The following articles have been published in Daily News Egypt
Despite the government’s denial of serious fuel shortages, a number of gas stations across Egypt have reported a month-long ongoing cut in supply.
Iman Derbala, owner and manager of Mobil Derbala gas station, told Daily News Egypt that even though the official media is saying there is no crisis, “stations are not getting their share of fuel but people think we are hoarding it or selling it on the black market. The truth is there is no petrol.”
Derbala explained that her station’s share, provided by Mobil company, is normally 30,000 liters a day, but that for days now, she has only been receiving 10,000 liters “which won’t last two hours,” she said.
Furthermore, she explained that her station has been short on gasoline 90 for 12 days and gets only a third of its required share of gasoline 92.
“The workers want to make their living. I pay them the tips they used to get so now I have a double loss,” Derbala told DNE.
“It is possible that the army or government stations are getting more than their share,” she said.
Ahmed Abdel Hay, who works at a Mobil gas station in Heliopolis, agreed that there has been a shortage in 90, 92 and 95 gasoline.
“This has been going on for a month, but has only been covered by the media over the past few days,” he said.
“We don’t get the amounts we request. We order 50,000 liters but only 7,000 are delivered, which only meets the demand for about an hour,” he said.
On the other hand, Morad Mahmoud Sabri, who works at the national Co-op gas station said that they are not facing any shortages in fuel.
“Gasoline 80, 90, 92 are all available. But we are a public sector company. Of course there are respectable private sector companies, but some of them could be selling the fuel in the black market,” he said.
Ahmed Abdel Baki, a sales manager at Egypt Petroleum agreed that “there is no crisis.”
“These are malicious rumors aiming to disrupt the country’s production cycle. They just need to increase shares and manage the distribution. The gas stations are full of fuel. This crisis is created by the people, not because there is a gas shortage,” he said.
Tamer Abu Bakr, president of the energy committee in the industrial union and former president of Cooperative Petroleum Company, however believes that there is a fuel shortage because of corruption in the distribution part of the supply chain.
“The Ministry of Petroleum said that fuel is available and that there is an increase in the share from last year. Assuming the government is honest, then there is corruption within the distribution,” Abu Bakr told DNE.
According to Abu Bakr, normally, distribution companies like Egypt Petrol, Shell, Co-Op, Mobil and Caltex are provided by the ministry. These companies, through contractors, distribute the fuel to gas stations.
Abu Bakr believes that there is collusion between some officials in the distribution companies and some contractors.
“Some contractors receive more than their share. While they should receive 100 tons, they receive 300. They take petrol to specific gas stations in Egypt, they ship it and smuggle it to countries like Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, selling it for 1.25 euro per liter, which is equivalent to LE 10,” Abu Bakr alleged.
“One ship could take up to 22 containers with a capacity of 704,000 liters,” he said.
He emphasized that subsidizing petrol opens the door to corruption and the black market.
“The policy of subsidies is not in the people’s interest; it is an opportunity to create a black market, we have to remove the subsidies gradually and start using natural gas to reduce our energy bill,” he said.
Magdi Nasrallah, chair of the Petroleum Engineering Department at the American University in Cairo, explained that Egypt is in debt of LE 70 million for oil and petrol “and yet it [the fuel] does not reach people.”
“We have to rationalize distribution. We need hard currency to overhaul the budget. Hopefully, once there is political stability, the economic situation will stabilize,” he said.
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Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei’s withdrawal from the presidential race fueled debates about the elections and the performance and intentions of the ruling military council in steering the transition period.
The decision, praised by many politicians and fellow contenders, was accompanied by sharp criticism of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Some said it would draw more people to join protests marking the first anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising.
The decision also mirrored a similar call by ElBaradei in 2010 to boycott the parliamentary elections.
“I had said from the start that my conscience will not allow me to run for president or any official position unless there is a real democratic framework, that upholds the essence of democracy and not only its form,” he said Saturday in a statement that echoed his previous stance.
The former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency announced Saturday the termination of his presidential elections campaign, saying he saw no hope it would bring end to the military’s rule.
The military council, headed by Mubarak’s defense minister of 20 years, “has insisted on going down the same old path, as if no revolution took place and no regime has fallen,” he said.
