A precedent during the Sisi era: Wazir was accused of “treason”!

Cairo | In a precedent during the government of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Minister of State for Information, the journalist Usama Heikal, was accused of “treason” in the state media, as well as in the private ones, totally controlled by the intelligence. Heikal was appointed in the middle of the hardware struggle, and became a minister without a portfolio in the government, but is now isolated from his mysterious duties that have not yet been defined. Last year, the appointment was in accordance with the powers of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. Heikal was elected military editor of the Al-Wafd newspaper, and also served as Minister of Information during the government of the Military Council in 2011. This man is the one who drafted most of the laws regulating journalistic and media work. During his presidency of the “Committee on Culture and Information” in the House of Representatives, before resigning from Parliament at the end of last year, because the constitution prohibits the combination of membership in a parliament and ministerial positions.

It is true that the structure is the son of the military establishment and the source of its trust, but it did not know how to adapt to the changes or reconcile with the new leaders who ascended to the administration since Sisi became president in 2014, so he entered early confrontations with everyone, which made him the Minister of State for Information who could not appear in the media, whether private or public, they even went so far as to write a post on his Facebook page asking to meet the president, in a precedent that is the first of its kind for a minister, considering that his only source of strength is his good relationship with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who is considered the spiritual father of Sisi. . However, the minister’s attack on the media and the press at the end, together with the veiled criticism of the intelligence that is primarily responsible for the file, brought it back to the fore in an unprecedented way, as it became a rich material of criticism, and pages of newspapers and hours of television were dedicated to criticizing him and calling for his trial for treason, after he made statements in which he considered that Young people under 35 do not follow newspapers, websites or channels.

The son of the military establishment is not welcome in the system

Thus, Haykal, who during his membership in Parliament opposed the government’s “economic reform” policy and the measures that followed to obtain support and borrow billions of dollars from the International Monetary Fund to support the budget. state, is not welcome in the system, amid pressure to resign before the planned removal. In the next cabinet shakeup, which is expected early next year with the election of a new parliament. However, the man did not remain, this time, in silence before what was exposed by the state media. His wife, who was removed from office as editor-in-chief of a national magazine affiliated with the Al-Ahram Foundation, addressed his defense via Facebook, in an attempt to prove that the intelligence services were behind the organized attack, in the that all editors-in-chief participated simultaneously and on the same terms.
Haykal lives his last days in the ministry, from which he seeks to come out with the fewest losses, after failing to be a decision maker. While his opponents say that he is content with the theoretical discourse, reality confirms that his powers do not give him the ability to interfere with the powers of the bodies responsible for managing the media. And the irony is that the one who approved the laws of the different bodies and granted them broad powers, is the same today who suffers the influence of their presidents after excluding from the appointments all the names they nominated, electing others who oppose them, and they have the desire to exclude it entirely.
As for the “tragicomedial” paradox in the struggle of the apparatus, it is that Haykal became the prime minister in the history of the state to be accused of “treason” while he continued in office, but his presence in all activities alongside the President, noting that this accusation did not come only from pro-regime figures, but from officials of various media organizations, amid moves to hasten Haykal’s removal even before the cabinet reshuffle. Thus, files of financial corruption, discrepancies in obtaining salaries from various parties and suspicions of illegal profit on behalf of Heikal were exposed, but none of them have been proven to date, while some papers have been delivered to the media in a way that can silence the man to avoid “cuddling” in front of investigating authorities after leaving. Of the government.

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