President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday appointed Ahmed Badr, president of Ain Shams University, as education minister, and Alaa Fahmi, president of the National Post Authority, as minister of transport. The president also appointed five new governors.
Badr’s term as president of Ain Shams University, beginning in 2007, witnessed many campus riots and clashes with students belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups.
Former education minister Yousry el-Gamal was not informed of his replacement, learning about it only through watching the news on TV. His ministry staff were split between supporting and opposing the presidential decree.
Political experts considered the limited cabinet change a ministerial "patching" rather than a reshuffle. "Ministers are still appointed from outside the ruling party," said Al-Ahram Translation Center Director Wahid Abdel Meguid. "This widens the political crisis that the country is going through."
"Such insignificant moves only deepen the prevailing level of political stagnation," commented Amr Rabie, an expert at Al-Ahram Strategic and Political Studies Center. "We need a complete reshuffle that includes the prime minister himself."
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
