U.S. Copts Association

By Khalifa Gaballah
Helal National Democratic Party (NDP) Information Secretary Ali Eddin Helal said the Egyptian society is against the government’s attempts to turn to democracy. He added that most of the Egyptian people expect the State to be more interventionist and that when the State says it wants decentralization, they consider it a plot. He referred to an opinion poll carried out by the Cabinet of Ministers which showed that people expect the government to be in charge of everything.

“People must know that the State supports them for a limited period of time before qualifying them to be independent. If they are not, they will be like beggars” he said at a lecture he gave on Wednesday evening on the sidelines of a training session at Cairo University. He talked about the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) saying they mix preaching with politics and inevitably reject democracy, as preaching is based on obedience and submission to a preacher. He was told that the Egyptian people do not feel their country is really turning into a democracy. “I think there have not been enough political reforms or they have not been carried out quickly enough” he answered. “In Egypt, though, there is little demand for democracy and political reforms.”