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No To the Constitutional Amendments…
Yes to a New Constitution
The Popular Alliance Party announces along with its founding its rejection of the amendments to the constitution which the January 25 Revolution did away with. The party considers these amendments to be tantamount to a call to deviate from the path of the revolution and to turn it into an operation which will reform the old regime. However, the definitive cause which the revolution has embraced is the overthrow of the regime along with all of its symbols, arms, and institutions, as well as its constitution and its dictatorial edifice whereas the amendments concentrate on the conditions regarding the election of the president.
As for the matter of the presidency itself, the amendments have ignored the total powers given to the president which make him a Pharaoh who sits above other sources of power (he can form the government and dissolve parliament and appoint one third of the members of the upper house of parliament (The Shura Council) and head the Supreme Council of Judges) … everything in one person! The main cause which the revolution has taken up is not the manner of electing the dictator but rather preventing the appearance of a new dictator and a return of dignity to the people, they being the ultimate source of authority.
Likewise, the amendments have jumped over the discussion revolving around a presidential republic and a parliamentary republic, and so too have they jumped over the priorities which match up with a process of change which responds to the demands of the revolution.
It is incomprehensible how rushed the process of drawing up these amendments has been, presenting them to the people to vote on in a referendum within mere weeks, and carrying out three sets of elections (for the presidency and both houses of parliament) within a few months. Although the fact is that there are other ways to conform to the desire of the Military Council for returning to the barracks, such as forming a presidential council and issuing a constitutional statement to safeguard freedoms during the transitional period.
On the contrary, beginning to amend the constitution with the claim of calling for early elections is putting the cart before the horse. One of the reasons for the explosion of the revolution was obstructionism in politics, stagnation of official political life, and the control of the police, the security apparatus, and the administration over labor unions, political parties, and national organizations of all stripes as well as the incompatibility of the dictatorial police state with the facts of life under which organizations of change have developed, outside of this rotten enclosure.
The recognition of the legitimacy of the revolution merely means beginning firstly with the announcement of general freedoms and their protection and secondly the preparation of the soil for the young forces of the revolution and finally giving them the necessary amount of time to develop a level of organization which they were denied in the past. In contrast, early elections will lead to a return of the influence of the old powers which are maliciously fighting in order to return to their old positions to undermine the revolution. They represent the true threat to the stability which the Military Council calls for.
In the correct ordering of priorities and in order to respond to the demands and the goals of the revolution, Egypt is still in need of a declaration of general freedoms, a declaration which resembles the Declaration of the Rights of Man in the French Revolution or the Declaration of Independence in the American Revolution, a declaration to be a fruit of the Revolution and a promise of a new era:
A declaration to secure the right to organize and establish parties, organizations, labor unions, trade unions by merely noting the free will of the founders without waiting for a permit from the administration. A declaration to guarantee all manners of voluntary association the right to publish literature and which would free them from all guardianship and which would not subject them to any sort of censorship except the oversight of their members;
A declaration to bestow the right to publish newspapers and the right to assemble, demonstrate, strike, and hold sit-ins, a declaration to complete the dissolution of parliament and the local councils and end governance based on the emergency law;
A declaration to confirm a state based on the rule of law, with equality of all citizens before the law with no discrimination and to guarantee complete the civil rights for all Egyptians to take on official positions without distinction. A declaration to establish the true independence of the three branches of government along with the steps that would follow: the dissolution the investigative apparatus of State Security which played the role of the true ruler in political parties, labor unions, neighborhoods, administration of the government, universities and sites of production; the release of political prisoners and the transfer of prisons and other places of detention within police stations to the authority of the Ministry of Justice, and the transfer of authority over all judicial bodies to an independent Supreme Judicial Council, a special body with its own budget, and the dissolution of military courts and all manners of irregular justice;
A declaration to confirm the dedication of the state to the socio-economic rights of Egyptians at the front of which are the rights to food, education, housing, work, health care, and a just wage.
Tahrir Square has raised the banner, “The army and the people, one hand”, and its interpretation by the Military Council ought to be to slow the pace of constitutional amendments in order to issue a declaration of freedoms.
The Popular Alliance demands that the Military Council back down from its call for citizens to vote in a referendum on amendments to a constitution which has lost its legitimacy and calls for cooperation between all the forces of the revolution to block this step by means of a letter-writing campaign to the Military Council and by holding assemblies in neighborhoods and workplaces and all other manners of expression which can be agreed upon such as demonstrations, sit-ins, etc.
And in the case that the referendum is carried out, the Popular Alliance Party calls for citizens to vote no on the amendments as an indication of a refusal to revive a dead constitution currently being dressed up and as an indication of their insistence upon a new constitution to realize the hopes of the Revolution.
The Popular Alliance Party (newly founded)
11 March 2011
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Acquired 11 March 2011
Translated by Tim Friese.
Translation reviewed by Thomas Levi Thompson.
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