In an apparent attempt to keep the move from helping fuel anti-military protests on the Jan. 25 anniversary of the start of the uprising that toppled Mubarak, the military council asked ElBaradei not to announce his decision until later, a person close to ElBaradei said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a private interaction.
Presidential hopeful Ayman Nour wrote in on his Twitter account that ElBaradei’s withdrawal from the presidential race is a “slap to the military council,” adding that it would help revive the revolution.
“I nominate Dr ElBaradei as president of the republic of conscience, rather than the Field Marshal’s Republic,” he said, referring to Hussein Tantawi.
Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, described ElBaradei’s participation in the presidential race as “an enrichment of fair competition.”
“We have to fight to achieve the revolution’s goals,” he wrote on his Twitter account on Sunday.
On his part, presidential hopeful and former Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa expressed his sorrow for ElBaradei’s withdrawal, pointing out the valuable role he played in the developments Egypt witnessed recently.
“I hope ElBaradei continues his efforts to rebuild Egypt, along with the rest of the Egyptians,” Moussa said on his twitter account.
ElBaradei criticized holding the elections without a clear constitution regulating the relation between authorities, dismissing the one that would be drafted in few weeks.
He severely rebuked the military council for their “poor and floundering vision,” and figuratively compared the council to a captain who has not been able to steer the passengers on a ship to a safe harbor.
Egypt’s current rulers, he continued, failed to end the emergency law, purge institutions from corruption, and to overhaul the oppressive police/military system and its subsequent crackdowns.
ElBaradei is a valued contender, Mohamed El-Beltagy, secretary general of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said. “It is, however, too early to tell how he might have impacted the presidential elections. This discourse has not been discussed yet.”
The Free Egyptians Party issued a statement Saturday supporting ElBaraei’s decision, saying that they joined him in his call for correcting the revolutionary path.
“ElBaradei has always been an example of a free, democratic individual, who refuses any compromise regarding his principles,” read the statement.
The party, which spearheads the Egyptian Bloc, had announced that it would boycott the Shoura Council (Upper house) elections, slated for Jan. 29, because it wasted “precious time” from the transitional period and squandered Egypt’s already drained economic resources.
Mohamed Hamed, secretary general of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, expressed the loss “of an infallible option for a liberal civilian president.”
“There is a wide spectrum of liberal leaders to choose from, however, and the door to nominations [for presidency] has not even opened yet,” he added.
Hamed floated the idea of the emergence of another liberal candidate despite the conservative majority in parliament.
Others who might have given ElBaradei their vote fear that it will now be counted in favor of another contender, especially as some political speculations reigned the possibility of an alliance between ElBaradei and Aboul Fotouh in order to expand their base support.
“Now his votes will simply go to someone else, helping him/her win,” Ahmed Naguib, spokesperson and co-founder of the Council of Trustees of the Revolution, said.
Naguib reflects the views of many Egyptian youth who see ElBaradei as too old to run in later elections.
“He is not a young man after all. I think he had lost his chances because he was cautious and afraid of bowing to defeat,” Naguib said.
Calling for a copious number of demands since last February, most prominent amongst which is the placement of a roadmap for the transitional period, ElBaradei finally became mired in his own struggle. He cited his “conscience,” as a hurdle in proceeding with any plans to run for president.
Many of those who organized the protests feel that the military is keeping the structure of Mubarak’s regime and its own power in place. They fear that the Muslim Brotherhood, which is poised to dominate the new parliament, will cede the military’s continued influence over the executive in return for a freer hand in writing a new constitution.
“To have total change, we must work from outside the system,” ElBaradei said in a video released later Saturday. He said he would work to unify youth groups, reclaim the goals of the revolution and address social justice, freedom and economic development.
“He could have served the public as much if he had become president. At least he would have snatched the country from its flailing state of economy,” Alaa Abdel Moneim, former member of Al-Wafd high committee, said. ElBaradei presented a broad plan to revive the economy in a public statement earlier this month.
On the other hand, political analyst from the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Nabil Abdel Fattah, believes that ElBaradei’s withdrawal reveals the “collusion between the military council, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other candidates who still have ties with the old regime.”
