Constitutional referendums: YES or NO?

I can’t hide my happiness with the debate currently taking place all over Egypt about the constitutional referendum. This is a product of democracy. For the first time in 60 years Egyptians don’t know the result of a voting. All of this wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t risk our lives for the sake of our freedom.

So, I’m writing this article mainly to help people make up their minds about the referendums. Stating what each “camp” has got to say to support their opinion and you make up your mind in the end. You can disregard my comments in between the brackets as it mainly reflects my personal opinion. I tried to be un-biased as hard as I can

If you still didn’t read the referendums yet try checking them out on here or here.

SAYING YES:

• Advantages:

1. it’ll contribute, somehow, to the return of stability, safety and security to the streets. This would contribute to the process of rebuilding our Egypt
2. this would help the Egyptians “get rid of” the military governing we currently suffer from.
3. when we have civic ruling we can have all the debates, protests and sit-ins we want.

• Disadvantages:

1. some people say that article 189 doesn’t really oblige the new government to make a new constitution. Law professors say that the article is obligatory, others say the new government may choose not to comply to such obligation, or stall (risky, because then we’ll have to resort to the streets to claim our rights)
2. time required to get rid of military governing is 12-18 months. This time is more than enough to make a new constitution. Instead of starting new Egypt with a temporary constitution, why not start off with a new, permanent constitution?
3. there will be too many elections and polls to be made during that time. That would disturb the education process
4. NDP might get a chance to jump back into the parliament either as a reformed NDP or a new “25^th January” party and the “freedom” party they are trying to found. New parties won’t find time to be found or establish and publish their ideas and policies.

• What would happen if we said yes?

1. Optimism: NDP, somehow, won’t be able to jump back in power. Everything goes smoothly. New constitution and thus a fresh new start for our Egypt (not that likely to occur and we’d still suffer from 8 elections: 2 parliamentary elections and one presidential before the new constitution. The new constitution plebiscite and the 2 parliamentary, 1 presidential elections after the new constitution)
2. Pessimism: NDP does manage to get back into power (either as NDP, or as 25^th January or the freedom parties, all three parties are NDP), enforcing their policies and candidates because they’ll be the most organized party on the political scene. So, we’ll have NDP government all over again (more likely to occur)

SAYING NO:

• Advantages:

1. the start of writing a new constitution that would provide a fresh start for Egypt
2. gives time for newly found and not yet found parties to get themselves organized and publish their ideas in order to get people’s support and attention.
3. once stability, safety and security are returned to the streets, it’ll be permanent because of the presence of a permanent constitution

• Disadvantages:

1. the state of chaos present in the country will last a while longer (may be till a constitution is made). But some political activists see that the main defense against chaos is the people themselves as they did on 28^th January after the police abandoned their posts. Quoting Benjamin franklin when he said: “he who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither
2. the military governing will be continued (but as I said, it’d last either way for 12-18 months till a new president is elected if we accepted the referendums and it can be replaced by a presidential council made of 2 civilians and 1 military figures).

• Additional note on NDP (personal opinion) :

The only way to ensure that the NDP won’t participate in politics is by issuing a law preventing them from practicing any political activity for 4 years.

1. if we said yes: there won’t be enough time to pressure the Armed Forces council to issue such a law, especially with their slow responses to the revolutionaries’ demands they’re showed so far. Parties won’t be able to organize themselves to compete with the NDP too.
2. if we said NO: there would be enough time to pressure the council to issue such law. Also, it’d allow the other parties to organize themselves. Thus, even if the law wasn’t issued, there will still be powerful competition from other parties

Hope I was as un-biased as I wanted to be.