" A Margin for Democracy in Egypt" by Amr Hamzawy.

By: Nouredeen Ahmed, Salma Badawy and Yehia Shaalan.

Cairo, Egypt - Dr. Amr Hamzawy, professor of public policy administration at The American University in Cairo, AUC, held a lecture discussing his newly released book "A Margin for Democracy in Egypt" at Moataz Al Alfi Hall on Sunday, April 6. Taking part of this discussion was Dr. Ziad Bahaa Eldin, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt. The lecture was in Arabic with availability of translation in English. A short introduction on Dr. Hamzawy's history of political affiliations was given before drawing the attention to his new book and discussing its aspects. Dr. Hamzawy started the lecture with an interesting question: "Where does Egypt stand now?” Following was an explanation of the key concepts of his new book and his vision on Egypt’s position and future. Dr. Ziad serving as a discussant for the lecture praised and criticized the book or Hamzawy’s writing style.
“Today Egypt finally sees a way for building a secure society,” says Dr. Hamzawy. He talked about how attempts have been by government and civil control to improve security regulations haven’t worked and many terrorist attacks and threats to the public are still continuing. He also talked about the problem of economic and financial delay that is ceasing the production of jobs and the developments of education.
“Amr is someone people like to differ with,” says Dr. Ziad. While maintaining his respect for Dr. Hamzawy’s opinion, Dr. Ziad offered his own regarding the developmental steps that Egypt should be taking today. He argued that political stability is needed before financial and economic developments can be made.
After Dr. Ziad spoke he left the floor for 10 minutes for the attendees to ask questions or pose comments. The questions were intriguing so much that Dr. Hamzawy suggested for an extra 15 minutes to be given for questions. A few questions were regarding Dr. Hamzawy’s book but most were about the future of Egypt, such as the question “where do you think Egypt will be in the next 30 years?” After writing down each question from the attendees on his Ipad, Dr. Hamzawy responded to most of them, addressing the people who asked them by name.