The Egyptian thinker and Leftist
fighter, Dr. Anwar Abdel-Malek has lived all his life calling for a united
national front… I remember many sessions when I used to meet him along with
others, and when he kept mentioning this issue every time… I also have written
messages belonging to the Egyptian thinker and leftist fighter, Dr. Fouad Morsi
that express his hope that one day the Egyptian leftist movement along with its
diverse factions can have a democratic coalition expressing its views in the
Egyptian politics.
Also, I remember when Sadat decided in
1976 to shift from the one-party political organization to what he called
political diversity… and he outlined this diversity into three categories;
Left, middle and Right… He also chose a leader for each current… he – Sadat –
for the middle, Khaled Mohie ed-Din for the Left, and Mustafa Kamel Murad for
the Right…
I also remember that a group of
Nasserists met to establish a political platform expressing their views as we
were in the platforms’ era… ahead of that group was Mr. Kamal ed-Din Refaat –
May he rest in peace – with me, late Dr. Abdel-Hamid Atiea, Mr. Kamal Ahmed and
Mr. Muhammed Salmawi contributing to the planning of this platform… I was
assigned to write the political statement of the platform to be read by Kamal
Refaat before the committee of the political activity future then-headed by
Sayed Mar’ei… but the session that Kamal Refaat addressed was headed by Mustafa
Khalil… and our request to have a platform for the Nasserists was denied… it
also happened that Sadat attacked us in a public speech describing us as
shameless…
And so we decided to negotiate with
the Marxists and communists, who were allowed to have a platform holding the
name of “At-Taqadom” or Progress, to join them and build a unified Egyptian
Left movement, especially the Arab-nationalist and Marxist… I remember those
negotiations that took place, over many sessions, in the office of Mr. Khaled
Mohie ed-Din in the tenth floor of the building that got burnt in January 2011…
from the Marxist side, I remember Ali Talkhan, Muhammed Shata, Fouad Morsi,
Ismael Sabri Abdallah, Abu-Saif Youssef, Lotfi el-Kholi with Refaat as-Sae’ed
as secretary… from the Nasserist side, there were Kamal Refaat, Abdel-Hamid
Atiea, Kamal Ahmed and me…
We made progress one after another and
many titles were suggested for the new political entity until we agreed on the “Unionist
Progressive National Gathering” or “at-Tagamo’a al-Watani at-Taqadomi
al-Wahdawi”… it was a bit hilarious that the acronym of the Arabic name for
that political entity – like it was the norm then in the communist groups and
movements – was “toto”…
We started working on this until the
uprising of January, 1977… prior to and after this, we had some contentions
among the Nasserists themselves for the concept of accepting political
diversity and cancelling the socialist union in the first place… also, over the
validity of merging as an unorganized Nasserist movement in a political alliance
with the communists who had their own organized movement… and so, the one with
the better organization is the one who have command and control over the new
political merge; that is the communists… in such terms, it’s dangerous to
accept such merge… to the rest of such hard-line political interpretations… the
result was that some Nasserists stayed in at-Tagamo’a while the majority
refused to join and kept fighting for having an independent Nasserist party
holding the ideas and goals of the Nasserist ideology…
I’m not about to discuss the present
state of the two parties; at-Tagamo’a and an-Nasseri… also, I’m not about to
discuss the reasons that led to such fate… however, I will talk about the
initiative launched and adopted by the presidential candidate, Field Marshal
Abdel-Fattah es-Sisi..
I narrated part of the events
witnessing Leftist alliances that took place at the mid seventies to tell you
that this initiative is not new… however, it is a dream that goes back to the
start of the political diversity era in Egypt… meaning 40 years ago…
I listened, like many others, to Sisi
while he was talking on TV about the ultimate importance to have big political
blocks in the political arena… and consequently, such political weights will be
represented in the coming parliament… so that we fulfill the legislations that
can interpret the constitution into detailed laws coping with the current phase
of our national work…
Also, the man was clear when he warned
the political factions of fragmentation and staying ineffective with no supporting
masses on the ground… because if some rulers may seek to consecrate such inacceptable
situation to stay in control, our nation requires that we go out of it… especially
that the youthful powerful masses ranging from 20 to 40 years old represent
about 30 million Egyptians… such young mass has to be incorporated in the
Egyptian political parties lest they fall in the hands of extremism and
terrorism…
Now comes the question that has to be
answered by all Egyptian political parties and ideologies… ahead of them is the
Egyptian Left; Arab-national, Marxist and independent… because it’s the
political current more biased to and believing in social equality and rights of
impoverished classes, regardless of the political Leftist school… isn’t it time
we build a unified national front including Arab-nationalists, Marxists and communists…
along with others from the liberal and Islamic currents; those who can be
categorized as Leftist middle due to their interest in the social issues like
we said?
Isn’t it time for the Egyptian Right,
along with its diverse factions too, to have its own alliance?... so that
efforts on both sides can lead to a program for the social and economic national
work in the coming decade guaranteeing fulfilling the dream we all hope for;
that is Egypt renaissance in a limited time schedule…
I call for discussing this case;
building broad national alliances… Left and Right… and to start debating over
the readiness of our current Egyptian reality to accept such idea… and how ready
all parties are to work on this… We shall also discuss experiments of other
societies in Europe… and the Indian Experiment for example… also, that of the
Hebrew state itself… that experiments of building temporary alliances and coalitions…
also, another long-term strategic ones…
It’s an initiative aiming at reviving
our Egyptian political life that seems some, if not many, of its parties are
too old now… while others are not even considered to be parties… also, there is
a third group that one think are nothing but sick joke; they don’t make you
laugh, however, they make you feel sick…
Will the Egyptian Left be able, along
with its both broad and microscopic factions, to overcome its long-time hurdle
and take the chance to become an effective player in the Egyptian political
arena?... a question I find myself asked to answer among many others.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Al Ahram
newspaper on May 22, 2014.
To see the original article, go to:
#alahram
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #Leftist_parties
