It
was a small house in a suburban of Belgrade; capital of Yugoslavia – when Yugoslavia
was a united state. He was staying there with his wife and three kids. That was
the exile he chose and which provided him with the needed security while he was
accused of being the leader of the group called “Thawrat masr”. He
called me for an interview and a mission in the same time. Once I finished the
interview, I was assigned the mission although I tried to apologize in the
beginning lest I might be killed… but this is another story to tell later.
During
the interview, he answered my question why he chose me in particular although
there were many who would welcome such opportunity. He answered: “because you
will not exploit me and make use of such thing like others did before… also
because you are not a fool…“. Then he told me about a situation that happened
to him. He said: “one day, I came home late in Manshiet El-Bakri. I meant to
sneak to my room so that no one knows I came home late; specially my father.
Suddenly, I saw him awake. He asked me: where have you been? I answered: I was
with my friends. We were studying and then we went out. He looked at me and
said: one day, you will be like al-Hussain bin Ali and then he recited some
verses from a poem. I knew later that those verses were excerpted from the play
of “Laila and Majnoun” written by Ahmed Shawqi.
I
was visiting Khaled Abdel-Nasser in Yugoslavia. The conversation was about an
invitation sent to him from Saddam Hussain to visit Baghdad. Then we went on
talking about those many who surrounded him and who made as much use of him as
possible. The mission was to accompany him to Baghdad. I apologized to him
saying I have already attacked Saddam before and I once refused an invitation
to visit Baghdad. That invitation to me was delivered by three then-important
persons; Mohsen Khalil, Mustafa el-Naggar and Nezar el-Heddini… and so I
received an obvious killing threat from the Iraqi ambassador at Abu Dhabi at
that time. That was at the beginning of 1981… and so going there was an
adventure and a risk in the same time. At the end, I agreed and went with him and
this is again another story that shall be narrated later.
Khaled
remembered his father’s words to him when he was attacked by many. Those who
used to call him to apologize for what they say against him claiming they are
obliged to do so lest the regime punishes them.
***
One
day, President Nasser received a gift from the Emir of Kuwait. It was a
Mercedes. He gave it officially to his wife; the honorable lady Tahya Kazem.
She wondered and asked him: “why? You have never done such thing before”. He
smiled and said: “I have a feeling that one day you will find no car to ride
and I don’t have enough money to buy you one. I did what I did because no one
knows what will happen later”.
Nasser
died and matters did not go well between his family and Sadat who became the
president. One day, Nasser’s family was surprised by a decision issued by Sadat
to take all the cars assigned to them by the presidency… and they did indeed
withdraw all the cars… and so Mrs. Tahya found no car to ride but this car left
to her. Also, Huda Abdel-Nasser bought a Fiat-128 car as she was recruited as
an assistant researcher in Zagazig University. The situation stayed like so for
a while until Gaddafi maneuvered to send them cars. First, he sent fancy cars
as a gift to Sadat’s family and when they accepted them, he sent less fancy
ones to Nasser’s family.
***
Another
story to tell… when Nasser’s father; Mr. Abdel-Nasser Hussain asked for a car
to do his errands when he grew old, a small Nasr-1100 car was assigned to him.
Later, he received a letter from the presidency asking – actually criticizing –
about the overconsumption of Benzene.
***
It
was a two-storey house; the bottom was public sector and the upper one was
private sector… meaning the lower bottom was kept for the presidents and
leaders invited for lunch, dinner or tea and all these invitations were paid by
the state. While the family used to use the upper storey and all expenses of
food or clothes were paid from the president’s salary as his private secretary;
Mr. Muhammed Ahmed used to handle such thing. Moreover, there were days when
meat, chicken or fish were not served. The house garden had a space for growing
vegetables. There were also a chicken pen and a primitive oven for making
bread. When food supplies were insufficient in the house and garden, the cook
used to go to the public markets, holding the bamboo basket, to buy what he
needs. Each time, they buy from a different public market due to security
measures. When Mubarak came to office, Mrs. Tahya sent him home-made bread she
made in her primitive home oven.
