Egypt Critical News Update #24-Cabinet Reshuffling Sham Begins!

Security Forces Prevent Planned Demonstration before Education Ministry

As the political reshuffling charade and political payoff to collaborators and supporters of the coup continues under the regime's military managers, there were no major changes made in the five key political power and governance ministries, but plenty of lesser ministries were left to go around...

The reshuffling will not affect the ministers of  finance, defense, justice, foreign affairs or the interior. That means that political, economic, military and legal and international directives and affairs power stays in the hands of the regime. In other words neither global capitalism or the ruling political oligarchy will be threaten by the changes.

Who stays and who comes

The current Minister of Justice, Mamdouh Marei, was a strong supporter of former President Hosni Mubarak who has used the ministry to terrorize and eliminate political dissent and opposition to the regime. Stays...

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who today leads the ruling military council, and thus defacto runs the country, has been defense minister for about 20 years. He's not going anywhere, obviously.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit’s who held strong positions against the demonstrators of the 25 January uprising will stay put too.

The non politically critical ministries will see the following changes: Mohammed al-Sawy as Minister of Culture, Mounir Fakhri Abdel Nour as Minister of Tourism, Gouda Abdel Khaleq Social Solidarity and Social Justice Minister, Georget Kliney as Minister of Immigration and Egyptians Abroad, Ahmed Gamal Eddin as Minister of Education, and Omar Ezzat Salama as Minister for Scientific Research.

Yehia al-Gamal was appointed deputy prime minister.  He is a leader in Mohammed  ElBaradei's coalition of center right neoliberal reform groups called the National Association for Change, one of the first groups to sit down to negotiate with the coup.

Tagammu Party (a center left party)  member Gouda Abdel Khaleq has accepted the Social Solidarity and Social Justice ministerial position in the current government, supposedly without discussing his appointment with the Tagammu Party, a spokesperson for the party has said. Abdel Khaleq's decision is therefore personal and does not represent the party, according to the party spokesperson.

The spokesperson announced in a statement that the party opposes the formation, program and obligations of the government that Abdel Khaleq has joined. According to the statement, the party will take the appropriate procedures toward its members in such cases.

Tagammu Party President Refaat al-Saeed told Al-Masry Al-Youm that his party rejects the current caretaker government, its priorities, its mode of work and the regime which brought it to power. For party members to join the government is therefore out of the question, he said.

Abdel Khaleq did not discuss the matter with the party and made his decision without informing them, al-Saeed added.

 
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most organized political group, which was banned from forming a political party under Mubarak, said it was not invited to join the cabinet and dismissed the reshuffle saying all Mubarak's ministers must go.

"No one offered us any post and had they done so, we would have refused because we request what the public demands that this government quit as it is part of the former regime," said Essam al-Erian, a senior member of the Brotherhood.

"We want a new technocratic government that has no connection with the old era," he told Reuters.

Mounir Abdel Nour, secretary-general of the Wafd party, a decades old "liberal", nationalist party, became tourism minister.

"Accepting the position is a national duty to push for change in the right direction," MENA quoted Abdel Nour as saying to Egypt's private Mehwar TV, according to Reuters.

Wafd has traditionally been the bastion of liberal democrats in Egypt many opponents of Mubarak had also said the Wafd party had often been close to Mubarak's government.

In other changes, the post of information minister was scrapped. The former minister, Anas el-Fikki, had drawn the wrath of protesters because state media had played down or ignored protests for much of the 18-day revolt.

Amr Hamzawy, a political analyst and member of the so-called council of "Wise Men" which were key in propping up the military coup, ironically became minister for youth, state television reported.

The new posts will be sworn in by the Army's Supreme Council.

Labor News:

Around 1,000 Egyptians protested on Sunday in a city east of Cairo after a woman was killed by an army vehicle during a demonstration, eyewitnesses said.

The incident marked the latest eruption of public anger in the wake of countrywide protests that began on Jan. 25 and led to the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak.

The witnesses said Etedal Mohamed Ghoneim, 42, was killed when she was run over by a military vehicle during a protest by lorry drivers in front of the Red Sea port of Adabiya. A medical source said Ghoneim died before reaching hospital.

The details of Ghoneim's death were not immediately clear, but some witnesses said she had been clinging on to a moving army tank that was carrying away her son, along with four other protesters, in an attempt to disperse the gathering.

