| A democratic Egypt cannot afford smear campaigns against its presidential candidates. |
| By Hana Zuhair |
| For the last three decades, Egyptians have lived in a culture of fear and oppression marked by lies, with former President Hosni Mubarak’s mob distorting the image and assassinating the character of anyone who advocated independent thinking or democracy.Slander and attacking opposition figures was the ‘it’ policy for the former government. Think Egyptian-American sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, convicted multiple times of “defaming” Egypt’s image — he spent 15 months in prison during the early 2000s, and in 2007, he was sentenced in absentia to seven years imprisonment. Ibrahim’s ‘crime’ was criticizing Mubarak’s authoritarian regime and calling for civil society and human rights. Think Ayman Nour, former member of Parliament and founding president of El-Ghad Party, who dared to run against Mubarak in the 2005 presidential elections and came in second. This won him four years in prison, convicted, the government said, of forging the Powers of Attorney used to form El-Ghad. One of the recent high-profile victims of the regime’s slander is presumed presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei, who was brutally vilified in both local and Western media. A Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), ElBaradei, has weathered a vicious smear campaign, launched once the former government sensed he could be a threat. ElBaradei made himself an easy target with all the ingredients for a perfect political suicide in Mubarak’s Egypt: Open calls for political reform and free elections, widespread and vocal grassroots support, and announced intentions to run for president. “I went from being an honored Egyptian to being a hate figure — an agent of Israel, my daughter was an atheist, my wife was an Iranian, you name it,” ElBaradei told Gideon Rachman of the online news site Slate on April 30. Last September, a horrifying Facebook group was created supposedly to ‘expose’ his daughter Laila’s alleged atheism by posting photos of her on a beach in a one-piece swimsuit and at parties where alcohol is present. The sensational ‘news’ quickly circulated in local media, conveniently overlooking the fact that many Egyptians choose to have a similar lifestyle. ElBaradei accused the former government of being behind this shameful smear campaign, claiming that the regime was well aware that this would offend the pious side of the majority of Egyptians. And sadly it did. Despite being a disgraceful invasion of privacy and completely irrelevant to the reformer’s political beliefs, the photos inspired many people to criticize ElBaradei and view him as unsuitable for presidency. “The most pressing issue is the future of Egypt, a vital part of which rests on achieving fair presidential elections for all candidates.” Ironically, Western media and former US president George W.Bush’s administration also had their fair share in attempting to ruin ElBaradei’s image. A staunch advocate of diplomacy, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was deemed as enemy to US security because he publicly refuted the Bush administration’s claim that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program — a claim used to justify the 2003 Iraq War. The American people bought the administration’s false propaganda at the time, which marketed the Iraq war as vital for their security. On the other hand, the Egyptian government spread lies that ElBaradei actually supported the Iraq war to make him seem as the pro-America traitor — same end, different means. In his recently released memoir The Age of Deception, ElBaradei described the Iraq situation as misleading. “A new era, one characterized by clandestine activity and the willingness of some countries to blatantly deceive,” ElBaradei wrote, adding that the Iraq war illustrated “that this deliberate deception was not limited to small countries ruled by ruthless dictators.” Such a stance makes it easy for me to see why ElBaradei has so many enemies. Egypt is at a critical juncture at the moment, with a lot going on from sectarian strife, growing disapproval of military trials of civilians, doubts about the outcomes of the January 25 Revolution — the list can go on forever. But, the most pressing issue is the future of Egypt, a vital part of which rests on achieving fair presidential elections for all candidates. Therefore, clearing out these false allegations, be it they Western or Egyptian driven, is an important aspect. Many may think that after the January 25 Revolution, ElBaradei’s image has been rehabilitated, but not to the ordinary Egyptian. The majority of Egyptians still obtain their information from state TV, and the distorted image of ElBaradei will likely be reinforced with so much spite by his election opponents — which include the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood and remnants of the National Democratic Party, which still very much exists, if not in name. This is not an attempt to convince people to support ElBaradei. It’s rather an attempt to warn of what manipulation of the media could do to sway public opinion. In democracies, harsh criticism and smear campaigns of candidates during a political campaign are considered normal. ElBaradei’s case is a perfect example of this. However, this is a dangerous practice in a country with a 30 percent rate of illiteracy and very little civic education, struggling to transition to democracy. At the moment, spreading political awareness based on facts — not falsehoods — among the less educated or illiterate voters is crucial. The former regime may have fallen, but the Muslim Brotherhood and others will certainly work on defaming ElBaradei’s image again for the same reason — acquiring power through unfair methods. |
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