***
When
we were still students at Ain Shams University, we used to go as a group to
Manshiet El-Bakri on the anniversary of Nasser’s birthday. At the beginning, we
were few and late general Saber Othman used to welcome us with his kind smile
and elite manners to let us in. Then we meet Hoda Abdel-Nasser and her husband
Hatem Sadeq. We used to sit in the main saloon. First time we went, we asked
about the chair where Nasser used to sit on. We knew it and we all evaded sitting
on it. Mrs. Tahya, dressed in black, used to welcome us as well. In the first
half of the seventies, Rose al-Youssef magazine published an interview or what
was then said to be the diaries of Mahmoud el-Gayyar. El-Gayyar was an officer
and one of the president’s secretaries along with Muhammed Ahmed. He said that
he used to bring pickles and salted cheese from his village to the president’s
house. When we asked Mrs. Tahya about this, she said: “el-Gayyar is lying. My
husband used to eat what I cook myself. Also, I was good at making pickles. The
only time when el-Gayyar brought something, we got rid of it because it was a
clay pot of salted cheese filled with warms. The nutrition doctor who was
checking on the food we eat said it was not suitable for human consumption”.
***
Mrs.
Tahya had two daughters and like any Egyptian mother, she was dreaming of
buying what the two daughters need for marriage. And so it happened that a sales
agent for an Italian company famous for making furniture came to Egypt. The
company thought that if they managed to sell furniture to the president, then
all Egypt would be open for their business. Indeed, the company’s agent arrived
and met the president’s secretary for information who also had daughters to buy
them furniture. He got the offer and found it very tempting… and so he thought
of a nice way to settle the deal and talked to Mrs. Tahya. He tried to convince
her to buy from this company what her daughters need in their furniture.
However, she used to consult her husband in every decision she takes. She chose
a suitable time to open the discussion with him and told him how buying from
this company in particular would be cheaper. Nasser answered: “can all Egyptian
families, which have daughters about to get married, afford to buy the
furniture you want to buy for Hoda and Mona from this Italian company?...
what’s wrong with the Egyptian furniture?”.
He
put an end to this issue like so many other issues. For example, it happened once
that his son; Abdel-Hakim pressed to issue a driving license before he was 18
years old; meaning before he was eligible to issue one. He used to receive the
answer saying: “when you grow up and be 18”. One time when they were having
lunch together, Abdel-Hakim asked his father: “why don’t you want to issue a
driving license for me?... X, Y, Z, sons of X, Y, Z are younger than me and
have issued driving licenses. President Nasser then wiped his mouth with the
napkin and left the table to the phone. He asked: “get me Sharawi on the
phone”. Few minutes later, Mr. Sharawi; then deputy PM, minister of interior,
secretary of the Talieya organizational group and one of the closest
persons to Nasser, was on the phone. Nasser talked abruptly and decisively:
“how can you issue driving licenses for kids younger than 18 years old like the
sons of X, Y, Z… these licenses shall be annulled… and such thing shall not
happen again”.
***
There
were other stories Mr. Sharawi told me himself, one of them when he invited
some friends and officials for dinner in his house. In the day of the
invitation, his wife had a severe pain in her teeth and she had to go to the
hospital for the pain was unbearable. He could not cancel the invitation and
had to seek a cook from Gruppi. Next morning, he received a call from the
president saying: “Sharawi, did you have an invitation yesterday at your
home?”… “Yes, Sir”… “Why have you brought a cook from Gruppi”… Mr. Sharawi
narrated the whole situation in details… Nasser then said: “it’s OK… but next
time you have a situation like this, it’s better you cancel the invitation”. It
seems that some of the guests went talking about the PM Deputy who sought a
cook and his wife did not serve the guests herself.
