HARVARD? HE SHOULD HAVE GONE TO SMU:

El-Baradei in America: Former IAEA director Mohamed El-Baradei's controversial visit to the United States has provoked a backlash at home (Gamal Essam El-Din, 5/06/10, Al-Ahram Weekly)

On 26 April, El-Baradei addressed a two-hour meeting of some 200 Egyptian Americans in Harvard University on "the future of democracy in Egypt". El-Baradei painted a bleak picture of political and economic conditions in Egypt. El-Baradei, also founder of the National Association for Change (NAC), explained that his agenda for reform aims at turning Egypt into "a social democracy" like the Western European countries of Austria and Sweden.

According to Mohamed Abul-Ghar, a Cairo University professor and the NAC's coordinator for foreign relations, El-Baradei's Harvard address focussed on explaining the NAC's seven objectives. "These," Abul-Ghar told Al-Ahram Weekly, include "amending the constitution, eliminating the state of emergency, abolishing military tribunals, releasing political prisoners, [ensuring the] separation of powers, improving Egypt's record on human rights and issuing a unified law for regulating places of worship." Abul-Ghar disclosed that El-Baradei had assured Egyptian-Americans -- mostly Copts -- that his agenda stresses that all Egyptians, regardless of religion or sex, are equal in rights."

Responding to a question about his relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, El-Baradei stressed that "the Brothers" should be allowed to participate in political life as long as they "abide by democracy and democratic rules".

El-Baradei renewed his attacks against the 23 July 1952 Revolution, arguing that Egypt should return to the democracy it lost in 1952. He stressed that he is against the principle of "reserving a quota of seats in parliament for workers and farmers". "The best guarantee for all classes to be represented in parliament is to establish a democratic system and conduct fair elections," El-Baradei argued.

He also underlined again that he would run in presidential elections "only if elections are free and fair and the constitution is amended to allow independent politicians to run."

According to El-Baradei, "the US administration has no excuse [for] condemning the record of human rights violations in the world and keeping a blind eye on what happens in Egypt."