Stealth agenda

Towards the end of work of the National Agenda committee, the committee coordinator and the deputy prime minister at the time Marwan Muasher promised the NA would be posted on the web and people would be given a chance to give their input. Remember that the NA is a working plan for "reform". What has happened since then can not be classified as anything near reform.

In the king's designation letter to Marouf Bakhit, he stated that the NA "is a general framework for our program and goals. The NA will be in your hands and in the hands of the government for discussion and use, as a guide and framework for the path of reform, modernization and future development." Thus, its status dropped from a binding program to a guide and a framework.

To me, this is fine. However, what has happened in the last few weeks is very disturbing. In the final hours of the Badran administration, the government passed four laws and put them in effect, ignoring the constitutional limits on the ability to legislate in the absence of parliament. Moreover, the government passed a budget with numbers based on the implementation of the new legislation. Thus, the reformist Muasher used the agenda for his and his cronies own benefits, and used his position in the government to shove it down everybody's throat.

So, we are looking at a stealth agenda, where we only see the results after they have become fait accomplit. No website, brochures or PR. Legislation and programs are put into place without a hint of public participation. It is a sad form of "reform" which is neither transparent nor fair. Hopefully, Bakhit's concept of reform is different from that of Badran and Muasher.