THE WALL BUILDERS:

Message from the young Brothers: Is the revolution changing Egypt's largest opposition group? Amira Howeidy seeks answers in the Muslim Brotherhood's first youth conference (Amira Howeidy, 3//31/11, Al-Ahram Weekly)

The two papers presented at the conference -- both as Power Point presentations -- were vociferously opposed to the formation of an MB political party.

In the first paper Mohamed Shams, who oversees MB political activity in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Engineering, said that the Brotherhood is "bigger" than a political party and should not engage in partisan competition. He argued that the Brotherhood should instead contribute to reform efforts on a national level.

Any MB political party, Shams argued, would be constrained by its links to the Brotherhood and would lack the independence necessary to operate effectively in a pluralist arena. Instead, he said, Brotherhood members should be allowed to join the political parties of their choice.

The Brotherhood's 100-member Shura Council is expected to make a decision on the establishment of a political party within 10 days at most. The MB's leadership has issued statements banning Brotherhood members from joining any other party and emphasising that the would-be Freedom and Justice is the organisation's only political party.

At least one Brotherhood figure in Alexandria, Hamed El-Dafrawi, has said he will form an alternative political party. There are also unconfirmed reports that MB leader Abdel-Meneim Abul-Fotouh, the secretary-general of the Arab Doctors Union, might establish a party.

Abul-Fotouh is generally viewed as a "reformer" and is popular among the group's younger members. He was invited to speak at the conference but the Brotherhood's leadership is reported to have objected to his attendance.

Inside sources told the Weekly that the MB's Guidance Bureau exercised great pressure on the organisers to cancel the conference. When they refused to do so one senior member of the bureau resorted to a surprising tactic, accusing the conference of accepting "foreign funding" to cover its costs. The organisers deny the charge and insist the event was funded from their own pockets.

Given the background of the "Brotherhood Youth Conference: An Inside Vision" it is perhaps unsurprising that participants needed so little convincing that any MB party should be independent from the organisation and its leadership's powerful grip.

The conference's second paper by Mohamed Othman, a pharmacist, addressed the scenario of an MB party. Both must be separated, he insisted, because the performance of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is an organisation for daawa (preaching), is ultimately different from that of a political party. "The party's discourse must adopt that of the street as opposed to the daawa role of the MB which is supposed to lead the street, not the other way round," Othman said.

His paper, also the subject of a workshop, laid out a clear vision of what any political party should look like. He proposed that a founding committee of 1,000 elected members choose the party's name, elect its president and write its platform independently from the MB. The Brotherhood's "logistical support" of the party shouldn't exceed 25 per cent of its budget in the first two years. Othman added that Brotherhood membership of the founding committee should not be more than 30 per cent of the total, supplemented by 30 per cent young members, 10 per cent Copts and 25 per cent women.

"More importantly, there has to be a real dialogue about this party," said Shams.

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