Such nations are aware that everyone pays the price of such laxity. They assume that the people have the right to judge their rulers and hold them accountable. In Egypt we are used to writing about our rulers only after they have left the government. We have developed this syndrome because of the inadequacy of our parliamentary system and legislative process in monitoring and controlling governance. Some contend that, especially in the case of former rulers who are now deceased, and who cannot defend themselves or explain why they acted as they did, retroactive judgement is highly unjust.
Rulers go down in history largely on the basis of what others say.
They are also condemned by documents released only after they have relinquished power. In Egypt, events unfold before our eyes only in retrospect, and remain always incomplete. Our task is to fill in the blanks, search for the lost fragments and piece them together to make a meaningful picture. The role of the press is to help reconstruct the past by mobilising resources to dig out the facts and present them to the public, even after the fact. Hammouda discusses the closing down of certain newspapers and the former cabinet's use of the company law to ban new publications.