Egypt’s liberals Seek a Third Way

It has been a week since the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi officially took office as Egypt’s president and he has yet to form a government, appoint a prime minister or designate a vice president.
Morsi said he wants some sort of coalition, but if he’s counting on liberals joining his cabinet he may be out of luck.

Some non Islamist groups like the April 6th Youth Movement and the Revolutionary Socialists, along with a handful of revolutionary figures like author Alaa Al Aswany and activist Wael Goneim, who pledged their support for Morsi in the race, may accept posts in the new government.

But members of other liberal parties have said, if approached, they won’t be joining Morsi’s cabinet.

“We will be compromised if we are involved in the government,” Naguib Abadir of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, told me. “We don’t subscribe to the overall vision of the Muslim Brotherhood for a religious state so we will refrain from accepting any posts in the new government. We are prepared to stay neutral and independent and uncompromised.”

Along with others, they have set to work creating a large umbrella group they’re calling the ‘Third Current’ that brings together a number of like-minded secular parties and individuals with the aim of becoming a powerful and effective counter balance to the almighty brotherhood.

The move comes at time of severe polarization in Egyptian society, following a runoff election that pitted two extremes against each other. The Third Current seeks to present Egyptians with an alternative to the two main forces, the Islamists and the security state.

The idea is to unite groups that were splintered in the aftermath of the revolution under one banner. The movement includes former presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahy and Amr Moussa, as well as secular parties Al Wafd, the Egyptian Social Democrats, the Free Egyptians, parliamentarians like Amr Hamzawy and Mostapha El-Guindy as well as long time opposition figures such as Saad El-Din Ibrahim and Ayman Nour.

Key principles include the establishment of a democratic and civil, not religious, state; respect for the rule of law and equality, while maintaining Islamic Sharia as a main source of legislation; a rejection of all forms of discrimination; guarantees of personal rights and freedoms and the protection of the country’s resources.

“We in the Third Current want to protect Egypt’s right to a constitution that upholds personal freedoms, the rule of law and the division of power, the right to fair elections and government institutions not dominated by one party or one ideology,” Amr Hamzawy a liberal member of the dissolved parliament wrote in a commentary in Egypt’s Al Watan newspaper.

The movement wants to learn from previous mistakes, which according to Hamzawy cost a ‘very high price’ in parliamentary and presidential elections because of the split of the secular vote.

Hamazawy said he thinks President Morsi should draw on those who share his political vision when forming a government.

It is important to remember though that in Egypt, nuance is key and being opposed to the Brotherhood or political Islam does not necessarily mean opposition to Morsi himself. It is not inconceivable that some members of this Third Current might be compelled to accept government jobs, depending on who else Morsi manages to bring in.

Much has been made of the liberal opposition’s failure to capitalize on the revolution. A previous alliance of secularists under the ‘Egyptian Block’ fell apart due to internal bickering and analysts are wary of this latest reincarnation.

“When there is a project like this with many different leaders, I’m not optimistic that they can come together in an effective way and create a strong front,” said Dr. Osama Ghazali Hard, political commentator and founder of the liberal Democratic Front Party.

Harb thinks the Muslim Brotherhood will still have a strong showing if and when parliamentary elections are repeated, even though he acknowledged “the gap between the liberals and the Islamists in parliament will probably close.”

Sobhi Essela, a political analyst, thought creating a Third Current movement was a good idea in theory but doubted that it could be effective in bringing together so many different forces.

“It is difficult to get so many different people to rally around broad principles and generate the enthusiasm needed to take those ideas forward and actually achieve their goals,” Essela said.

Mostafa El-Guindy, a secular member of the dissolved parliament told Al Arabiya in a TV interview, that things were different this time around because the elections had left Egyptians deeply divided between the two choices: an Islamist state or a military state.

“We saw a demand from the street for something between the two options,” Guindy said.

“We are trying to create a new center-left current that can run parallel to the Islamist current so that Egypt can have a democracy with plurality and a balance between two big powers,” he said.

Guindy cautioned that if a power as formidable as the Brotherhood was met by a small and weak force, Egypt would revert back to the Mubarak era where his National Democratic Party dominated and opposition parties were insignificant. He hopes the Third Current can convince others to coalesce around it to match the Islamists’ might.

But some warn that because this new movement is dominated by political actors of the past, it won’t speak to the younger generation which fought and died for the revolution.

“After the revolution, the public changed but the political classes didn’t change,” Ezz El-Din Shokry, a political analyst and author said. “It is the same old faces acting in the same old way, the street is one step of ahead of them.”

Shokry says the younger generation of political activists “with a new vision for Egypt” must convince the old guard to accept to be relegated to the role of political ‘symbol’.

For a new movement to succeed it must also move beyond trying to be a negation of military rule or a religious state and formulate its own clear identity.

He also warns of falling into old traps, saying polarization remains in the interest of the two dominant political forces. “The remains of the old security state regime and the figures of political Islam will try to hit them with everything they’ve got to keep them polarized because polarization benefits both sides.”

Meanwhile, former presidential candidate Abdel Moniem Abul Fotouh, who split from the Brotherhood last year to launch a presidential bid, announced he is founding a new party called ‘Strong Egypt’. Abou Al Fotouh said his new party would compete in upcoming elections later this year, either on a local council or parliamentary level.

Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, who fear the rising tide of Islamism, said they will put their foot down when it comes to the degree of influence Islamic law has on legislation.

And a group of Coptic activists recently announced the establishment of a ‘Christian Brotherhood’ as an antidote to the dominance of the Muslim Brotherhood after Morsi’s win.

One of the group’s founders, Michel Fahmi, told Al Arabiya that the idea started back in 2005 with the rise of Islamist groups but that Morsi’s victory compelled them to act. “We created our group to create a balance in the Egyptian political scene,” he said.As for the President, he is under close watch by activists who set up a ‘Morsi Meter’ to keep track of the promises he made for his first
100 days in office.

The newly formed Third Current will also be watching the president closely.

“If Morsi starts reneging on his promises and on the rule of law and the constitution, or acting against what we believe in terms of the Egyptian identity, we will definitely change from a civil movement into an opposition and a fierce one,” Abadir of the Free Egyptians told me.

Of paramount importance will Morsi’s choices for cabinet positions, currently the subject of intense negotiation. But even if he manages to put a competent team together, Abadir says it is the actions of the government that will shed light on Morsi’s intentions.

“You can have someone good, but decisions are forced upon them, they may not have the power to oppose the overall direction he wants to take the country.”