- EGYPT
- August 28, 2013
- 7 minutes read
Anti-Coup National Alliance Statement Condemns Putschists’ Constitutional Amendments
The Anti-Coup, Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance follows with deep concern and great bafflement the ongoing military putschists’ maneuvers to amend the Egyptian Constitution, which was approved by the people at the end of 2012 with a majority of 64% in a most credible referendum.
The Alliance reiterates its rejection of the bloody coup and all its processes and actions, particularly the appointment of a technical committee to amend the disputed articles of the country’s national charter.
The Alliance points that proposed amendments will help restore the corrupt repressive Mubarak regime, against which Egyptians erupted in the January 25 Revolution – demanding “bread, freedom, social justice and human dignity”.
Intended charter changes open the door to restoring the presidential system that produced various pharaohs, dictators who ruled over us for decades, the last of whom was ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Perhaps the most important of these amendments is putting the armed forces high above the country’s Constitution, by making the selection of the Defense Minister a truly exclusive right of the Military Council of the Armed Forces, which contradicts the very concept of a civil state.
The amendments also disproportionately favor the judiciary and exclude it from state oversight, making its budget an almost completely closed secret, thus placing it with the army above the state and above the Constitution.
The changes also put an end to the illusions of independence of the judiciary, as they give the President of the Republic the power to appoint the country’s Public Prosecutor. In the suspended Constitution, the Public Prosecutor is nominated by the Supreme Judicial Council.
Such favoritism is also evident in stipulating that adoption of any amendments to the Judicial Authority Law must be approved by a two-thirds majority in parliament, effectively granting the judiciary a veto on the matter, which does not happen in any country.
The offered amendments also complete the attempts to turn the clock back by changing 32 articles, most of which eliminate the role of the state in protecting the values, ethics and unique characteristics of Egyptian society, which putschists want to change into a chaotic society with no values or morality.
The amendments further challenge the inherent religious nature of the Egyptian people, repealing the article that criminalizes insulting the Prophets and Apostles, as well as article 219, to open the door for dubious ‘religions’ under the name of Islam.
Moreover, these amendments push Egypt back decades, not only in terms of restricting freedoms and public and private rights, but also in the social contract system that connects citizens to their state through the Constitution
The Alliance affirms that the issue is evidently a war on the identity of the country that the January 25 revolutionaries wanted to make into a modern democratic civil state based on justice and equality, but the putschists seek to drag it back brutally with social contracts Egyptians always rejected throughout their history.
The Alliance calls on this country’s free and honorable patriots not to profane their national history by participating in this farce to distort the Constitution of the Egyptian Revolution for the benefit of secular currents which finds the Egyptian people’s religious nature and their commitment to values and morals a bulwark against the currents of backwardness and reactionary rejection of democracy, and which found an opportunity through military rule after it was rejected by the Egyptian people in five free electoral contests after the Revolution.
The Alliance also calls the Egyptian people, Muslims and Christians, after they realized the intention behind this bloody putsch, to continue their opposition to attempts to distort the identity of Egypt and its people and eliminate its values and morals, and kill their dreams of freedom and democracy.
The Alliance further urges people to continue anti-coup activities, including all the peaceful forms with which we started our Revolution, despite the savage murders, arson, intimidation and detentions which we are faced with.
God save Egypt – free, proud and steadfast against the coup…
The Anti-Coup, Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance
Cairo: August 27, 2013
