The controversy over the nature of the MPs that Egyptians want continues to rage as several complain about the lack of MPs with political experience in comparison with “service MPs” (who promise to grant services to their constituents). Amid the debate, however, nobody has made the effort to redefine either type.
During the reign of Mubarak, the political MP who preaches politics but is too arrogant to discuss his constituents’ day-to-day problems was common. He or she would communicate his political ideas without bothering to tackle the living issues of his/her constituents. Elections were essentially a political battle to raise the awareness of the people; a race the result of which was of no significance since loss was inevitable.
On the other hand, there were also service MPs, several of whom had a political vision, but ended up entirely disconnected from politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, service MPs had a political vision and a general idea for how to address the problems facing the country along with experience in social communication with people.
Over the past 10 years of Mubarak’s rule, this genre of MP receded in favor of vote-buying MPs.
Service MPs featured consistently in elections since 1976. They ran on the lists of the National Democratic Party, as independents, or on the lists of opposition parties, particularly Wafd and Tagammu. They offered their constituents services such as paving roads, building schools and hospitals, and helping people get jobs.
But as a considerable part of those service MPs failed to provide the services they promised and as the government itself failed to satisfy the requests of the MPs, given the worsening economic and political crisis, vote-buying MPs made advances at the expense of service MPs.
The 2005 and 2010 elections both saw the rise of vote-buying MPs at the expense of service MPs, with whom the electorate were used to interacting.
After the 25 January revolution, the same question was posed: Do we want a political or a service MP? Indeed, the revolution has dealt a blow to vote-buying MPs, though it has not entirely wiped out the phenomenon. Only the political and service MPs remain in the race.
The political MPs that Egyptians want to see are those who have a vision for the renaissance of the nation, one that is still linked to the issues in his or her constituency. Such an MP would be able to develop development programs for the entire constituency instead of providing personal services to a limited number of individuals.
Egypt needs MPs who are able to monitor the government and participate in lawmaking, all while interacting with the people in the constituency at the social and developmental levels.
So are we going to see a novel political/service MP who will be able to remain in touch with ordinary citizens? Only time will tell.
