I postpone writing about a very
important matter; that is the criteria decided by the supreme council of
Judiciary that should be taken into consideration when choosing those eligible
to work in the Judiciary… it’s said those criteria have to do with the father’s
level of education and family economic and social living standard… I wish the dignified
council can issue the constitutional, legal, logic and humane criteria it seeks
so that one can discuss the matter after hearing from all parties… until now,
we heard only from those who were denied acceptance to enroll in the judiciary
service.
Now I move to a very cross-cutting
issue in our country’s agenda; that is the issue of dealing with youth aging
from 18 to 30 years old and who are in millions.
First there is a question I myself
have yet no answer for… however, I still try to find one through my interest in
the historical movement of Egypt… the question is: why have civil political
formations whether parties, groups or alliances failed to continue and cope
with the changes of every era… and most, if not all, of them ended up dismantled
or finished… while armed religious ideologies-referenced groups were able to
continue and expand?
We have been analyzing those civil
political formations since the last decade of the 19th century…
first, there was Al-Game’ya Al-Wataniya or the national community, also called
Helwan community as it was established in Helwan… this political group also
contributed to the 1881 revolution… then at the beginning of the 20th
century came Al-Omma party or the nation party in 1907… then Al-Islah Ala
Al-Mabade’a Al-Dostoriya party or Reform as per the constitutional principles
party… then Al-Hezb Al-Watani or the National party leaded by Mustafa kamel and
Muhammed Farid…
Then one find other parties that were vanished
completely and almost forgotten in history like one called An-Nobala’a party or
the Nobles party… Al-Omma Al-Qebtya party or the Coptic Nation party… then came
World War I… and what followed later when the independence battle raged… and so
Al-Wafd party was established to become the first party in the political life…
after it, came Al-Ahrar Ad-Dostoreyeen party and Ash-Sha’ab party established
by Sedki Pasha…
After this, Al-Wafd party divided and
yielded Al-Ha’yaa As-Sa’adiya in 1938… later came Al-Kotla leaded by Makram
Ebied Pasha in 1943… also, At-Taliya’a Al-Wafdiya was established… moreover,
there were other parties in the political arena like Masr Al-Fattaa and the
communist movement along with its offshoots.
On the other side, muslim brotherhood group
was established in 1928… one can read through its history that this group’s
course was never interrupted… however, it witnessed ups and downs in a
continuous line describing its movement.
Afterwards, came political formations
of July 23 revolution… starting from Haya’at At-Tahrir or Liberation
organization… then Al-Itihad Al-Qawmi or National Union… to Al-Itihad
Al-Ishteraki or Socialist Union… all this confirms my point of view… that is
all civil political formations came to an end… while other armed groups with references
of religious ideologies continued.
I discussed with my friend and historian
Dr. Assem Ad-Desouki about this phenomenon while I was documenting those
information I mentioned here about the history of those parties… We both had
the same opinion that the Egyptian people adores the “all in one” formula… as
Al-Wafd party was, in composition and course, a political melting pot for all
social and intellectual diversities of the Egyptian people… since it included peasants
starting from daily workers, very small land owners, small land owners, average
standard land owners and reaching to very wealthy agriculture land owners… the
same thing applies to other categories and groups like workers, real estate
capitalists, bankers, industrialists…
I have been trying, since the
Nasserist movement was at its peak, to present a point of view I believe is
right for describing the continuity of Egyptian history… this opinion states
that Nasserist political organizations had the same essence of Al-Wafd party;
that is the “all in one” formula… with only one difference; Nasserism – despite
considering national capitalism part of the working powers of people – excluded
all exploitation powers that were targeted by agrarian reform laws and
nationalization… and so, there were no big agriculture land owners or
capitalists like the case before 1952.
I believe Nasserism wanted to shift
the Egyptian political life from the “all in one” phase to a phase of diverse
political life through founding a political formation; that is At-Tanzim
At-Talie’y inside the big organization; meaning the Social Union… along with
that was the youth organization that aimed at preparing and qualifying the
youth through deepening their social and political awareness… and so after the
end of this transformation phase, low and middle classes can establish their
own parties defending their interests and expressing their orientations… after the
society class conflict is settled and consequently, all the society economic
interests and political and intellectual orientations are well defined.
However, everything came to an end
after the defeat of 1967… and what followed after the 1973 war victory of open
economy or Infitah policies that opened the door for undermining the country
politically, economically and intellectually as we all know.
There is also another point of view
that is based on what we can consider a historical fact; that is Egypt has been
in a state of continuous change since Muhammed Ali era to date… and it didn’t
witness any long times of political economic social stability where economic
and political orientations are established… and where society class conflict is
settled… only then, the national will can view its long-term strategic course
to follow.
What happened is that every
renaissance attempt was either scuttled or interrupted… that is what happened
to Muhammed Ali, Khedive Ismail and Nasser’s projects… as a result, all
political formations’ experiments were interrupted because there was no solid
ground for them to continue and develop… and so the most successful model was
the armed religious ideologies-referenced groups… those who adopt violence as
means to express their relation with the other in the country… and where their
closed narrow-minded religious interpretations act like the shell protecting
the group against changes and absence of experiences’ accumulation in its
sociological and cultural surroundings.
And thus, this formula combining armed
violence and narrow-minded religious interpretations have become haven for
those disappointed of failure of civil political formations … also for others
who look for “salvation” by resorting to religious interpretations describing
the way for them in exchange for total obedience… and so death becomes the “gift”
they receive if they died for the sake of supporting the group’s ideology.
The question now: Can we have this
political formation adopting the “all in one” formula to go through our current
transformation state?... can’t we form a national front capable of gathering many
parties while maintaining diversity and employing it to serve the collective
national agreed-upon goals?... in doing such thing, it would be regarded as a historical
development of the “all in one” formula.
Could we have a youth political
organization comprising all ideologies and which can act as the melting pot of
those millions of young men that can later provide the political arena with intellectually
and culturally qualified cadres?
Endless questions looking for answers…
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Al Ahram
newspaper on October 23, 2014.
To see the original article, go to:
#alahram #ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #political_organizations #political_parties #all_in_one