He said these actors are held accountable for striving to reshape the political scene in Egypt, whom the United States and Gulf states wish to keep as figureheads at the helm.
“Given ElBaradei’s stature, the international community will maintain a deeper look at Egypt … International and local observers will look at the electoral process with more interest; they will judge it on its merits and not on who is running – if it is positive. If it stumbles on pitfalls, they will be more critical,” Nabil Fahmy, former Egyptian ambassador to the US and Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo, said.
Fahmy added that ElBaradei might re-enter the political scene with the support of youth groups, who can take his calls for the immediate reform of the constitution to the streets.
“How the youth movement and young activists chose to play their role on January 25 will factor into the implications of his decision,” Fahmy added.
As the January 25 anniversary approaches, El-Baltagy said that ElBaradei’s decision will reignite protests to call for the ouster of the military council.
Mahmoud El-Hetta, the activist who had first floated the idea of ElBaradei as a presidential candidate in 2009, said he was distraught at first over the withdrawal decision. But after the meeting with ElBaradei Saturday, El-Hetta had a change of heart.
“He has once again turned things upside down, and has embarrassed other presidential candidates who have a weak chance because the military council has weakened the idea of a president,” he said. “This would revive the idea that the revolution is not over and wins the heart of the youth groups.” –Additional reporting by Heba Fahmy and AP.
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After a sit-in on Sunday, journalists and staff of the state-run Nile News await for their demands of editorial independence to be met following promises from the government.
“We received some promises, but because the process requires a lot of bureaucracy, we are still waiting for answers,” Mona El-Shehab, a newscaster with the channel, said. The list of demands was presented to Minister of Information Ahmed Anis and the office of the news sector at state-run radio and TV.
Sunday’s sit-in was triggered by the censorship of a documentary by Ali Al-Geheiny, which was banned from being aired for over six months.
“The script for the film was finalized on May 18 and final editing on July 18,” Al-Geheiny said on a special appearance on Nile News that night preceding the screening of his film.
During the 10 pm special show, anchor Rasha Serry announced that the screening of the film was approved by Anis.
She added that the minister had also consented to an editorial independence policy based on standards of professionalism, and on the implementation of a salary and financial system starting Feb. 1.
Achieving editorial independence would be a turnover of a state TV editorial policy, which dictates choosing news items on bulletins and arranging the story line-up.
“We will achieve editorial independence, first by professionalism, and secondly, by real objectivity and neutrality. We have to treat the news with all its aspects and angles. The news item should not be abetted, or cut,” El-Shehab said.
She recalled reporting on news of the release of activist Alaa Abdel Fattah in a few sentences, excluding additional information or the use of sound bytes.
The news-reductionist approach that El-Shehab cited is a reflection of the channel’s bias towards those in power, whether it be the conservative parties or the military council, and away from “revolutionary faces.”
“There can be no neutrality when there is a revolution,” she added, stressing that employees must break down another twisted neutrality policy which does not allow them to hang a backdrop banner that reads, “Bread, Freedom and Social Justice,” while have the management openly pronounce bias towards authorities in power.
Radwa Mobarak, an anchor with the Nile TV English service, said that Nile TV, Nile News and Channel 1 news all follow the same editorial policy.
“We have to report to authority on specific topics, mainly things related to the government and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces,” Mobarak adds.
Mobarak says that the editorial policies “were used for tens of years before the revolution,” but still affect the editorial decisions, causing editors to practice self-censorship in fear of reprisal.
Nile News was launched in the late 90’s as a separate entity from the news sector, and plans for it to become a completely independent vehicle were underway. These plans were, however, aborted in 2010, according to Mobarak.
“After the revolution all the plans were frozen and Nile News was chained to routine and red tape,” she added.
One of the demands of Nile News staff is to be separated from the news sector, so that its chief-editor can have complete control over the news process.
El-Shehab described the “central desk” in the news sector departments where filtered pieces of news are relayed to some state channels.
Before the Jan. 25 uprising, Nile News employees admit to receiving memos dictating what elements to cover in a story, and what stories to exclude altogether. Similar complaints were made over the past year.
