Egypt’s parliamentary crisis

KHALED DESOUKI/AFP

Egypt’s best independent daily newspaper, al-Masry al-Youm, is reporting that the country’s parliamentary opposition is threatening to resign en masse to protest the ruling National Democratic Party’s proposed constitutional amendments. The opposition bloc, which consists of 88 members of the banned-yet-sometimes-tolerated Muslim Brotherhood and a smattering of other parties and independents, is fed up with the NDP’s heavy-handed legislative tactics and its phony reforms. A referendum on the changes is planned for April 3, and the opposition is calling for a nationwide boycott.

When I was in Egypt, from June, 2005, to October, 2006, the country was in the midst of what looked like a democratic opening. Protests, albeit small ones, broke out weekly on the streets of Cairo, and at times the opposition seemed on the verge of joining forces to press for real change. But the Egyptian government is adept at dividing its enemies, and the United States proved unwilling to risk its cozy relationship with the Mubarak regime at a time of growing instability in the Middle East. The Muslim Brotherhood’s surprising success in the fall 2005 elections provoked a crackdown by the regime that is still going on. Egypt’s democratic spring is long over.

I returned to the United States chastened by the experience. I stopped looking at every little protest as a sign that the regime was vulnerable, that real change was on the way. But resigning from the parliament would be an unprecedented step for an often hapless opposition that has largely fallen off the international media radar. The United States, which gives a little under $2 billion in military and economic aid to the Egyptian government each year, would do well to pay attention.

Much more at Marc Lynch’s place.