At AmCham Egypt's monthly luncheon - the first under the recently elected board - on September 22, distinguished guest speaker Gamal Mubarak, chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP's) policy secretariat, gave an enlivened speech about his secretariat's role in igniting change within the NDP.

Introducing the guest speaker was AmCham president Taher Helmy, who applauded Mubarak for putting "tremendous effort into working on reform of the NDP" since he took the helm of the party's new policy-making committee at the general NDP congress in September 2002. "Gamal has been promoting a new way of thinking for the future of our nation," Helmy commented.

Mubarak described how the NDP has often failed to convey a unified party vision. While party members are free to have differences of opinion, Mubarak stressed the need for a set of "general convictions" to galvanize party members towards a common goal.

This is where the policy secretariat comes in. The committee is mandated with developing a "crystal clear" party platform on a wide range of issues. Positions must then be debated at party congresses - now an annual affair - if they are to be adopted as official party policy.

For the past year, Mubarak said, the secretariat has striven to articulate coherent guiding principles, taking into account the perspectives of ruling government leaders, constituents and non-party members.

Mubarak further emphasized the need to reach out to the average Egyptian, who is, statistically, non-partisan. "If we cannot reach out to the grassroots of Egyptian society in any way, shape or form with a convincing message…it will be extremely difficult - if not impossible - for us as a society to deal with the policy issues that we have to make," he suggested.

Mubarak went on to describe three new policy papers that would be debated at the party congress at the end of September.

The first focuses on the challenges facing the transportation industry, and how the private sector can be further involved. The second paper examines the dire need to confront urban development by addressing the dearth of agricultural land, the phenomenon of unplanned communities and the impending population explosion.

The third new policy paper, meanwhile, is entitled "citizenship and democracy," and describes the party's stance on citizens' rights, highlighting the relationship between basic human rights and each public policy area.

In order to implement and enforce new policies, Mubarak insisted, institutions - both public and private - must be upgraded from within, so they will be flexible enough to "deal with the dynamic nature" of change.

Following the speech, Mubarak answered questions from the audience on a wide range of issues, including Egypt's current relations with the US; the ongoing liquidity squeeze; women's rights; Arab policy on Iraq; the US-sponsored Road Map for Palestinian-Israeli peace; and Egypt's bid for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Top