26 February 2006
Problems on hold
Elastic phrases
Last
week’s editorial brought to light the orders issued by Assiut governorate officials to counter the presidential decree 291 of 2005 which eased the procedures
of pulling down, rebuilding,
restoring and renovating churches. I wrote that the
governorial orders deliberately confused the different tasks
tackled by the presidential decree, in order to baffle the authorities charged with looking into
applications for permits to execute
these tasks. This confusion
provides the authorities a ready pretext to delay the processing of an application,
and corners them into referring back to the governorial authority for the required permits. Given that the
presidential decree transfers the licensing
process from the governors to the local building authorities, it is obvious
that the governorial authority was loath to cede
its power.
Sadly, my wariness was validated. A letter I received from a lawyer in Assiut—whose name
Watani prefers to withhold—included a complaint of the difficulties he faced while
applying for a voter card, and his consequent
referral to Assiut security director. “Upon entering the
administrative director’s office, I found four men grouped around his desk, a pile of papers placed before them.
There was a heated discussion, and they did not seem
aware of my presence. The discussion centred round an application presented
by the village church of Ballout, Assiut, for the expansion of a social services building. It amazed me to hear the administrative director ask his
men to look for an “elastic”
phrase to use in the reply
to the application, so that the authorities
concerned would never be able to execute it. I present this incident to Assiut governor and the
Interior Minister, hoping it gives
them insight as to what goes on in their offices.
As
for our lawyer friend, he wrote
that he had
headed to the police
station in the district where
he lives in Assiut, in order to apply for a voter card. Upon presenting his ID to the clerk on duty,
he was told
he was in the wrong place; he had to go present
his application to the
police station at his birthplace, and not at his place of residence. When he did just
that and went to his birthplace
in the village of Moteea, the official in charge told him he should
apply for the voter card at his
place of residence. At this our friend
protested in anger, and asked to meet
someone responsible. He was directed
to the vice-superintendent who, when he
heard our friend’s tale, advised him to take his
complaint to Assiut governorate’s
administrative director. Our lawyer
friend went to the said official’s
office—where he happened upon the
afore-mentioned discussion—and
explained his predicament. He was referred to the ‘elections supervision committee’ where he was ordered
to go back to the administrative director
for approval of his
application. At this point our friend lost
his temper, and loudly threatened
to take all these officials to court for their role in delaying his application for a voter card
till it was too late to obtain
one—the deadline for submitting
applications being 10 March. This had
the desired effect of producing the required approval
from the administrative director, and the
next day our friend submitted
his application to the
police station at his place
of residence, and is now waiting
for his voter card.
Our
friend says that the obstacles placed in his path
only served to make him all the
more adamant to acquire a
voter card but, he asks, would the
average person, who is usually
pressed for time and effort,
take the trouble to do so? He strongly
denounces the apathy and disdain
with which he, and so
many others, are treated.
The deadline for applying for voter cards—10 March—is steadily approaching. For the last few months, Watani has joined civil society
organisations in pressing people to apply for voter cards. We hope
that the largest possible number of eligible voters would hasten to get registered on the voter lists, in order to be part of the hoped-for future political change. It would be beneficial
if, after 10 March, the interior ministry would announce the numbers and
locations of the new voters
registered, as well as their age groups and gender, since this
will bear considerable implications on the political level.