Each country in the Middle East share of challenges and advantages, no doubt that the drafting of the Egyptian Constitution will be a completely different experience from what happened in Iraq in 2005 (at least as Egypt does not have to suffer the consequences of any foreign military occupation).
However, the similarities between the two countries (other than those related to the obvious linguistic and cultural ties, religious and historical) sufficient to allow them to benefit from the experiences of each other in respect of certain specific issues.
Shared by both Egypt and Iraq in the basic needs can be met some of them, at least in part, through the successful drafting of a constitution.
However, the Iraqi experiment has failed miserably in this sense must be to Egypt from a calendar that experience and draw lessons from them, in order to avoid repeating the same fatal mistakes.
Impossible to schedule
The most problematic item in the Interim Constitution of Egypt is the schedule for drafting the permanent constitution.
Article 60 provides for the drafting of the constitution should be completed within six months and submitted to a referendum after 15 days of preparation, without that provides for the possibility to extend this time limit.
It should be noted that the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq, also imposed a six-month moratorium on the authors of the Iraqi Constitution, note that the main objective of this was to reassure the United States.
On the other hand, there is the experience of antithesis is the constitutional process in South Africa, which is one of the most successful operations in modern history, which lasted a whole is about 7 years.
Therefore, the least we can say is that we are surprised to see Egypt mimic, on its own, Iraqi constitutional process was the recognition of failure on a large scale.
Egypt is known for enjoying a rich range of constitutional scholars and legal experts who are able to contribute their experience, no doubt that many of them will contribute significantly to the drafting of new constitution.
However, what many of the guarantees that none of these scientists will be able to play a formal role in the drafting process itself.
Given the prevailing conditions, there is a strong possibility, as happened in Iraq, that is dominated by the constitution drafting committee members to attend certain political appointment, and be with little or no experience in constitutional law.
And also because of the nature of the former regime, it may be some future leaders of Egypt had spent a long period of time, either outside the country altogether, or worse, in prison or exile.
Although the capacity of the framers of the Constitution on their performance during the learning task, it is clear that six months is not a sufficient duration, which increases the possibility of establishing a constitutional framework is ineffective or incomplete.
There is no doubt that Egypt deserves a rapid transition to effective democracy, but they also need more time to draft a permanent constitution carefully.
Design of institutional frameworks
Must for any formulation of a new constitution in any part of the world that involves an attempt to understand the workings of the institutional framework of the country they are true.
Even the constitutions that generate from the womb of popular revolts can not expect a fresh start altogether, they retain a large number of existing institutions.
The hierarchical approach of these institutions and working methods and other traditions affect the mechanism of action of the new constitution.
As a result, can the authors of the Constitution - and they should - seek to understand and identify the most efficient institutions and those that suffer from imbalance, in order to determine how the new constitution can contribute to the improvement of the current window.
In addition, it can be changes in the structure of government in general in the country that affect the functioning of certain institutions, but these institutions were not specifically mentioned in the Constitution itself.
In the absence of sufficient insight in relation to these issues, any changes will probably unexpected results, which is impossible to be positive.
Given the history of Egypt in the recent period, is no doubt that this process will take a lot of time to implement successfully.
The revolution was partly a result of the partial collapse of the Egyptian state and society, due to a large extent on the state of inertia enshrined in the National Democratic Party led by Hosni Mubarak.
However, there are many institutions that were carried out its responsibilities to the satisfaction of the Egyptians.
What is the secret of the success of some of these institutions, other institutions have failed, and what the new constitutional framework can be done to encourage the emergence of other institutions successful in the future?
Any form of control must be followed to monitor the performance of a particular institution, and any branch of government should the conclusions his testimony?
Comparative constitutional practice provides a lot of possible answers to these questions, but, whatever option you Strtadhah Egypt, it must come as a result of a detailed and frank discussion about the performance of the Egyptian institutions can not rely entirely on the theoretical models and comparison.
This effort will inevitably require close cooperation with a large number of public officials who occupy senior positions, medium, and who should be invited to participate in the process of redesigning the structure of the state.
Moreover, this effort will require, in turn, more time than six months.
In Iraq, and due to the short span of time, it was not the authors of the constitution in most of them understand the functioning of the bureaucracy in the country in practice.
The time was not enough to consider how the impact of changes in the general nature of the state in some specific institutions.
For example, go from Iraq in 2005 under a presidential system central to the hegemony of the Baath Party to a parliamentary system with a government that includes dozens of political parties.
Under the previous regime, was seen to the Board of Audit in Iraq (which was responsible for auditing the expenses of the state, with the exception of opulence of Saddam Hussein and his family of course) as the lead role in the effective form in difficult circumstances.
