Ezz dominates second day of NDP conference

Gamal Essam El-Din , Sunday 26 Dec 2010

Ahmed Ezz, the NDP's business tycoon and secretary for organisational affairs, launched a scathing attack against both the Muslim Brotherhood and Wafd Party

Ezz
In a 30-minute speech before the National Democratic Party (NDP) seventh annual conference today, Ahmed Ezz, the NDP's secretary for organisational affairs and widely believed to the right-hand man of Gamal Mubarak, the 46-year-old son of President Hosni Mubarak, attacked the Muslim Brotherhood group and the liberal-oriented Wafd Party.

Ezz charged that the Muslim Brotherhood and its deputies in the outgoing parliament put their loyalty to Islamist ideology above their loyalty to Egypt. In Ezz's words, “All Brotherhood deputies cared about in the outgoing assembly was to defend the Palestinian Islamist movement of Hamas in Gaza at the expense of Egypt's interests, and even when this movement killed an Egyptian soldier at the border with the Strip in 2005.” 

According to Ezz, “The Brotherhood did not care about the blood of the Egyptian martyr; its main concern was that the Islamist emirate of Hamas in Gaza does not face any danger.” Ezz also cited Mohamed Akef, the former supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, as saying “God damn Egypt," and "We do not care if the governor of Egypt is a Malysian or a Nigerian as long as he is a Muslim.”

In particular, Ezz attacked the deputies of the Muslim Brotherhood in the outgoing parliament, charging that “they were fond of disseminating false rumours about the ruling NDP" and that "their words never matched their deeds".

According to Ezz, the Muslim Brotherhood is fond of dividing Egyptians into two camps: Brotherhood Muslims and non-Brotherhood Muslims. “Brotherhood Muslims are the ones who follow the righteous way and will go to heaven, while non-Brotherhood Muslims are not true Muslims and that God might forgive them or not,” said Ezz, wondering: “And if this is the case, what about the Copts or non-Muslim Egyptians?”

In general, Ezz accused the Muslim Brotherhood of exercising a kind of “elusive opposition”. “Sometimes they form an alliance with the Wafd and sometimes with the leftists; and sometimes they attack the private sector and sometimes they support it,” Ezz claimed.

Ezz also went far in attacking the Wafd, Egypt's biggest opposition party. “All opinion polls showed that the popularity of 130 Wafd Party candidates in the elections did not exceed one per cent, while just four candidates, out of a total 195, enjoyed a popularity of no more than 20 per cent,” said Ezz. 

He concluded his attacks by directing an ultimatum to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd alike, saying: “I am here to stay until the end of my life, taking care of every ballot box.”

Ezz, however, expressed hope that “the opposition will be back to parliament (the People's Assembly) in 2015 because it is quite difficult for the NDP to repeat 2010's overwhelming victory again.”

Turning to NDP deputies, Ezz said “You are the future of this party ... one of you will be the NDP's future secretary for organisational affairs or the NDP's future chairman of the Policies Committee ...  please try to make a good investment of our achievements ... do not give up and do your best to defend Egypt as a civil state against those who aim to turn it into a religious state.”

Ezz opened his speech with a review of the economic conditions of Egypt in 2011. In his capacity as chairmen of the parliament's Budget Committee, Ezz argued that the life of most Egyptians had much improved in 2010, compared to 2005. 

“More than one million Egyptians were able to buy cars, while the salaries of government employees increased by 100 per cent, and the salaries of school teachers increased by 200 per cent.” According to Ezz, Egypt now enjoys “the best equitable distribution of incomes in the African countries. Ezz cried foul that “the opposition claims that the government of Egypt is the government of businessmen in spite of the fact that this government spends two thirds of its annual budget on social aspects and subsidies.”

Ezz said he will never feel shame about reviewing the achievements of the NDP and its government, though the opposition attacks those who speak of achievements as traitors.

For his part, Gamal Mubarak, the 46-year-old son of President Hosni Mubarak and chairman of the influential Policies Committee, said it is a great pride for him to be a member of the ruling NDP. In his words, “The NDP should boast of fighting extremist ideologies saying that Egypt is in a desperate need for another wave of economic reform and for LE100 million to build housing units aimed to accommodate the expected runaway growth of population in the next five years.

Joining forces with Gamal Mubarak, Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali indicated that "the implementation of NDP's parliamentary election programme will cost LE2 billion over the next five years." In Ghali's words "the NDP is quite capable of underwriting the cost of this programme and changing the mindset of the Egyptian youth in favor of finding jobs in the private sector rather than in government offices."

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