Egyptian politicians find Morsi's team controversial

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's recent decision of setting up a "presidential team" of advisers was questioned by a group of Egypt's veteran politicians during a symposium held on Tuesday at the headquarters of one of Egypt's human rights organisations. Most of the criticism highlighted the fact the mission of the 17 person team was not explained in the decision, which made some of the attendees suggest that the foundation of this team was meant only to gain the satisfaction of some of the political groups that supported Morsi in the presidential election run-offs against the Mubarak regime-linked candidate Ahmed Shafik. "The mission and the powers of this team are totally unclear, plus the fact that they have a lot of differences among them, so I can't see how they will work as a team," said the veteran politician Sayed Yassin in his speech at the symposium. "One of the members of this team told me that if he finds that his recommendations are not put into effect by the president he will resign. I was astonished that he assumes that the President has to go by his opinions," he added. The president's decision also included the recruitment of four assistants, one of them, Emad Abdelghafour, was present at the symposium. "I'm not in a position to explain or defend the selection of the members of the presidential team or the assistants. I came here to explain my own mission," he said. "I was assigned to keep a close social communication between the presidential institution and the groups that face problems with the state's authorities. This communication was severely missed before." Abdelghafour pointed out at the sectarian tension between the Muslims and Christians as one of the main issues in which a close social communication between the presidency and the different parties in the problem will help a lot. "I can also refer to the persistent problems suffered by the local residents of Sinai and Nubia, who waited for long to have direct contact with the top officials of the state in order to give them a clear image about their hardships, so these officials can order effective solutions to be assumed by the executive institutions," he added. One of the president's newly recruited advisers was also present. Dr Ayman al-Sayad, a liberal intellectual and political science professor admitted that the mission of his team needs to be stated clearly in either of the constitution or the law. He also stressed that the team members have to work on voluntary basis without being paid any salaries, because they shouldn't consider themselves as officials. "I have also hoped for the members of this team to be independent and not to have any partisan affiliations. I believe our main mission is to help in offering ideas for the required reforms in the main sectors of the state, like media, judiciary, and security, in order to enable the country to make a soft and successful democratic transition," he said. For his part, the former Egyptian diplomat Mustafa al-Fiqi said to Arabstoday on the sidelines of the symposium that he believes that President Mohammed Morsi meant to pay back the support he was granted in the presidential elections by some of the Egyptian political groups, "and that is a normal thing that happens almost all over the word." "However, the President must make a real use of the team he recruited, and I hope that he has chosen highly qualified persons who represent all parts of Egypt's political spectrum, so they can give him a valuable help in the files he will need them to sort out," he added. Fiqi described the newly founded team as "unprecedented in Egypt's political history." "Neither President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, nor Hosni Mubarak had this kind of team. Yet, Sadat was keen on listening to the opinions of a certain group of his ministers and secretaries who gained his trust. Mubarak on the contrary, didn't bother to listen to anybody. That was one of his major problems," Fiqi concluded.     As well as ordering the magazine to hand over all forms of the pictures, the injunction also bans Closer from reusing them in print or on its website and re-selling them on pain of further 10,000-euro fines for each infringement.