The vehicle had moved suddenly as several people clung to it to block its movement, the witnesses said.
They said about 100 protesters had gathered at the port to complain about rising tolls and what they said was mistreatment from the port's administration. Ghoneim's death swelled people's anger, drawing 1,000 protesters to the spot where she had died.

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Mobilizations

I've received an unconfirmed report that the April 6 Youth Movement is calling for a day of protests in Tahrir Square, Cairo, tomorrow, and which is being referred to as "the day of challenge". In addition, two new lists of demands have also emerged. One connected to tomorrow's April 16th's Day of Challenge demonstration and another from a Cairo Revolutionary Neighborhood Committee.

The April 16th group lists its demands:

• Acquitting [sic] the current government.

• Abolition of the emergency law.

• The release of all detainees.

• The formation of a presidential council, including civilians, and fair judges.

• Retribution of [sic] all the media figures that have contributed in killing our martyrs.

• Acquitting [sic] the state security apparatus and restructuring of the ministry of interior as well as all of the NDP headquarters.

• Forming a new technocratic government.

• Aquitting [sic] the government led by Ahmed Shafik, which includes the foul faces that have a history of corruption such as Mufid Shehab, Aisha Abdel Hadi, Faiza Abu Naga, Sameh Fahmi, Ali Meselhi, Mahmoud Wagdy to be dismissed and Mhakthm and the formation of a new technocratic government.

Technocratic government: is a specialised government which doesn't belong to any party; this government is used in the case of political differences.

Our revolution and struggle will continue until we achieve all our demands.

The revolution is not finished yet ...

Statement from the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution of the south Cairo neighborhoods of Maadi, Besatin and Dar el-Salam.

(Such CDRs were established during the revolutionary uprising which led to the overthrow of Mubarak and they exist in several Cairo neighbourhoods, but also in other cities, including the industrial centre of Helwan.

The blood from the martyrs has not yet dried. It asks us to continue our uprising that has the goal to achieve our demands and not be ruled by criminals. The revolution has achieved something great by the fall of the tyrant and many of his supporters. But it has to be underlined that many of the aims of the revolution have not yet been achieved, because the current rulers in our country prevent it. This requires that we continue the revolution in many forms by among other things strikes, sit-ins and uprisings. Besides that a Committees for the Defense of the Revolution should be established in the neighborhoods, cities and villages, so we can preserve the gains that the revolution has achieved, with the following demands:

1. The struggle for civilian rule is achieved by broader public and private liberty rights; such as the freedom to organize political parties, trade unions, trade union federations and freedom of the press, expression, opinions and believes.
2. The establishing of a national civilian government excluding the National Party, its officials and former presidential candidates. The council should consist of 5 judges from the Court of Cassation so that the army return to the barracks within one month.
3. The President's people, his current and former officials, ministers and presidents within the last thirty years to face trial for the crimes and corruption they committed. Furthermore their fortunes must be confiscated both at home and abroad so that they can be used to build factories and economic projects, with the purpose of helping solve the problem of unemployment.
4. The election of a constituent assembly to draft a democratic constitution for the new republic
5. Renationalisation of all state-owned land sold to thieves as businessmen and the corrupt regime over 30 years that should be directed to establish a fund to build homes for the youth.
6. Introduction of a progressive tax duty for all millionaires with the purpose of financing a minimum wage (1500 Egyptian pounds) for all workers and that the maximum wage does not exceed ten times the minimum.
7. Prosecution of the leaders of the Ministry of the Interior and those who participated in the killing of the protesters, innocents and the many thousands who were wounded, and the implementation of a system of appropriate compensation. This should give compensation to the families of both the dead and the wounded and those who need treatment should receive it at the expense of the state.
8. All political related prisoners to be released, both those arrested before and after January 25.
9. The dissolution of the state's Central Investigation and Central Security Units, a ban against the use of weapons in the repression of protest movements and a limitation of the role of the police in maintaining security under the peoples supervision.

Let us together support the establishment of Committee to Defend the Revolution in all neighborhoods, cities and villages.

Long live the Peoples January 25 revolution

Eternal glory to our loyal martyrs

The Committee for the Defense of the Revolution – Maadi, Besatin and Dar el-Salam