Some Egyptians question Morsi's priorities

CAIRO -- Power and water outages are common across Egypt. Crime is rampant. The value of the currency is slipping.

Egypt's Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, has yet to offer anything concrete on how he plans to tackle some of the nation's most intractable problems. Instead, he is taking steps to shore up his Muslim Brotherhood group ahead of new parliamentary elections and is trying to project himself as a charismatic Arab leader standing up to authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.

Morsi campaigned on a package of promises that included political inclusion, freedom of expression and a swift end to paralyzing traffic congestion, skyrocketing crime and the scourge of garbage uncollected.

Yet, in his first two months in office, he has appeared to focus his attention elsewhere. That has raised questions about his priorities at a time when Egyptians' expectations are higher than ever following the ouster last year of Hosni Mubarak, whose authoritarian regime was widely seen as favoring the rich over the poor during three decades in power.

Morsi has tried to make his mark on foreign policy, a realm where there is little accountability because most of Egypt's 83 million people are too preoccupied with making ends meet.

"Experience has shown that foreign policy brings him more success and popularity than if he fulfilled his promises to the people," said Cairo University political scientist Mustafa Kamel el-Sayed.

Not all agree. "The president does not speak of the rights of the Palestinians or the people of Syria to bolster his popularity," said Nader Omran of the Brotherhood's foreign relations committee. "He does this out of principle," he said.

Morsi also won praise for standing up to the military generals who ruled Egypt for 17 months after Mubarak was ousted. He ordered the retirement of the country's top two generals, who had headed the ruling military council that took over from Mubarak.

But many Egyptians are still looking for improvements in their day-to-day lives.