It
seems that Mr. Sharawi – May he rest in peace – was sometimes unlucky. One day,
Nasser received urgent news from Alexandria where some of his brothers used to
live. Nasser used to have a strong and very special relationship with his
brother Ezz-el-Arab. There was also another brother called al-Laithi
Abdel-Nasser. The news was that Mrs. Al-Laithi had a heated argument with a
police officer in Alexandria and made a complaint about him. The ministry of
interior transferred the police officer to another place. When Nasser knew
about this, he called the minister of interior; the unlucky Mr. Sharawi,
saying: “the officer shall come back to his place and an apology should be offered
to him. Also, an investigation shall be conducted to punish the one responsible,
who is definitely not the officer”.
***
Also,
Mr. Amin Howeidi told me about so many situations and incidents with President
Nasser, sometimes while he was crying. Amin Howeidi; member of the Free
Officers’ group, intellectual and writer, was in charge of serious tasks and
highly-important positions. He was Egypt’s ambassador to Iraq in a very
sensitive time and always used to call the president to keep him abreast of the
latest developments. One time, after he discussed the issues connected to the
Egyptian-Iraqi relations, the president said: “Amin, I have a very personal
issue that I want you to take care of… in two days, Mr. Ahmed Bahaa ed-Din will
be visiting Baghdad and I want you to take care of him… meaning like it was me
visiting… don’t leave him, Amin and don’t depend on the employees… do it
yourself, Amin… welcome Bahaa and follow his visit as if it was me”. Mr.
Howeidi replied: “Yes, Sir”.
Nasser
liked Bahaa ed-Din very much and used to read his articles. It happened once
that some hypocrite people wanted to arrest Bahaa ed-Din and prosecute him for
his stances and writings opposing the president but Nasser put an end to this
saying: “don’t you touch him… Bahaa is an honest man and all the stances and
opinions he adopts are his and not someone else’s. He is not a conspirer and
doesn’t work for anyone’s agenda”.
***
After
the 1967 defeat, Nasser decided to integrate more scientists and experts in the
ministries. He appointed a group that included Dr. Muhammed Helmi Mourad. He
chose him on top of the ministry to supervise a ministerial committee assigned
to implement the context of March 30th, 1968 statement. The cabinet
was headed by the president himself. In one of this cabinet’s sessions, the
president said: “this cabinet is the highest ranked one nationwide and it’s
headed by me… all what goes hear is a top secret of the nation that must not be
told”… after this, Helmi Murad kept sending written messages to the president
about the committee. The president then said to him: “Dr. Helmi, you know the
direct hot telephone number which I answer myself anytime… so why do you write
to me those reports about your colleagues?... we’re not in the royal era to write
reports on each other”.
In
a cabinet session, the president said: “I have already said before that all
what goes here is top secret that must not be told to anyone whoever he is… Dr.
Helmi, I meant you in particular because you transfer all what happens here to
your brother-in-law Ahmed Hussain who tried to make use of a piece of
information you told him about the Labor day grant and that we are considering
lowering or postponing it due to the country’s current status and restructuring
the armed forces. He tried to incite the laborers. You have not responded to
our request not to transfer what is said here… you are not qualified to
continue cooperating with us”.
Then
Nasser stood up and left the cabinet session while Helmi Murad asked Sharawi
Gomaa and others to mediate for him at the president but Nasser insisted on his
stance and so Helmi Murad resigned but he kept telling another false story
about the incident claiming that he was “the man who said no” and that was the
reason why he left the ministry. I confronted him myself when we were
participating in a political conference organized by Cairo University under the
name of “University and society”. I believe that was on 1976 and he was a
parliament member representing Heliopolis district. I literally said to him:
“Dr. Helmi, if you don’t stop telling this story about “the man who said no”, I
will have to tell the whole truth to people in the conference”… he asked me
feeling confused: “what is this truth?”… I let him know I knew all about this…
he did not mention this story in the conference.
On
his 99 birth anniversary, I prepare what I will be writing about Nasser on his
100 birth anniversary as I have never written before.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggr
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggr
This
article was published in al-Mosawar magazine, issue no. 4815 on January 18th,
2017.
To
see the original article, go to:
#almosawar
#ahmed_elgammal #Nasser
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