On Tuesday, an Islamic holiday marking the prophet Mohammed’s birthday, young women danced in a Faluka, a traditional boat, on the Nile river.
By KAREEM FAHIM
Published: February 15, 2011
CAIRO — The military officers governing Egypt convened a panel of jurists on Tuesday to revise the country’s constitution, giving the panel, which includes a former lawmaker from the Muslim Brotherhood, just 10 days to complete its work in an early sign of the military’s apparent seriousness in quickly moving the country to civilian rule.Mohamed Hussein Tantawi in 2009.Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the military council, told the panel that he hoped to yield control to civilian rulers in six months or less, according to Sobhi Saleh, the former Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker. The Muslim Brotherhood, banned by former President Hosni Mubarak, also issued a statement on Tuesday declaring its intention to again become an official political party “when the time is right.”
The constitutional panel will be trying to fix a document that concentrated power in the hands of Mr. Mubarak and his allies, by removing or amending clauses including one that severely restricted who could run for president. The panel of eight people is headed by a former judge, Tareq el-Bishri, and includes a Coptic Christian judge and three experts in constitutional law.
Some analysts voiced concern that the military’s schedule was too brisk. “Constitutional amendments in 10 days?” said Michael Wahid Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation in New York.
“We’re talking about the architecture of the nation. That’s just crazy,” he said.
Some in the opposition welcomed the brisk schedule as evidence that the officers were eager to turn over power to a civilian authority. But others, noting that the military had so far excluded civilians from the transitional government, questioned whether the schedule might signal just the opposite. They worried that the military might be trying to manipulate events to preserve its power by rushing the process and denying political parties and candidates enough time to organize for a meaningful, fair election that could elect a strong civilian government.
Two generals on the governing Supreme Military Council presented the plan — which calls for writing the amendments in 10 days and holding the referendum within two months — in a meeting on Sunday night with the revolution’s young leaders.
The meeting appeared to be the military’s first significant effort to reach out to the civilian opponents of Mr. Mubarak, and two of the young protest organizers, true to their movement’s Internet roots, promptly summarized the meeting in a post on Facebook.
“The first time an Egyptian official sat down to listen more than speak,” they wrote of their meeting with the generals, Mahmoud Hijazi and Abdel Fattah. The two young leaders, Wael Ghonim and Amr Salama, also praised the generals’ attentive demeanor and the absence of the usual “parental tone (you do not know what is good for you, son).”
Still, the two reserved judgment about the military’s plan, and others in the group said their coalition had yet to make a final assessment of it.
“This meeting was just for the military to tell us about their plans,” said Shady el-Ghazaly Harb, another of the revolution’s young leaders. “We have asked for another meeting this week to tell them about our plans. Then we will see.”
Egypt has effectively been under direct military control since Sunday, when the council suspended the Constitution and dissolved Parliament. And some in the opposition, including the Nobel Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, have repeatedly warned that hasty elections could so weaken the fledgling democracy that another military strongman could seize power.
A communiqué issued on Monday by the Supreme Military Council appeared to walk a fine line in grappling with a variety of problems in governing a restive Egypt. In responding to a series of strikes by state workers, journalists and the police on Monday, the council issued a forceful exhortation that some read as a veiled threat, although it did not threaten specific penalties.
A Western diplomat who knows Field Marshal Tantawi said it was clear that he did not relish his high-profile role and did not want to keep it.
“My strong sense is there is no real desire to prolong this period,” the diplomat said. “The field marshal does not seem really interested in being the government of Egypt. He would prefer to take the armed forces back, to have their very large and very comfortable arrangement in Egyptian society and let the civilians take charge of government.”
But the diplomat said it remained to be seen whether a swift transition to democracy was possible. “The issue is whether this is the best thing or not the best thing,” he said.
Rumors swirled about the whereabouts of the former president, who has not been seen in public since he flouted plans for a graceful exit and delivered a defiant reassertion of his power in a speech on Thursday night. Mr. Mubarak had reportedly left Cairo for his vacation home in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik.
On Monday, Egypt’s ambassador to the United States, Sameh Shoukry, said on NBC’s “Today” show that Mr. Mubarak, 82, was “possibly in somewhat of bad health.”