a new phase in the power struggle in Egypt

the latest news about removing the PUblic Prosecutor from his office against the law and posting him as ambassador to Egypt to the Vatican is alarming on so many different levels and exposes the lack of respect to the rule of law even more than the previous regime...

first, the removal of the Public Prosecutor from office:

1. the public prosecutor post in Egypt is part of it's judiciary and in accordance with the law, he is appointed by the president upon the nomination by the supreme council for judiciary. no one, even the president, has the power to remove him from his post. either, he resigns, retires or dies.

2. the president decided, in accordance with the news, to remove the Prosecutor to another post, which is ambassador. this step was meant to overcome the difficulty of banning the total removal from the post by law by moving him to another governmental post.

3. this step is considered clear encroachment by the executive power on the judiciary power as enshrined in the constitutional declaration.

4. moreover, this encroachment entails the lack of rule of law and the respect to the laws of the country by the highest authority of the executive power, the President.


ambassadorial appointments:

1. form sometime now there was a systematic attack on the ministry of foreign affairs, it's budget and any privileges it's officials receive. some may think this is done haphazard by some politicians or journalists. however, I believe that this attack is launched very prudently. the purpose is very clear, this institution is in need of invasion by the new power that overtook the presidency, the MB.

2. the appointment of ousted officials as ambassadors is just a start, this is in preparation to appointing more ambassadors from outside the career diplomats. the rumours about a list of 100 individuals sent to MFA to be appointed as ambassadors, if proven true, will also be a breach to the law. in accordance with the law of the diplomatic corps of Egypt, the president has the right to nominate only 10% political appointees from outside the diplomatic corps as ambassadors. egypt has 163 missions around the globe, 100 is definitely way more than the 10%... unless the president with his legislative powers amends the law!!

3. the way the presidency regards the MFA is alarming, it is no different than the previous regime, poche, snob White collared diplomats are not of use.. they are not regarded as proper officials with expertise to be useful or professionals that can work with any political regime. this is a very serious shift, from a regime that trusted no other than security officials, to another that disregards the fact that diplomats, in Egypt, by their build up, are trained to serve the country under the command of any political power and not to align themselves to any specific faction or political party by law. yet, the move towards undermining the work of career diplomats for the sake of specific political agenda is alarming and appointing unwanted officials as ambassadors shows that the presidency doesn't regard their work of any value.

4. it's an international insult to get rid of officials and send them as ambassadors, it is true that this takes place a lot in third world countries, but that is why some of these countries are never taken serious.


third: struggle for power:

the MB is hammering hard in order to consolidate it's power and grip over the country and it's institutions. they were able to get rid of SCAF members that opposed to their absolute power. they managed to change the cabinet of ministers In a way to serve their interests rather than the country's interest. the last step that has been taken now, the close grip on the judiciary and the MFA.

the removal of the Public Prosecutor in the aftermath of a court decision that he had nothing to do with, because the preparation of that case wasn't done in his office but independenty by an investigative judge, is another phase in submitting the judiciary to the power of the presidency and make sure that the decisions will be more in line with the policies of the group that occupies power at this stage. this is a long awaited and expected step after the decision to dissolve the parliament... one step after the other, all the authorities of the government will be submitting to one political faction's powers.


the people of the country at this stage are lost between such struggle for power and don't know who to support... what many don't recognise that the lack of rule of law and due process will bring us back hundreds of years instead of pulling us forward from the situation we are in. people don't realise that without rule of law, there won't be investments, with no investments there won't be development, without development the country's problems will escalate further and one wonders until when people won't realise that business oriented ruling won't differ under any ideology or pretence and that their lives will still be miserable be it engineered by EZ or Shater.