EGYPT: National Democratic Party squabbles

Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party prefers that its squabbles don’t hit the limelight. But the party’s assistant secretary general, Gamal Mubarak, the 44-year-old entrepreneur son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, has conceded that “the government has problems.”

Recent comments by Mubarak, who many believe is being groomed to succeed his father, were meant to improve the image of the National Democratic Party. About 45% of Egyptians live on $2 a day or less, and the party is regarded as an out-of-touch organization of corruption, businessmen and special interests. The party’s policies have led to Egypt’s growing economy and rising foreign investment, but these pluses have not trickled down to the working class and the poor.

Egypt is in a painful transition from state enterprises to privatization. The pressures have caused rifts within the National Democratic Party, especially between Ahmed Ezz, owner of Egypt’s biggest steel factory, and Rashid Mohammed Rashid, the minister of trade and industry. Rashid has tried to strengthen anti-monopoly laws but Ezz, a close associate of Gamal Mubarak, successfully blocked him.

“Any political party has factions,” Gamal Mubarak said at a National Democratic Party meeting. “What’s wrong with that?”

For Egyptians, however, it was another soap opera with Gamal Mubarak caught amid the foibles and ploys of the rich and privileged. The next presidential elections are in 2011. But President Mubarak is frail, and the bickering and cross-purposes within the party show that Gamal Mubarak’s makeover from businessman to statesman is incomplete.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Gamal Mubarak stands at the feet of his father, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Credit: worldpress.org

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Comments

[Mahmoud Nour El Dine]

Ra 3 (Hosni Mubarak) the God/Ruler of Egypt is not grooming anybody even his son to succeed him. Ra in the ancient Egyptian pharaoh's history is the only god, apart from Osiris, who is definitely said to be not on the earth. Ra, it is said, is an aging god (Mubarak is 80 yo), still powerful, but too old to deal with his children any longer, so he has gone exclusively to the sky (Sharm El Sheikh in recent history) to watch over the world. Mubarak on the other hand said that he will stay in power until the last heartbeat and the last breath! So there is no plans from Ra 3 to give up his position even to his son.