Dr. Hossam Badrawi Official Website
During the last months, I conducted a live experiment in the Egyptian street, using the Union Party, which I had founded immediately after the January revolution, and the party had obtained four chairs in the 2012 parliament, which allowed me to know what was happening at the time in the parliament, and also allowed me To attend the meetings of the Military Council with the political parties represented in Parliament, including the religious current with its various wings, from the Brotherhood, the center, and the Salafists, or disguised in civilian clothes.
In the last parliamentary elections in 2015, we decided not to run in the electoral race and analyze the political reality after that. Then, it directly supported Mr. Muhammad Al-Shoura, the Talkha district, to represent the party in Parliament, and we succeeded in that. Although I have about thirty-eight independents who wish to join the party if it is activated, I and the supreme body study matters and weigh them, aiming for the interest of the country first.
However, with the permission of the supreme body of the party, I used the party framework to activate the activity for the purpose of local elections, which gives me the opportunity to communicate with the popular bases in all governorates and discuss the formation of a popular front that can contest the next local and then parliamentary elections, bearing in mind what the President of the Republic asks and his question about that.. And since, thank God, I have a great deal of political respect, many labor union leaders and farmers, many political leaders at the level of centers and villages of all sects, and a number of independent parliamentarians and even from the parties represented in the council, flocked to meet me, in order to discover the new. After the experience of the past four months, I came out with the following results that I outlined, because they will give us a vision for the next political steps that may protect the country and maintain political stability, God willing.
1- The first political force is and still is the culture of most of the partisan political community of seeking to approach and shade the executive authority. The direct question to me, and always personally, was this gathering and activation means the president’s approval and sponsorship, which I could not answer, but I was repeating that the party is in favor of President Sisi for a new presidential term, but he will present different political ideas and visions to the government in the second presidential term. . I clearly noticed that the desire of this political community revolves around the fear of being considered hostile to the security services.
This majority needs to be reassured that it is with the state’s current and its apparatus (as they are called) and welcomes respected political figures, but within this framework.
2- The next political force is the power of money and finance. I have noticed that the effect of this is great, but it is not indispensable to the former and there is no objection to it. It would be desirable if the funding was in line with the first force. But clearly, the influence of direct financial financing of political persons at the grass-roots level increases during elections, and it will be in second place after the first force. The absence of the first force will allow the influence of the second force to expand.
3- The third force is the revolutionary ideology and opposition in general to everything, which presents the demolition of any reality without positive alternatives. Few of those I have met are of this type, and their voice is loud and their screams are intense, and their impact will only be in demonstrations, sit-ins or boycotts and creating a media mental image inside and outside that Egypt is unstable and uses all means to magnify and generalize mistakes. I do not see their electoral value in the opposite direction, but I see their influence in creating and sustaining negative energy in society, which increases the anger of groups of people in the gray political zone and tends to drain society.
4- The fourth force is the left-wing political trend that has a loud voice in the media, but throughout modern history it has not once obtained a parliamentary majority, and it tends to take advantage of the second and third force when it has the opportunity. This current may be behind the movement of sit-ins and strikes between employees and unions, but for the most part it will join the first force if it appears.
5- Religious forces, whose unpopularity I am afraid is now clear, their penetration among the circles of other forces to ride waves of anger when necessary and the continuous work to widen the gap between aspirations and reality and focus on the mistakes of the government administration in dealing with society. But at this time, they are forces that cannot win elections unless they hide with a group or a party. And let us not forget that the Brotherhood has allied itself with the Wafd Party twice, which is the historical liberal party, once in 1984 and again in 2012.
I see that the Brotherhood’s electoral bloc, which may reach 3 million voters, will continue to represent a magnet for political opportunism in obtaining votes in any form, and the delegation’s experience twice before me will remain clear.
Therefore, I see that finding a new political path that allows communication with the people within the framework of the current political situation will be through a political party similar at least to the National Party or the Socialist Union, and these are the models that people should avoid thinking of returning to, and I do not think that they are suitable for the next period of government, because, Whether we like it or not, it is also linked to the ruler remaining in office no matter how many periods of rule.. It is a model if we repeat it. We seek the same results that resulted in the defeat of 67, the assassination of President Sadat, the revolution against Mubarak, and the popular rejection of the rule of the Brotherhood.
My blocs supporting Egypt and loving Egypt and other parliamentary blocs and the desire to turn them into political parties are a clear example of what I say, and I know the goodwill of all, but I warn against the inevitable failure of political action in this way.
As a summary of my study of the political reality, the formation of a strong political party backer with a majority will not have a list without the president, i.e. a president, and the use of his popularity. non-existent. Therefore, it is necessary to think about other political models available globally, or to invent a model that allows the continuity and stability of the country, not only during the period of the rule of President A
Sisi, but also after the end of his rule in 2022.
The fact of the matter is that President Sisi has a historic opportunity to be able to activate political life as the president in a second term, and he will not have the opportunity for a third term because the constitution forbids that.
The chance for President Sisi is that he does not need to suppress political action to stay in power. Therefore, his clear declaration that he is not seeking a third term of office will allow him the freedom to open the way for free partisan work.. Parties need public communication, to fund their activities transparently, and to implement their programs and present them as an alternative to what the government is doing, and it may conform and differ with the current government, and all of these things happen. In the gray area between being considered as carrying out political action or being accused of working to destroy the state, just because of disagreement with the ruling authority or viewing its activity with suspicion and suspicion.
I see how the state deals with the financing of respected civil society institutions that work in development and have a social, non-political history. Any funding, even for development projects, is only allowed with hard work, and in some cases the approval does not come until after the funding is withdrawn for the months that take the approval of the agencies.
So what about if the funding is for a partisan political action, even if it is from the citizens themselves? Without party funding, it will depend on individual funding from the party founder, which makes the party’s existence unsustainable, and even lose its legitimacy for the conflict of interests that will come, sooner or later.
The president has the historical opportunity to be the spiritual father of all, and there is no objection to announcing the selection of a number of parties that have parliamentary representation in the upcoming elections, holding public and private meetings with them, and directing state agencies to facilitate their public work as long as it is done with transparency and publicity, even if they oppose it.
I am sure that such steps from the president will revive political action, because in the absent conscience of all agencies and the subconscious mind of most officials, with a culture built on disbelief that the constitution will be amended and the president continuing to rule, even though he says otherwise. This means staying in a one-party prison that relies on being close to the head of the state and its agencies in order to succeed in the elections or to enable them to provide services.
I watched former President Mubarak tens of times deny the succession of the rule, but it was established in the hearts of the organs and the media that the ruling will be inherited, because the impression becomes true, and it may not need proof by repeating some actions.. Therefore, I place the responsibility on the president’s shoulders by actually working with the serious parties represented. In the current and upcoming parliament, whatever its orientations, and confirming that he is not seeking a third presidential term, under any pretext, which will make him free to support partisan work clearly and transparently.
