CAIRO: With a strange, new and somewhat humorous slogan, the Egyptian campaign against succession was launched by the prominent leading opposition figure and former al-Ghad Party chief Ayman Nour, along with Egypt’s most prominent political groups, parties and intellectuals. They stood together on October 14, to launch the “did-eltawrees,” or against the bequeathal of power campaign.

With talk about presidential elections in 2011 already under way, it came at the time when opposition movements and parties have intensified their meetings to name their potential candidates in the upcoming election.

It is also a time where debate broke out over international supervision of the elections.

Nour is hopeful that the consortium of opposition political forces, including the popular Muslim Brotherhood, will create a new vision for the country that gives the power “back to the people.”

Some have described the slogan as a “pretty funny and strange,” as the word ” Mayahkomsh” is attributed to an older way of fighting in local districts and is linked with Egyptians to what they see in old Egyptian dramas. When folks from popular districts start a fight they often say “mayahkomsh” as a gesture of rejection of their sparing partner.

The campaign also received sharp attacks in local media for calling on political forces to join the Egyptian campaign. Some parties accused Nour of looking out for his own interests and that he invited certain members and not all parties as a whole. Yassin Tag Eddin, the Vice-President of the  al-Wafd Party, said that “Ayman Nour invited Mahmoud Abaza, Chairman of Al Wafd Party, along with Mounir Fakhry, secretary general and editor in chief of al-Wafd newspaper, Saeed Abdel Khale, but the invitations were not presented to the party’s institutions.”

Sayed Abdel el-Al from the Tagama’a party – Egypt’s Communists – said that the party rejected Nour’s calls to join the campaign because of the participation of the Muslim Brotherhood. They argued that it is not reasonable to resist the tyranny of the regime by becoming allies with other “dictators.” El-Al added that “we only allie with democratic movements whose reference is the constitution and law, not the religious scholars council.”

In the Egyptian press, some criticized the disorganization of the conference launching the campaign, while some supported it, defending the choice of the slogan, “Mayahkomsh.”

Al-Masry Al-Youm said that the conference witnessed poor organization that was seen in the speeches of the members of the preparatory committee for the campaign, which were “overwhelmed by the rhetorical language.”

The Egyptian daily added that the speakers used the heavy presence of media and cameras to show off and criticized opposition party leaders for their absence, and rejection of participation in the campaign.

Akram al-Asas wrote in his al-Youm al-Saba’a column that despite some people “laughing at the slogan” of the campaign “Mayahkomsh,” the slogan raised differences among the leaders of the coalition itself, until they resorted to changing it, “but this slogan would still be remembered amongst those concerned with the campaign.”

He added: “this campaign made small passive parties revive their long dead activities, and prompted them to launch counter campaigns. The National Democratic Party also gave its upcoming annual conference a slogan by the name “for you.” To me, it seems like a slogan for elections and not for conferences.”

Al Kasas continued that “I do know why people think that these simple slogans that appeared in the wake of the emergence of many movements which chose simple names, as repulsive.”

He added that the National Party thinks the problem lies in the logo, even though it has lived for more than thirty years without a slogan, nor a conference, and remained a party of the majority without a rival.

BM

Keep advertising off Bikya Masr - donate $1 to allow this to be possible