اعرف دستورهم | صفقة الجيش

The articles related to the Military, in this constitution,
are the worst pieces, and nobody can argue with that, worse than what was written in 1971
[IBRAHIM AL HUDAYBI; political researcher]
I dare anyone who supports this constitution,
who speak in the name of the revolution,
and saying that this revolution achieves the demands of the revolution,
and its intentions and goals
and those who say that this constitution ushers in a civil state
I challenge any one of them,
there's nobody who can offer any argument that what was in the 1971 constitution is better than this.
The draft constitution, gives unprecedented powers to the Army and Military Institution
It places it deep within the Egyptian legal order
[HOSSAM BAHGAT; Egyptian Inititiative for Personal Rights]
For the first time among all of Egypt's constitutions
We see this in more than one area
The first of these, of course, is writing that
the Military budget is only for discussion among the National Defense Council
and that the elected parliament, under any of its forms,
have no right to discuss or be briefed
on the details of this budget
At the same time we have a list of who is
supposed to make up the National Defense Council
The situation before, From Abdel Nasser to Sadat and Mubarak,
was that the President would appoint the members
Now, according to this constitution,
the majority of the members of the National Defense Council will be military
and the minority civilians
and among these only three will be elected.
And this council is the only body allowed to discuss
the budget of the Army and issue all edicts
related to national security
in isolation from the Parliament and elected bodies.
We've seen a scene with respect to voting on these articles
that is truly disastrous,
when the members of the constituent assembly suggested to include
that the heads of the National Defense Committee and Planning and Budgeting Committe
from the Parliament and Shura Council to the Council.
These people's job is to supervise budgeting!
It's not right that you exclude the military budget from their purview
A representative of the Armed Forces then announced,
in a completely blunt fashion,
"For every one you appoint we'll appoint another of ours"
This kind of language is used when you're talking about two countries
Not when the armed forces are "the possession of the people"
This constitution does not make the Army the possession of the people
rather it makes the people the possession of the Armed forces.
In the current period,
when our country is facing a crushing economic crisis,
and at the same time that all the same economic and financial
policies of Mubarak and [former Prime Minister Ahmed] Nazif persist
first during the reign of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces
through the reign of the Muslim Brotherhood,
There is between 25 and 40 percent of the Egyptian economy
that nobody has any idea about.
That aren't even part of the budget,
since they're considered industries and institutions
owned by the Army
that aren't part of the national budget.
Nobody knows anything about them.
The vast majority of these economic activities
are civilian activities:
things like food production, management of petrol stations,
bottling sparkling water, and more than this
stores, supermarkets, event halls, hotels,
and resort villages along the north coast.
All of this lies outside the economy of the nation,
because it's part of a black box called "the military economy"
Of course, this is the primary reason why
the armed forces has fought with all its might
from its time in power to its presence in the constituent assembly dominated by Islamists,
to prevent any sort of supervision or even publication
of the Armed Forces' budget in any detail.
It has insisted that debate of this budget remain within the National Defense Council
that is itself completely dominated by commanders of branches of the army,
and prevents the Parliament, a body elected by Egyptians,
from even seeing a copy of this budget.
Much less discuss it or amend it in any way.
This further entrenches an economic system that increases budget deficits
that truly impoverishes Egyptians,
that truly pushes the majority of Egyptians below the poverty line
It's no accident that we see the conscript,
forced to serve in the armed forces-
conscription, by the way, used to be outlined in article 85 or 95 in the constitutional declaration,
and also occuring very late in the text of the 1971 constitution,
Is now the 7th or 8th article in the new constitution.
In order to ensure the importance of the Military Institution
in the new situation that we're building,
a political importance for the military.
It isn't right that someone is forcibly conscripted,
and in the end they go work in a pasta factory,
earning 2-300 EGP ($30-50) a month,
and if only the profits went to strengthening the military and its weaponry or training,
but the ones who profit are the high-ranking officers directly.
The draft constitution, on the one hand preserves the same language found in the '71 constitution,
which obligates Egyptians to mandatory conscription,
with no available alternatives,
much less freedom of choice who doesn't wish to be subjected to forced conscription
On the other hand the specific article on the right to work,
in one of the previous drafts,
prohibited any citizen from being forced into any work
and of course this article which said that there had to be laws and fair compensation
has been deleted.
There is now no article
stipulating compensation or a legal framework for forced labor.
This is of course intended and understood
to do nothing but maintain the right of the Military
to exploit thousands of Egyptian youth every year
in forced labor
bearing no relation to military activities or defense of the homeland
but instead the enormous economic activities owned by the Military institution.
Regarding the Military, there are two other hugely problematic articles
the first is article 195,
Which stipulates the appointment of Minister of Defense
from among officers of the Armed Forces
In truth I could understand that in our current situation,
that we might need a Minister of Defense from amongst the military
Granted, but that doesn't require a special constitutional article
Egypt never had this article before,
not in the 1971 constitution nor any before it,
they've never specified that the Minister of Defense
had to be appointed from among Military officers
What's happening now is that we're establishing the wrong order
We're giving legitimacy to the wrong order.
When we have a bad situation like this and want to fix it,
the solution isn't to write this bad situation into the constitution
We should say we'll deal with it,
and move towards fixing it incrementally
but by entrenching it I make it incredibly difficult
to go back and change it again,
because there's issues of the balance of power at that point.
I reject a constitution that considers the Army and Military
higher than the elected authority.
There is nothing that should supercede the will of the people
under any normal circumstances,
and especially for a people coming out of a revolution
a revolution undertaken to topple dictatorship,
and to build a democratic country.
There is no people who have suffered so much social injustice
and then would leave such a huge portion of their economy,
and natural, human and financial resources
to the Military without even having permission to see the budget or know anything about it.
I reject this constitution,
because it preserves the state as it was in the shape that it was,
It has no vision,
it entrenches the Military Establishment
It doesn't preserve the rights of workers and peasants,
and places the Egyptian people at a distance from political decisionmaking