flect growing frustration over Egypt’s loss of economic momentum. The reformers are now widely dis-


persed, exchanging news and politi- cal gossip through emails and by cellphone. Some, like Ghali and


Rachid, the first business- man ever to hold a senior Cabinet post in Egypt, have sought refuge in oth- er countries. Others, like Ahmed Maghrabi, the for- mer minister of housing, and Yusuf Wali, the former agriculture minister who hails from one of Egypt’s most prominent land- owning clans, are in jail. Once-powerful men courted by


the world’s financial elite, they are now largely isolated, abandoned by the country they struggled to change. Most have been assailed by Egypt’s vi- tuperative, scandal-mongering press. This is particularly true of Ghali,


the nephew of former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, per- haps because he is Christian. “Neither Joe nor most of the other


reformers saw the Arab Spring or the end of the regime coming,” said a close friend, referring to Youssef by his Americanized nickname. Neither, apparently, did the ail-


ing 83-year-old Mubarak, who had become increasingly detached from affairs of state after the unexpected death of his grandson in 2009. Lack- ing a vision for Egypt, Mubarak in- variably did too little, too late, del- egating more and more of his work to his son Gamal, his heir apparent, who was anathema to the military. Though the reformers spoke with


one another and with the prime min- ister as protests in Tahrir Square gath- ered momentum, none apparently spoke directly to Mubarak in the week before he fired his economic reform team — a desperate, ultimately futile gambit to preserve his own power. Only days after Mubarak met with his axed ministers to thank them for


58 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2012


BOUTROS BOUTROS GHALI


their service, he tried rehiring several of them, including Ghali and Rachid. But both refused, Egyptians said. As the protests grew ever more forceful, Michelle Ghali pressed her husband to leave Egypt as his colleague Rachid had done. But Ghali hesitated. The couple fi- nally left Cairo for Beirut only hours before Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11. Two weeks later when Gha- li had relocated to London, the first of several charges


were filed against him. Though Ghali was acquitted


of some of the more obviously bo- gus claims, such as having illegally transferred 30 million Egyptian pounds, (about $5 million) from the state treasury to media cam- paigns for Mubarak’s political par- ty (the funds were transferred to the Ministry of Information at the prime minister’s request, his law- yers told the court), the accusations kept coming. After the six-minute trial in June,


he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to 30 years in prison for allegedly using a Finance Ministry printer in 2010 to produce election materials for his campaign for parlia- ment. American officials say he was


also convicted of squandering public money by using 102 cars held in cus- toms for his personal use. Ghali’s lawyer had said that the


cars had been impounded for cus- toms duty violations, and that Ghali had given them not to family or friends, but to fellow ministers and his own deputies who were entitled to official cars, but whose cars were old and kept breaking down. The trans- action had saved Egyptian taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds.


D


iplomats say Ghali’s efforts to reform Egypt’s bureaucracy


required creative maneuvering. In 2004, the Finance Ministry, with its 20,000 employees and $50 million budget, had almost no computers. The ministry’s two word-proces-


sors were reserved for the minister’s office, which meant that Egypt’s bud- get, all 49,000 accounts of it, had to be calculated and consolidated by hand. No ministry knew the size of another’s budget, and the military liked it that way. Ideological obstacles often proved


harder to overcome than technologi- cal challenges. Field Marshal Mo- hamed Hussein Tantawi, who was then defense minister and remains so in “revolutionary” Egypt, is anti- American, opposed to free markets,


military, intelligence, and security services. There are no Coptic non-governmental organizations that fight for equal rights. Only the church, whose leader, ailing 89-year-old Pope Shenouda, purports to speak for them. Copts are becoming more segregated, suffering from the government’s not-so- benign neglect. As a result, they are increasingly forming their own neighborhoods, schools, and social clubs. Ever since 26 peaceful Coptic protesters were killed last October in military riots near a church, the Copts have refused to deal with the transitional government. Many Christians are also said to be fleeing Egypt, far more so than their Muslim


Christians Fleeing Egypt Repression C


counterparts. A recent article in the Rome-based La Stampa estimated that 100,000 Christians have fled Egypt since the start of the Arab Spring. — J.M.


opts, native Egyptian Christians who constitute between 10 and 15 percent of Egypt’s 80 million people, are effectively excluded from senior ranks of the


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