5:34PM
AmCham Luncheon
By 
Josh Stacher | Egypt
Josh Stacher | Egypt
Today the American Chamber of Commerce hosted NDP policies secretariat chairman Gamal Mubarak, who gave a press conference at the Four Seasons.
Gleaned from foreign press journalists invited to attend, Gamal gave a presentation which mainly dealt with economic - rather than political - issues.
After the presentation, a Q&A section followed. Rather than directly taking questions from the audience and press, questions were written down and vetted on stage before the moderator asked Gamal to respond to a selection.
During the Q&A, Gamal took questions that deal with the "historic initiative" of the constitutional amendment and how Egypt is working to sign a FTA agreement with the US. Another question that Gamal tackled was the rather general "why is economic reform going faster than political reform" query. The details of today's meeting should be published on the AmCham website in the coming days.
ABC, BBC, LA Times, and the Washington Post posed written questions asking whether there would be investigations regarding the women sexually assaulted last Wednesday and if the crackdown on opposition was a contradiction with the policies secretariat's view of the reform process. None of their questions were selected by the moderator.
After the meeting ended, the foreign press stringers went to the podium where they were cut off by AmCham's executive director (Hisham Fahmy) and executive V-P (Gamal Muhharam). As one stringer told me, "They switched from speaking about democracy in American accents to treating us like we were in a local coffee shop." According to reports, "Fahmy and Muhharam started saying things in Arabic like 'you all don't have manners and are rude,' 'you are not invited again to an AmCham event,' and 'if you ask those types of questions, you should go and talk to the Americans about them'."
The Western affiliated journalists were offended and told them not to invite them anymore and that it was a waste of time.
________
So much for damage control...
This is another example of how not to win hearts and minds of the Western press.
Yet, rather that chalking this up to government/AmCham mishandling/stupidity, there may be another explanation. Based on recent statements coming from government and its appendices - it seems that the Egyptian government is feeling extra-confident that there is not going to be any follow-up Western pressure.
Washington....Are they right?
If they are -really- shame on you.
_____________
UPDATE:
The text of Gamal Mubarak's speech at the AMCHAM luncheon is now available.
Gleaned from foreign press journalists invited to attend, Gamal gave a presentation which mainly dealt with economic - rather than political - issues.
After the presentation, a Q&A section followed. Rather than directly taking questions from the audience and press, questions were written down and vetted on stage before the moderator asked Gamal to respond to a selection.
During the Q&A, Gamal took questions that deal with the "historic initiative" of the constitutional amendment and how Egypt is working to sign a FTA agreement with the US. Another question that Gamal tackled was the rather general "why is economic reform going faster than political reform" query. The details of today's meeting should be published on the AmCham website in the coming days.
ABC, BBC, LA Times, and the Washington Post posed written questions asking whether there would be investigations regarding the women sexually assaulted last Wednesday and if the crackdown on opposition was a contradiction with the policies secretariat's view of the reform process. None of their questions were selected by the moderator.
After the meeting ended, the foreign press stringers went to the podium where they were cut off by AmCham's executive director (Hisham Fahmy) and executive V-P (Gamal Muhharam). As one stringer told me, "They switched from speaking about democracy in American accents to treating us like we were in a local coffee shop." According to reports, "Fahmy and Muhharam started saying things in Arabic like 'you all don't have manners and are rude,' 'you are not invited again to an AmCham event,' and 'if you ask those types of questions, you should go and talk to the Americans about them'."
The Western affiliated journalists were offended and told them not to invite them anymore and that it was a waste of time.
________
So much for damage control...
This is another example of how not to win hearts and minds of the Western press.
Yet, rather that chalking this up to government/AmCham mishandling/stupidity, there may be another explanation. Based on recent statements coming from government and its appendices - it seems that the Egyptian government is feeling extra-confident that there is not going to be any follow-up Western pressure.
Washington....Are they right?
If they are -really- shame on you.
_____________
UPDATE:
The text of Gamal Mubarak's speech at the AMCHAM luncheon is now available.
Reader Comments (10)
Well, hopefully Egyptians can follow-up this time.
Who cares about Washington…
Fair Enough Mohamed.
Egyptians need to follow-up as well but Washington with all its freedom rhetoric of late needs to also step up...unless it is completely in bed with autocracy.
Well, actually I care. But I'm not raising my hopes.
I am with you in that I am not really raising my hopes.
Excuse my language but ... AmCham.... two faced, hypocritical, suck up bastards!
Also, I hope Laura Bush is thoroughly ashamed after making her comments about Mubarak being "wise" and "bold" and democracy taking time. Wasn't she in the Middle East to make a big deal about women's rights? The leadership she described so glowingly is making a mockery of her adopted cause days after she leaves the country!
If my memory serves me right, shortly before the invasion of Iraq, the UK government published a paper helpfully outlining Baghdad's rights abuses. State directed sexual abuse of women as a tactic of intimidation featured prominently. Well.... what the regime did was disgusting, London and Washington's muted responses are worse.
[...] fter the “historic initiative” represented by the referendum. According to the Arabist Network, however, questions were vetted in advance, and no questions abou [...]
FYI, for those interested - there is a presentation tomorrow at 1 p.m. at CEDEJ on US-Egypt relations from 1973-1993. En francais.
And one wonders why most of the intelligent, well educated citizens leave the country??? I'd say they go looking for their rights (rights that they earn by working and thinking hard) from people who are willing to give it to them.... The right to speak, eat and drink healthily, the right of proper education, public services,,,, everything... BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS which they don't get here (except of course if they're willing to let go of their value!)
When will the American Chamber of Commerce invite leaders from Egypt's other political parties to present their visions for the future? I look forward to comparing the NDP's "big picture" with what what El-Ghad or the Nasserists have in mind.
Guess who is the president of AmCham, a top advisor of Gamal Mubarak and member of the NDP Secretariat for Policy, law partner at BakerMcKenzie (James Baker III's firm) with Kamal Aboul Magd of the National Council for Human Rights, the major investor in Emad Adib's GoodNews4Me media empire and future satellite TV station and I'm sure much much more: that's right, Taher Helmi.
So no, I don't think we'll see Ayman Nour addressing an AmCham luncheon anytime soon.