When the Headlines in Egypt's Press Tell the Whole Story

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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The press in Egypt after Mubarak had found its mouth: loud, uninhibited, and very personal.

The news of the forthcoming elections for Parliament later this month are dominating.  Why not?  There are more than 38 parties in competition and the cartoons humorously reflect that intra-Egyptian race for a piece of the pie very cogently.

In the newspaper Al-Gomhouriya (the Republic), the distinguished cartoonist Ahmad Toughan has an interesting caricature.  A candidate in these highly-contested elections comes by accident upon a poorly-dressed man, thrusts his hand forward in a forced hand shake and exclaims to the bewildered man:  "Where have you been, Man!!  I have missed you for a long time!  In fact I am running for a parliamentary seat - ONLY FOR YOU!!"

But electioneering by the parties spawned of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the more to the religious right, the Salafis (see our earlier blogs) issue an assuring election devise:  No banners carrying religious symbols.  The Muslim Brotherhood-oriented political party "Al-Horriyah Wa Al-Adaalah" (Freedom and Justice) carries in its newspaper an interview with the Secretary-General of that party, Mr. Saad Al-Katatni states:

"The Democratic Coalition For Egypt shall enter this race under the motto, We Bring Good Things to Egypt.  This indicates the great aspirations of the parties in that Coalition for serving Egypt and its public during this important juncture in Egypt's modern history."

What about the motto "Islam is the Solution"?, asked the interviewer of Mr. Al-Katatni.  His response was:

"This is the historic motto of the Muslim Brotherhood which established the party and which it uses since 1987.  But the party will not use this motto because it does not wish to impose it on its partners in that Coalition.  But the party may use it in future elections."

Not all of the headlines in the Egyptian press were devoted to those historic elections for the House of Representatives.

Some of those headlines dealt with the attendance of Field Marshal Tantawi, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the de facto President of Egypt during this eventful transition, at the naval exercises conducted by Egypt in its territorial waters.

Other headlines featured the news of the meeting held by the Prime Minister, Dr. Essam Sharaf, with the President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Counsellor Hossam Al-Gheriani, and the President of the "Judicial Club," Counsellor Ahmad El-Zind to solve the problem of the Egyptian Bar.  The problem revolves around what constituted disruptive behavior of some Egyptian lawyers in the Courts.  The Egyptian Bar, located in Cairo, is a member of the Federation of the Arab Bar Associations, also located in Cairo.  The lawyers are claiming immunity from what they regard as harassment by judges presiding over court litigation  These issues are not yet resolved.

While on judicial matters in the new Egypt, the headlines also dealt with the appearance by deposed President Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Jamal, together with former Minister of the Interior, Mr. Habib Al-Adli and others, before the Criminal Court.  The trial has been instituted on the basis of charges of corruption, abuse of authority, theft of public funds, illegal ownership of land and real estate, torture and the killing of peaceful demonstrators by government security forces, during the historic uprising in Tahrir  and elsewhere in Egypt which began on January 25, 2011.

The fear from an unwanted return to military rule or domination of the politics of post-Mubarak Egypt was also palpable in these headlines.  The newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yom (The Egyptian Today) had an article raising dark suspicions regarding the ultimate intentions of Egypt's Supreme Military Council.  It said in part:

"The Council is an integral part of a regime which lost only its head, but not its body." 

The article written by a woman journalist, Sahar Al-Jaarah, opined that:

"The continuity of our revolution is our biggest cause for faith in the future.  This is Revolution Until Victory.  There are no other alternatives."