INTERVIEW: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood vows to combat corruption

Jan 25, 2012, 12:59 GMT

Cairo - A senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood, which has the largest number of seats in Egypt's newly elected parliament, has said his group will combat corruption, but warned this would take time.

'What has already been exposed of the former regime's corruption is only a drop in the sea of the actual corruption,' the group's spokesman, Mahmoud Ghuzlan, told dpa.

'But this corruption, which has accumulated over the past 60 years, cannot be eliminated overnight,' he added.

The Muslim Brotherhood, brutally oppressed under the rule of ousted president Hosny Mubarak, won 47 per cent of the staggered parliamentary vote held over the past two months.

On Monday, Saad al-Katatni, a senior official in the group's Freedom and Justice Party, was elected as the parliament's speaker, becoming the first ever Islamist to hold this post.

'We will resort to many ways to tackle corruption, mainly by morally rebuilding the Egyptian citizen, strengthening his relationship with God and creating a climate favourable for reform,' said Ghuzlan.

Mubarak and a dozen officials from his regime are being tried on charges of corruption. The opposition says the trials are slow-paced.

Ghuzlan specified other top priorities of his group as re-establishing security and rejuvenating the national economy, hard hit by the turmoil that followed Mubarak's overthrow last February.

He said that his group would not ban tourism, a key earner for Egypt.

'Tourism is like agriculture, which we cannot do without,' added Ghuzlan.

'We can increase the number of tourists coming to Egypt, which has a distinguished location, antiquities and friendly people. All this can be better utilized.'

A surge in the clout of Islamists in post-Mubarak Egypt has raised fears that they will curb freedoms and activities, including tourism.

'Very few tourists come to Egypt for its seas. We can organize this matter in a way that ensure we will not lose those tourists and, at the same time, preserve our morals,' he added.

Ghuzlan suggested that seaside spots could be allocated for foreign holidaymakers in Egypt.

'Still, I don't have a clear formula at the moment.'

Egypt's revenues from tourism dropped by around 30 per cent last year, from 12.5 billion dollars in 2010 to 8.8 billion dollars, Minister of Tourism Fakhri Abdul Nur said this month.