Morsi’s reforms still mostly promises
CAIRO— Onawarm September morning as Egypt’s PresidentMohammedMorsi began his 74th day in office, Heba Ibrahim’s mother took her last breath.
Five weeks of treatment for kidney failure at a Cairo hospital had left the 56- year- old mother of four emaciated. Her normally bronze complexion was sallow and the smile that had shepherded her children from infancy to adulthood disappeared behind the mask of a coma. The final breath was drawn on the day Ibrahim’s savings ran out.
“It was as if she knew — knew that while she was worth the world to me, we had nothing left to pay to save her life,” Ibrahim said, blaming what she said was a health care system that helps only those with means. “Is this the new Egypt we were promised? A miserable country where the only thing left is to sellmyself to raise money?”
Targeting everyday ills
Her experience highlights the difficulties facingMorsi as he passed 100 days in office lastweek, a date bywhich the Islamist had pledged to cure 64 of the ills that beset everyday life under President HosniMubarak. Sworn into office in June, he squeezed past his rival Ahmed Shafik with promises of immediate action to clean the streets, improve security and ease traffic congestion, along with longer- term goals of greater social justice and lower poverty.
He’s accomplished only four of the short- term pledges, according to the MorsiMeter, a website launched by Zabatak, a nonprofit organization run by politically unaffiliated young people that says it seeks a “free and safe” Egypt.
“Change hasn’t brought any real benefits on the ground yet,” Said Hirsh, Middle East economist with Capital Economics, said by phone. “People’s expectations are higher” than the government’s “ability to deliver with speed. That risks people losing hope that things will change.”
The economy has shown few signs of emerging from its worst economic crisis in a decade, while a $ 4.8 billion loan application from the International Monetary Fund has yet to be approved. Unemployment has climbed to 12.6 percent; the country’s economic growth fell to 1.8 percent last year, a 19year low. There are other uncertainties— the courts dissolved parliament, there’s no constitution and arrests on blasphemy charges have fueled criticism thatMorsi, 61, hasn’t matched his rhetoric with action.
Clashes in the street
Islamist supporters ofMorsi clashed with secular activists Friday in Tahrir Square, in a showdown highlighting the tensions that have built up since he took office. Morsi’sMuslim Brotherhood organized protests to demand the retrial of those acquitted this week of responsibility for the deaths of demonstrators in last year’s uprising. Secular groups had earlier called for a rally to criticizeMorsi’s presidency and the growing influence of Islamism.
“I can’t see any change,” saidWael Khalil, an activist and member of the National Front of secularist groups that had rallied behindMorsi in his race against Shafiq, Mubarak’s last premier. “Decisions are still made with the same authoritarian attitude.”