Dictatorial Legislation: History And Future Of Egypt’s Emergency Law
Egypt’s Emergency Law (Law No. 162 of 1958) was first implemented in 1967 after the Arab-Israeli conflict. The law was suspended for an 18 month period in 1980. It was reemployed immediately after the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat in October 1981. Under the law, state police powers’ umbrella is greatly extended, constitutional rights suspended and censorship legalized. In essence, the law is the epitome of anti-democracy as well as an antithesis to democracy itself.
As of April 30th the law had been extended for two more years. The rationale behind the implementation of the law is that it ‘apparently’ helps security forces in Egypt detain would-be terrorists, break-up terrorist cells and preempt any anarchical behavior among the country’s citizens. In any democratic country, the law is supposed to protect its citizens, unfortunately in Egypt, the Emergency Law has done the complete opposite.
The law delineates and sharply demarcates any non-governmental political activity, street demonstrations as well as non-approved political organizations. As I discussed in my recent post “Egypt Is Far From Democracy,” the recent protests arguing for an independent judiciary and the removal of charges against two judges who ‘spoke’ about the corruption during last September’s elections fell victim to the Emergency Law. Many people were detained and held in custody without further notice. Today, there are approximately 10,000 people in custody without charge.
Mubarak promised to replace the Emergency Law with a new anti-terrorism legislation however that has not come fruition. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the greatest opposing force to the National Democratic Party (NDP) has argued that there is no justification for extending the law. Their members have become regular victims of the law and have realized that it has become a great tool for the NDP to suppress their power and presence in Egyptian politics. Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has stated that the law will only be used to protect the citizen as well as fight terrorism and moreover the parliament decided to extend the law in order to leave ample time to draft a new anti-terrorism law. A large chunk (25%) of the 378 Parliamentary members in attendance opposed the extension, most of them MB members – however that was obviously insufficient to cancel the law.
Observing the situation objectively, the Emergency Law only reveals the weakness, lack of cohesion as well as backwardness of the current administration. It shows that the government is unable to implement regular, democratic legislation to control vice, chaos and notoriety among society. What do they do? Simply detain as many people as possible to ‘clean’ the streets and stop any further social mishaps or demonstrations.
This has the complete opposite effect.
The proletariat and bourgeoisie in Egypt (and especially the political activists among them) have been furious about the way they have been treated when they seek to voice their opinions and concerns. They can easily place the blame on the law as they are aware that political activists from the upper-middle as well as upper class can buy their way out of any legislation – but unfortunately they cannot afford to.
The presence of nepotism and cronyism has given a handful of individuals and their families immunity from the law. The general public is aware of this as and especially the police force themselves. Thus, this has furthered exacerbated the remaining population’s anger. Not only is it a ridiculously unfair law, it does not apply to certain economically and politically powerful individuals.
As I’ve argued in many of my posts, Egypt is far from any democratic transformation but one thing is certain: democracy cannot go hand in hand with the Emergency Law, it needs to be abolished before any reforms take place.
As of April 30th the law had been extended for two more years. The rationale behind the implementation of the law is that it ‘apparently’ helps security forces in Egypt detain would-be terrorists, break-up terrorist cells and preempt any anarchical behavior among the country’s citizens. In any democratic country, the law is supposed to protect its citizens, unfortunately in Egypt, the Emergency Law has done the complete opposite.
The law delineates and sharply demarcates any non-governmental political activity, street demonstrations as well as non-approved political organizations. As I discussed in my recent post “Egypt Is Far From Democracy,” the recent protests arguing for an independent judiciary and the removal of charges against two judges who ‘spoke’ about the corruption during last September’s elections fell victim to the Emergency Law. Many people were detained and held in custody without further notice. Today, there are approximately 10,000 people in custody without charge.
Mubarak promised to replace the Emergency Law with a new anti-terrorism legislation however that has not come fruition. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the greatest opposing force to the National Democratic Party (NDP) has argued that there is no justification for extending the law. Their members have become regular victims of the law and have realized that it has become a great tool for the NDP to suppress their power and presence in Egyptian politics. Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has stated that the law will only be used to protect the citizen as well as fight terrorism and moreover the parliament decided to extend the law in order to leave ample time to draft a new anti-terrorism law. A large chunk (25%) of the 378 Parliamentary members in attendance opposed the extension, most of them MB members – however that was obviously insufficient to cancel the law.
Observing the situation objectively, the Emergency Law only reveals the weakness, lack of cohesion as well as backwardness of the current administration. It shows that the government is unable to implement regular, democratic legislation to control vice, chaos and notoriety among society. What do they do? Simply detain as many people as possible to ‘clean’ the streets and stop any further social mishaps or demonstrations.
This has the complete opposite effect.
The proletariat and bourgeoisie in Egypt (and especially the political activists among them) have been furious about the way they have been treated when they seek to voice their opinions and concerns. They can easily place the blame on the law as they are aware that political activists from the upper-middle as well as upper class can buy their way out of any legislation – but unfortunately they cannot afford to.
The presence of nepotism and cronyism has given a handful of individuals and their families immunity from the law. The general public is aware of this as and especially the police force themselves. Thus, this has furthered exacerbated the remaining population’s anger. Not only is it a ridiculously unfair law, it does not apply to certain economically and politically powerful individuals.
As I’ve argued in many of my posts, Egypt is far from any democratic transformation but one thing is certain: democracy cannot go hand in hand with the Emergency Law, it needs to be abolished before any reforms take place.
posted by The Egyptian Observer at 3:05 PM
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