CAIRO: Representatives of human rights organizations and opposition parties criticized Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, following Nazif’s vociferous attack on both during a talk he gave Thursday at a youth camp in Alexandria.
Nazif accused human rights organizations of only reporting on the negative and ignoring all the positive achievements and developments taking place in Egypt.
“It is well-known that Nazif is not a politician, his only qualification is that he is a good computer engineer, Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information told The Daily Star Egypt in a first reaction to Nazif’s statement.
Eid was not surprised by Nazif’s accusations because, he says, “Egypt has witnessed the worst human rights violations since Nazif became Prime Minister.
Nabil Abdel-Fatah, political analyst from Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, also told The Daily Star Egypt that “it is not the job of a human rights organization to compliment the government.
“These organizations are required to point out all violations and problems that citizens face in Egypt and try to make their voices reach both the government and the world, he said. However, according to Eid, human rights organizations do not mind a joint meeting that would include civil society representatives and the government to discuss the human rights situation in Egypt.
Yet he believes that the government has to take the first step, acknowledge the problems and accept civil society’s proposals to enhance human rights conditions.
“Where are those positive achievements the government is asking human rights organizations to acknowledge? Are they talking about the torture cases that have reportedly taken place in police stations or the thousands of political arrests? Hamdy Hassan, an MP affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, told The Daily Star Egypt.
However, Hassan added, “if he [Dr. Nazif] finds any positive progress in the human rights status in Egypt, I wish he would share it with us.
In the same speech, Nazif reportedly described opposition parties as “incapable of functioning as evidenced by their failure to acquire enough seats in parliament, which led President Mubarak to appoint representatives from each political party in the Shoura Council.
But Hassan says the reason why President Mubarak has appointed opposition representatives to fill the vacancies in the upper house of parliament is the “forging that took place during [last month’s] elections under the supervision of the government-appointed higher electoral committee.
“Democracy is all about honest competition and not empty seats to be filled, Hassan added.
“Dr. Nazif should have focused more on his job as a prime minister and left Egypt’s political life and parties to the President who is the only one entitled to discuss these matters, Abdel-Fatah said.
“If the opposition parties are not able to function, so does his [Nazif’s] party, the National Democratic Party (NDP) which is also very weak and dysfunctional, Abdel-Fatah added.
The Prime Minster’s statements, he continued, are not true and “prove that he is blind to the reality of Egypt’s political life.
On the other hand, Mohamed Khalil Kwaitah, PA member affiliated with the NDP told The Daily Star Egypt that he totally supports the Prime Minister’s critique.
“In Egypt we do not have real political parties, Kwaitah said.
“The parties we have are parties by name only and are full of problems and internal conflicts that do not equip them to join the political arena, he said.
