to please any situation.
In the end of the day, what was the outcome? Well, after promising to change the working status of 500000 public employees/workers from the precarious temporary to the secure permanent;  he vaguely hinted on three essential guidelines of his forthcoming office mission, which I consider alarming:
1.      Rescheduling the Real Estate Tax grid, raising its floor from half a million pounds to a million and a half. Sounds nice, but he didn’t specify the status for the publicly owned estates, the military ownerships, the security forces ownerships and so on.
2.      Reinforcing and logistically updating the Security Forces, I don’t think that the police and secret services forces are lacking or in shortage of the latest state of the art weaponry or spying technology. And,
3.      Revising the Social Security/Welfare system. Does he means to increase the age for the pension to 65 years or 42 years of continuous contribution, without making any guarantees to the labour and work market? And how that would create stable new jobs where the labour market is static and locked on precariety, part-time and even encourage the illegal hiring without contract, hence without contributions then without pension or welfare coverage?
It is alarming when a “National Rescue Government” ignores publicly the “People’s Revolution” demands. It is important to notice that:
Ø  The head of that government did not say anything whatsoever that could tie his cabinet to the aspirations and hopes of the people for a total and thorough clean-up of the house prior to reorganising it in and out.
Ø    He did not even tangentially mentioned his cabinet’s real intentions regarding the trials of Mubarak and the others  in terms of transparency and related legal discrepancies. In my personal opinion, and in view of the gravity of the crimes committed,  those trials should have been celebrated in front of a Martial Court if not a special Revolution's Court, and not in front of a first grade tribunal like any misdemeanor; and in accordance with the Emergency Laws, which was carefully thought, designed, written and signed by all of them, Ganzoury included.
Ø  He did not present  any plans to trace and re-possess the stolen and exported fortunes of the Egyptian people that his assigned government is supposed to “Rescue”.
Ø  He did not relate to any plans to make front against “Tax Evasion” and “Corruption” both draining out substantial resources from the country’s economy.
Ø  He refrained from elaborating on his cabinet’s programme, and
Ø  The worse is that none of the journalists, reporters, TV networks and news agencies representatives, present in that conference, insisted to investigate what the new “National Rescue Government” mission and real intentions are.
I believe that we should not accept, at any cost, that the nation’s problem solving should be assigned to those who created them in the first place by ignorance, incompetence or silence.. In my humble opinion of course.. And I beg you not to judge my skepticism, because, as our elders proverb says: “Who’s burnt by the fire, blows off the yogurt”.
Pass On The Word.

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