Writing for state-owned daily Al Ahram, columnist Farouk Goweda criticizes the House of Representatives for failing to show up in critical sessions where two thirds of a vote are needed to pass necessary legislation. The current stalling of the reform process by the House is an “abandonment of a national responsibility,” he says, and asks how the House hopes to impose its status on anybody if it can’t respect it itself.

Former MP and scholar Amr El Shobaki tries, and fails, to sound like an authority on economic matters. He says it will be difficult for the IMF loan to solve the root causes of Egypt’s economic conditions because Egypt should have adopted some of the economic reform measures before pursuing the IMF loan, in a piece for Al Masry Al Youm. The root problems, in his opinion, are a decline in industry’s contribution to the GDP from 22% to 16.4%, while industrial exports fell by EGP 60 bn.

The government should get out the business of owning TV stations and newspapers, the Al Masry Al Youm columnist who writes under the pseudonym Newton says. They are nothing but a drain on state finances and add no real value. Newton reminds readers of a Nazif-eraproposal that never saw the light that follows a French model to divest from all of the government’s media holdings except for two TV channels.