Pro-reform movement gathers steam ahead of presidential poll

A former Egyptian prime minister last week launched a group against what he called alliance of corruption and despotism as more pro-reform movements were declared months ahead of Egypt's first contested presidential ballot.

Atef Sedki, who was Egypt's prime minister in 1972, is attempting to stage a comeback to the political arena after long decades of being out of public sight.

Sedki, 85, and several former politicians, academics and journalists have founded the National Grouping for Democratic Transformation, which they say is designed to counter "corruption and despotism, which have undermined political life in Egypt".

In their first statement, a copy of which was obtained by Gulf News, the founders said they would set up a committee of different political groups to draft a new constitution for the country.

"The mistakes perpetrated in Egypt for long years are due to lack of democracy," Sedki told a press conference.

"An end must be put to the widespread corruption and extravagance in this country, where there are people spending lavishly on functions and belly-dancers, while the majority cannot make both ends meet."

Besides Sedki's group, a series of pro-reform movements have appeared in Egypt over the past few months, pushing for radical constitutional changes.

Last December, protest movement Kefaya (Enough), a loose-knit group of leftists, Islamists, liberals and secularists, first took to the streets to declare opposition to the prospect of President Hosni Mubarak running for a fifth six-year term or allowing his son Jamal to succeed him.

Two weeks ago, young members of Kefaya said they would set up what they called "Youth for Change" movement. Last week, Egyptian journalists and writers launched two separate pro-reform groups.

"Such movements are basically coalitions, which group people of different leanings," said Diaa Rashwan of the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

"Their birth is prompted by the crisis in Egypt. They espouse the same objectives of constitutional reform, freedom of creating political parties and scrapping emergency laws," he told Gulf News.

Rashwan, who is a member of the nascent National Grouping for Democratic Transformation, predicted that more such groups would spring up if the Egyptian government failed to institute "genuine" solutions to the country's problems.

"The fact that Atef Sedki and other former politicians have ended their retirement to get engaged in political activism reflects a general feeling of disillusionment in Egypt."

"Due to the absence of influential political parties, movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Kefaya have emerged to express the silent majority," said Abdul Moneim Abul Fetouh, a member of the banned opposition Muslim Brotherhood.

"The movement, which has the biggest following and is the closest to the street, will lead the process of change."

Egypt has 19 legal political parties, mostly seen as ineffectual.

The writer is an Arab journalist based in Cairo