Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawy, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), has endorsed the 2011/2012 state budget after it was amended and approved by the cabinet.
The total budget expenditure was amended from LE515 billion to LE491 billion, of which 54 percent would be directed to social projects.
The minimum wage was reduced from LE700 to LE684 per month as of July, with an annual total of LE9 billion to be paid in wages for two million government employees.
Expenditure on education decreased from LE55 billion to LE 52 billion, health from LE24 billion to LE23.8 billion, and housing from LE21 billion to LE16.7 billion.
The Administrative court fined Mubarak, former PM Nazif and former interior minister Habib el-Adly LE540 millions for cutting the internet during the revolution. However, the mobile phone operators, which I regard as complicit, are off the hook and will even receive compensations:
Telecoms operator Vodafone said in January it and other mobile operators had no option but to comply with an order from the authorities to suspend services in selected areas of the country during the peak of the anti-government demonstrations.
In February, Vodafone also accused the authorities of using its network to send pro-government text messages to subscribers.
Communications and Information Technology Minister Maged Othman said his ministry planned to pay compensation estimated at around 100 million pounds to mobile telecoms operators for losses caused by the service disruption, the state news agency MENA said. It said the figure was reached by independent bodies.
The operators have had a moral obligation to say no. And no matter what “national security” obligations they signed onto when receiving their license from the state, they could have sent out warnings to the millions of customers prior to cutting the service, which could have saved lives.
The money should not go to the companies. The money should be go to the families of the martyrs and injured whose lives could have been saved if the telecommunication network was up and running during the uprising.
Al-Azhar graduates protest in front of the Press Syndicate against the government, demanding jobs, chanting: “To find employment we gotta have a revolution.”
There are ongoing rumors that Rachid M. Rachid, the minister of trade and industry, will replace Ahmed Nazif as the Prime Minister. There aren’t any official confirmations yet. Youm7 reports Mubarak has received today Rachid and the NDP’s old goon Safwat el-Sherif, without elaborating more on the visit.
Rachid, an entrepreneur-turned-politician, a neoliberal guru, member of the NDP Policies Secretariat, close aide to Gamal Mubarak, will by no means put halt to the neoliberal policies the regime has been pushing aggressively for two decades. His appointment, if it turns out to be true, will entail more social attacks. Faced with economic difficulties, more austerity measures are expected, and it’s the kind of job Rachid will be good at.
I envy the Swedes, Finns, and Swiss. It’s a pity Nazif’s “e-government” can’t follow suit. Anyways, I shouldn’t be ambitious. The NDP can’t even run trains…
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif not only answers to the president, parliament and journalists, but now faces the frustrations of students. During a recent visit to Port Said, Abdallah Ahmed Bazazo confronted Nazif.
”I am feeling the corruption everywhere,” Bazazo said. “I feel like I am inhaling it and the government doesn’t move a finger.”
“Every day I get more estranged, feeling like I am not a citizen. Why do the citizens lose their pride inside the country and gain it outside? Did you cries when the ferry drowned or when the soldiers on the border die?”
As soon as the student finished talking, the whole crowd started applauding for more than five minutes. This was just one of a series of hot confrontations between university students and the prime minister during a leadership management camp. Most of the questions were about corruption, selling the national companies, importing gas to Israel, relations with Ethiopia, Iran and America, high prices and unemployment.
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