President Obama’s decision to provide $250 million in aid to Egypt is a vote of confidence in a country that is critical to stability in the region but is also teetering on the edge of economic disaster. It is now up to Egypt’s government — and its opponents — to create the political and economic consensus that can leverage the American money to turn around their failing state.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who announced the aid in Cairo on Sunday, made clear that the responsibility for finding common ground falls first on President Mohamed Morsi. Mr. Morsi’s job is to persuade the political opposition to join him in a suite of economic reforms that would raise taxes, trim energy subsidies and pave the way for a much larger $4.8 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund. The I.M.F. loan, in turn, would open the door to even more aid and investment from financial institutions and other countries.
Cooperation is also required of the opposition. Egypt desperately needs strong democratic institutions and a more robust economy to right itself and move toward a better future. Instead, the various combatants have settled into a pattern of recurring political and economic crises, betraying the revolution that overthrew the dictator Hosni Mubarak. The latest setback occurred last week when the main opposition group, the National Salvation Front, warned that it would boycott parliamentary elections scheduled for late April because Mr. Morsi’s Islamist-led government had failed to guarantee that the vote would be free and fair.
Their concerns are legitimate. Instead of working toward an inclusive government, Mr. Morsi and his party have consolidated power, rushed through a flawed, bitterly contested Constitution, failed to reform a corrupt police force, and proposed a new law that will severely limit the right to peaceful assembly and encourage further police abuse. Yet the opposition itself has not offered a coherent alternative that could challenge the Muslim Brotherhood at the ballot box. And boycotting the parliamentary elections seems self-defeating.
After the State Department urged all parties to participate in the elections, some opposition leaders refused to meet Mr. Kerry because they “reject American pressure.” That too seems self-defeating. Frankly, it is hard to know what the opposition really wants from Washington. One moment it warns against interference, the next it faults the Americans for not being tougher on Mr. Morsi.
Mr. Kerry urged all Egyptians to “come together” to meet the country’s challenges, meanwhile assuring them that the United States is “committed not to any party, not to any one person, not to any specific political point of view,” but to democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and tolerance. This struck exactly the right note.
New York Times
