Democratic Palestine : 4 (ص 33)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 4 (ص 33)
- المحتوى
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preparing to deal a new poker hand in an
atmosphere of dialogue with the Zionist
enemy.
King Hassan is not pursuing his
Capitulationist path alone. He is operat-
ing under the cover of Arab reaction pro-
vided by the Egyptian regime in particu-
lar. The Egyptian regime warmly
received the convening of the Moroccan
Jewish conference. Egyptian Foreign
Minister Butros Ghali considered it a
new justification for the correctness of
the Camp David accords. The reserva-
tions of the majority of the Arab regimes
about condemning the conference and
their complete silence is evidence of
their approval.
Only Arab nationalist governments
have taken a stand against King Has-
san’s current maneuvering. Democratic
Yemen issued a statement condemning
the conference and the Israeli participa-
tion in it. The Yemeni statement
emphasized that Moroccan sponsorship
of the conference fell within the
framework of the conspiracies against
the Arab people and is in line with the
policy of Camp David. Syria reacted very
strongly against this Moroccan violation
of Arab Summit resolutions and recalled
its ambassador from Morocco. Syria
demanded that Arab countries impose
sanctions against the Moroccan regime.
Syria withdrew its representative from
the Jerusalem Committee of the Islamic
Conference Organization, which is
chaired by King Hassan.
The fact that there has not been an
Official statement issued by the PLO or
even a top PLO official to condemn the
conference, has created more confu-
sion. This was exploited by Arab reac-
tion and King Hassan himself to portray
the PLO as being complicit, thus hoping
to drag the PLO further down the path of
Camp David.
The PFLP believes that it is the duty
of the PLO to take a strong position
against such moves. The PLO should
lead an Arab campaign to resist and
contain King Hassan’s moves. At a
minimum, the PLO should seek to
remove King Hassan from the chairman-
ship of the Jerusalem Committee. The
question of Jerusalem is not limited to
the issue of freedom of worship as King
Hassan views it, but is above all the
question of liberating Jerusalem and all
occupied territories to ensure the legiti-
mate rights of the Palestinian people. @
Egypt
MUBARAK TRIES TO GIVE REGIME NATIONALIST FACADE WITH FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS
In May 1984, Egyptian President Mubarak attempted to provide his regime with a nationalist facade
by sponsoring fraudulent parliamentary elections. The outcome was not surprising: the ruling National
Democratic Party gained 391 of the 448 parliamentary seats, more than the NDP previously held. All
opposition parties lost the seats they formally held. The recently legalized Wafd Party won the remaining
57. The results were so skewed in favor of the regime that Mubarak later felt embarrassed enough to
appoint a member of the opposition Socialist Labor Party as speaker of the parliament. The Egyptian left
organized in the National Progressive Unionist Party has refused to participate in the new sham parlia-
ment.
To understand the objectives of
these elections it is important to view
them in the context of the crisis that led
to the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
After his death, it became apparent that
the Egyptian ruling class was unable to
rule with the same old methods. Con-
tinuation of Sadat’s methods would have
led to a mass uprising due to the aggra-
vated political and economic crisis. This
in turn led the Mubarak regime to con-
trive a new fake democratic consensus
which would tart up the government of
Camp David and the economic «open
door» to imperialism with a nationalist
facade.
Prior to the elections, legislation
was formulated so as to secure a size-
able parliamentary majority for the ruling
NDP. The new electoral legislation
stipulated that only those parties which
received at least 8% of the vote ona
country-wide basis would be entitled to
sit in the People’s Assembly. Through
this law, the ruling party was able to pre-
vent representation of three opposition
parties: the Socialist Labor Party, the
National Progressive Unionist Party and
the Liberal Party. All the votes obtained
by these opposition parties were added
to the votes gained by the NDP. The
number of seats allotted to the NDP rose
from 337 to 391. |
For the first time, elections occurred
in Egypt under conditions that allowed
for relative freedom of expression. But
the electoral laws predetermined the
results, and the state repressive
apparatus and the exceptional laws of
the Sadat era remained intact to ensure
that there would be no surprise victories
for the opposition.
To make «democratization» appear
more credible, even the disbanded Wafd
Party was allowed to reconstitute itself.
The old Wafd traditionally represented
productive sectors of the Egyptian
bourgeoisie which never benefitted from
the creation of the unproductive infitah
bourgeoisie of the Sadat era. This
reemergence of the Wafd was accom-
33 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 4
- تاريخ
- يوليو ١٩٨٤
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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