The reports were circulated throughout the one-party state that was responding to the existence of any licentious misconduct «effectively merciless» as described by independent observers.
Today, you need a new constitution in place since 2005, Board of Supreme Audit will report to Parliament, which means that it is now at the mercy of dozens of competing political parties, which are often either not interested at all his reports, or seeking to take advantage of them as mere ammunition to accuse their opponents of corruption.
Court staff have been subjected since then dozens of assassination attempts, and obscure reports from the public for reasons of staff safety and other concerns.
Is still the Iraqi parliament and the Prime Minister's Office battling to this day to determine which of them will eventually be able to control the Board.
It is not intended here that the previous system was perfect from the point of control (but the opposite is true), or that it should have been the authors of the Iraqi Constitution to maintain that system.
Is intended that the framers of the Constitution have contributed in a clear manner in the current levels of corruption because of the alerting effects that may arise as a result of state control in the transition to a parliamentary system of government with very low requirements in terms of public support needed to win the election candidates.
In fact, due to the six-month time limit, it was not enough time even to consider the possibility of such a thing.
Leave the future for politicians
Remarkably, more than is the need to develop an appropriate framework for political party activity. There is no doubt that the process by which the report of detailed rules on financial transparency is difficult and time consuming.
In countries such as Egypt and Iraq, where democracy is based on the multiplicity of parties and financial transparency was still true to this date is not familiar at all, we must make some time so that the various parties to adapt to the rules in principle and practice.
When you raise the issue of financial transparency for the first time in emerging democracies, political parties tend to possible reluctance to subject its accounts to auditors, reviews the past two or private, must be made a major effort to persuade the political parties, the need for such rules.
Any discussion regarding the specific rules to be appropriate for the country concerned when taking into account the context of the country.
These rules can be very complicated, especially when it comes to implementation, and must therefore invest enough time to ensure the careful study and drafting.
Out of its keenness to see Egypt move to a democratic society completed as soon as possible, deliberately Many commentators to overlook the importance of these issues and to consider minor issues, arguing that Egypt has the original rules for fiscal transparency and that can leave any details of the relationship until after the new constitution into force.
Iraqis have learned to reluctantly that it should not allow politicians to determine the rules that govern their work and their activities.
Although the rules established by the Supreme Commission for Elections and the Integrity Commission in Iraq, which require financial transparency, Iraq still lacks an effective enforcement mechanism, which considers corruption a top-fighters of the main reasons for corruption in the country.
The Iraqi Constitution also contains some rules on how to practice and conduct of elections, such as those which stipulates that Parliament alone was responsible for deciding on the conduct of the elections.
The result was in Iraq during the 2010 elections, to continue in the election of candidates as part of the list, knowing that the districts were too large so they are often led to the election of more than twelve members within a single constituency.
In the new democratic regime in Iraq, there is a deep gulf between the politicians and ordinary citizens, which toppled the regime's legitimacy as a whole.
Discussion of the fundamental rights
Perhaps most importantly, in some countries such as Egypt and Iraq that need to establish a frank discussion about the relationship between religion and state. In Iraq, in 2005, this issue was discussed in the context of the constitutional committee, but it is not a compromise within the deadline.
Therefore, the imposition of U.S. officials serving solution «is not permissible to enact a law that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam» or «inconsistent with the principles of democracy».
Although circulating a draft constitution before the referendum, it was not enough time to allow citizens to participate in an active form in this issue or think carefully about the possible consequences that may result from the approved formula and propose alternatives.
I voted for millions of Iraqis without even access to draft their own, and that the referendum provided an option between order and chaos (which is similar to that scary option, which is being presented to the Egyptians in the constitutional process their own), and despite all its shortcomings, the constitution is approved by a majority overwhelming.
The absence of open discussion regarding the role of religion to the application of this provision in the form of inconsistent across the country, with the conclusion of some provinces that should lead to ban the sale of alcohol, which rejected the application of other provinces.
In the meantime, some of the extremist groups to attack in the form of recurring to the offices of Christian organizations with a demand to leave the country on the pretext that Iraq is an Islamic state, not the only factor, and one of the factors that led to the transformation of Iraq into a single color, feel the religious minorities it lost its place in society.
Examples outlined above some of the difficulties imposed on the Iraqis after the failure of the constitutional process in 2005, and the reason makes it imperative for Egypt with the same tragedies.
The country should remain confident that the spirit of revolution will continue to guide them through the coming period and avoid the temptation to rush to «return to normal life» delusional.
Should also allow time for a revolution of the committee responsible for drafting the constitution so as to consider carefully in the process and discuss among themselves and with the country as a whole, and to benefit from the experiences of others, even if it means to take advantage of their mistakes.
التسميات
Orbits