Di dalam kisah dari Surah Yusuf yang
disebutkan sebagai “Ahsanul Qasas” (Kisah-kisah yang indah), kita diceritakan
tentang kemakmuran Mesir yang dianugerahkan oleh Allah SWT sebuah sungai, yang
diberi nama Nil untuk menjana ekonomi Mesir pada ketika itu. Mesir menjadi
pusat kepada umat sekeliling negaranya dan digelarkan sebuah kerajaan “rahmatan
lil alamin” (Rahmat ke seluruh alam).
Hari ini Mesir masih memiliki Sungai
Nil dan sungai nil masih mengalir deras dan menyuburkan tanah-tanah di sekitarnya.
Hasil-hasil daripada tanam-tanaman masih banyak dan tidak dinafikan, kualiti
dan kelazatannya. Tetapi, keadaan ekonomi Mesir tidak membanggakan
pemimpin-pemimpinnya malah tidak menyenangkan keadaan hidup rakyatnya.
Tidak perlulah kita berdiskusi panjang
tentang puncanya…
Alhamdulillah, saya amat gembira
melihat berita yang disiarkan di bawah ini. Inilah semangat persaudaraan atau “brotherhood”
yang ditonjolkan oleh bangsa Arab dari sebuah negara yang bernama Qatar. Bukan
bantuan suntikan dana saja, malah suntikan pelaburan yang begitu besar.
Sebelum saya melawat ke Timur Tengah
saya tidak pernah ada usaha untuk mencari berita-berita sebegini malah
berfikiran serong terhadap karakter dan perangai bangsa-bangsa Arab…
rupa-rupanya ada di kalangan mereka yang tidak lupa tanggungjawab persaudaraan
dan melihat rezeki yang diberikan oleh Allah SWT sebagai harta perkongsian untuk
menjadi “rahmatan lil alamin”.
CAIRO, Jan 9 — Qatar yesterday threw
Egypt an economic lifeline, announcing it had lent the country another US$2
billion (RM6 billion) and given it an extra US$500 million outright to help
control a currency crisis.
Political strife has set off a rush to
convert Egyptian pounds to dollars over the past several weeks, sending the
currency to a record low against the US dollar and draining foreign reserves to
a critical level.
The government said it expected an
International Monetary Fund technical committee to visit Cairo in two to three
weeks to resume talks on a crucial US$4.8 billion loan to plug balance of
payments and budget deficits.
Qatar’s handout appears to be another
example of the Gulf state seeking to deepen its influence in a Middle East
being reshaped by revolts that have unseated long-serving autocrats. Doha
supported the uprising in Libya and remains a major backer of the revolt
against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The aid is a political and economic
bonus for both President Mohamed Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood, the group
that propelled him to power in elections in June.
It eases the pressure on Mursi to negotiate an IMF agreement that will
require him to implement unpopular austerity measures. That will be a relief
for the Brotherhood as it gears up for forthcoming parliamentary polls.
“There was an initial package of $2.5
billion, of which $0.5 billion was a grant and $2 billion a deposit,” Qatari
Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told reporters, referring to
the aid it has provided since Egypt’s uprising two years ago.
“We discussed transferring one of the
deposits into an additional grant so that the grants became $1 billion and the
deposits doubled to around $4 billion,” he said of the new aid after meeting
Mursi.
Hamad added that the new Qatari grants
and deposits with Egypt’s central bank had all arrived. “Some of the final
details with the deposits are being worked on with the technical people, but
the amount is there,” he said.
‘Solid ally’
Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a political
analyst in the United Arab Emirates, said Qatar viewed Egypt as a valuable
strategic asset and had invested more in the most populous Arab nation than any
other Gulf Arab state since a popular uprising overthrew former President Hosni
Mubarak in February 2011.
“Qatar wants a solid regional ally in
Egypt,” he said. “Along with Turkey, this allegiance or axis is fundamental to
the regional role Qatar is trying to carve for itself.”
The Qatari funds should help tide Egypt
over until the government can seal the IMF agreement that analysts view as
vital to give the government credibility with the markets.
The IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia
director, Masood Ahmed, left Cairo yesterday after meeting Mursi the day
before.
“Negotiations with the IMF team will
resume from where they stopped,” Mursi’s spokesman, Yasser Ali, said. Asked
when the IMF’s technical committee would visit Cairo, he said it was expected
in the next two to three weeks.
The head of the IMF said the Egyptian
government must strongly recommend the US$4.8 billion loan agreement to its
people as a step towards stabilising the economy.
“The IMF needs to have the commitment
of the political authorities that can actually endorse the programme, own it,
and propose it to the population as theirs,” Christine Lagarde told Reuters
during a visit to Ivory Coast.
Egypt struck an initial loan accord
with the IMF in November but last month postponed the deal because of political
unrest set off by Mursi’s drive to fast-track a new constitution.
The unrest led Mursi to suspend
increases in the sales tax on a range of goods and services that were deemed
necessary to conclude an IMF deal.
Analysts said the Qatari funds gave
breathing space to Mursi and to the Muslim Brotherhood’s party from which he
hails ahead of the election due to begin in the next few months.
“It’s a big break for the Mursi
government,” said Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Centre. “It does give the
Egyptian government more time to negotiate the (IMF) deal and build popular
support for it.”
Said Hirsh, an economist with
Maplethorpe, said it was in no way a replacement to the IMF loan, as it was not
conditional on implementing economic reforms sought by investors.
“Further delays to the IMF loan will
not bode well for Egypt’s external position. For now, foreign investors are
still likely to sit and wait until a deal with the IMF is reached.”
The Egyptian pound weakened to a record
low of about 6.48 to the dollar yesterday after the central bank offered US$60
million in the latest of a series of foreign currency auctions introduced in an
attempt to contain the currency crisis.
The pound has weakened 4.6 per cent on
the interbank market and the central bank has spent a total of US$420 million
in the auctions since the system began on December 30.
Foreign reserves have fallen by more
than US$20 billion and the currency has lost more than a tenth of its value and
during the turbulent political transition since Mubarak’s fall and the flight
of tourists and investors, two of Egypt’s main sources of foreign exchange.
Tourism, industry
Qatar had already pledged enormous
amounts of aid to Mursi’s government since he became president in July,
including four loans of US$500 million each, with the first arriving in August
and the last in December.
In September, Qatar also agreed to
invest US$8 billion for gas, power and iron and steel plants at the northern
entrance to the Suez Canal and US$10 billion for a giant tourist resort on the
Mediterranean coast.
Sheikh Hamad said yesterday that these
projects had been delayed, in part by a disagreement between Egyptian and
Qatari technicians over systems and laws.
“Today we agreed to appoint an
international specialised legal office to put a mechanism in place because
these are huge projects and will last for long years and need accurate study.”
Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil
said progress on the projects had been held up by a lack of political will.
“I admit that there has been some
slowness,” he said. — Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment