MERIP
Media Resource List, September 6, 2005
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS
on the following topics:
- Egyptian presidential election, September 7
- Increasing pressure
on Syria
MOHAMED
EL SAYED SAID
Mohamed El Sayed Said is
deputy director of the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic
Studies in Cairo and a prominent Egyptian academic who writes
for a number of Arab newspapers. He will be heading up a coalition
of monitors of the presidential election tomorrow. Today he
said, "The presidential race acquired much more substance
than was previously believed possible. Relatively large audiences
came to listen to a number of opposition candidates and the
independent media contributed super-critical coverage. These
two phenomena made a vital contribution to the political consciousness
of Egyptians, at least de-fetishizing the president and ending
the cult of personality imposed on the country for decades.
However, one should not over-state the contributions of the
present race. The legal frame in which the elections are held
failed to bring most Egyptians back to the political arena.
Hence, voter turnout may be so low that the legitimacy of
the whole process will be in doubt, particularly if the government
raises the voter turnout by artificial means as it did with
the recent referendum on amending the constitution to allow
these multi-party elections."
BASSAM
HADDAD
Bassam Haddad is assistant
professor of political science at St. Joseph's University
in Philadelphia. In " Syria's
Curious Dilemma " ( Middle East Report
236, Fall 2005) he explains the dimensions of the "curious
dilemma" facing the regime of Bashar al-Asad following
Syria's hasty departure from Lebanon. The Baathist clique
in Damascus has lived with political and economic stagnation
for decades, but "what has changed rather decisively
is the world around Syria's cocoon." The regime has a
choice: either it concedes to external demands about Palestinian
militant groups and Hizballah, thus preserving itself, or
it bends to internal demands for reform, thus reducing its
own power. This dilemma may be "curious," Haddad
argues, but it will not be too puzzling.
-------------
Return
to archive index
For more
information, contact Michelle Woodward, MERIP Media Coordinator,
at (202) 223-3677, or merip.media@merip.org.
Media Resource Lists are an initiative of the MERIP Media
Outreach Program.
The Middle
East Research and Information Project (MERIP), 1500 Massachusetts
Ave, NW, Suite 119, Washington, DC 20005, Tel: (202) 223 3677,
Fax: (202) 223 3604, www.merip.org
|
