They
never learn. Therefore, they always face the same way of dealing with them. While
shouting and asking stupidly: “why do we have a bad reputation in the collective
conscience, and why are we being dealt with in this way?”, they do not realize
that the reason is that they do not learn.
Those
are the owners of wealth in Egypt; mistakenly called “capitalists” as it is
unfair to capitalism to call them so, taking into consideration the
terminological and historical definition of capitalism and its role in building
societies. And so, they chose a nick name for themselves called “businessmen”…
just business… without defining what kind of business… and without realizing that
the word business in Arabic “A’amal” is used to describe evil sorcery in
the public conscience!
They
never learned the very first important lesson; that there is a very fine line
separating defending my interests, achieving them and augmenting the profit
until one can describe it as unduly-excessive, and between assassinating our
country. Since the rule of Muhammed Ali to date, history has been a witness
that such bunch of people has long resisted any national project targeting the
country’s development and welfare, as they have always abstained from playing
the role they should have, even if they were invited by the state head leading
the project… This is what happened in the time of Muhammed Ali, as he was
forced to do the citadel’s massacre himself. Also, his son; Ibrahim Pasha, had
to fight the owners of big agricultural land properties and wealth in Upper
Egypt when they resisted Muhammed Ali’s project to develop the agricultural
land ownership in Egypt.
The
same thing happened again with the national development project of the July, 23rd
revolution, as such bunch was invited to contribute to the comprehensive
development plan, and the economic environment was prepared for them by eradicating
the powers of the foreign capital to pave the way for the national capital to
grow. However, they refused and even took sides with the foreign parties
against Egypt. Thus, there was no other way but nationalization and
confiscating their properties.
Also
in the time of Sadat when Infitah took place and all doors were open to
them –even doors to revenge the July, 23rd revolution and character
of Nasser– they did not make use of the chance to build a strong balanced
cohesive nation with a real capitalist economy of heavy industries,
manufacturing and agriculture where producing crops integrate with agricultural
manufacturing, in an environment including a strong infrastructure, education,
health care, services, unions and syndicates for professions and workers like
the case in the Asian and European capitalist societies.
On
the contrary, they worked in commission contracts, foreign proxies and
consumption-based rentier economy. They spared no effort to dismantle the
society and create a new despicable class, and so, they got their own gated
communities in the suburbans, new cities, northern and eastern coasts. Many of
those belonging to this nouveau riche class also started possessing planes and
yachts. What is more outrageously dangerous to the society is that they aimed
at spreading and stilting corruption to penetrate the state institutions making
use of bureaucracy in such task. As a result, a coalition of the corrupt
capital and power came to exit; the thing that ruined our country and still
does despite all the strenuous efforts exerted by the regulatory authorities now
with strict and direct orders from the president…
As
a result of opening the door to them in the time of Sadat, political islamization
came to the scene with their fortunes and criminal history to unite with such
corruption. Also, the one who initiated Infitah; Sadat, was assassinated
on the hands of his Islamist allies and the society was dismantled into pieces.
It also happened that muslim brotherhood took control of important economic fields,
the thing that led them to exist in the political arena until they came to
power in Egypt.
And
here we are now witnessing another round of their ignorance and inability to foresee
the future, as the post-June, 30th revolution ruling regime asked
them to contribute to building the country, and so they were asked to
participate in the New Suez Canal project and establish a 100-billion-pound fund
to spend over the necessary main tasks to go out of the country’s total
collapse. However, they did what their likes did in the times of Ibrahim Pasha
and Nasser; they sat still watching while some of them donated some “change” as
a deceitful contribution; meanwhile, the Egyptian people stepped in and provided
the needed fund. Such bunch also doubted the state’s capacity to return and pay
back the money paid, but they were disappointed, and here we can see now how
money is paid back in addition to the interests to those who contributed.
Due
to all this, and with the experience accumulated by the state in dealing with
such people – since the time of Ibrahim Pasha – the state had to have its own
economic power, as they, in addition to the above-mentioned, did not miss any
chance to weaken the state and paralyze the ability of the state head to take
decisions. This happened in the fields of food provisions, medications and
other products. As a result, the state decided to provide the necessary
monetary funds needed lest the country collapses.
And
here they are now – as per the models of Naguib Sawiris and Hussein Sabbour –
opening fires at the state decision maker, and because they never learn due to
their blind conscience, they did not realize that their fired bullets went
through the nation’s body and penetrated the heart of our beloved country. If they
just learned the lesson… if they just have clear conscience… they would have
realized that man should know where his bullet will go through before firing it
towards his enemy, as it may go through his son or his father’s body, or
through the walls of his home.
Now
we come to the question: will we ask for them to be punished and their fortunes
to be confiscated and nationalized?! The answer is No. actually, we will work
hard to have a strong national economy… and of course, a conscious real
capitalism aware of its civilized and cultural role is always welcomed… to put
an end to the negative meaning of “A’amal” or business in the collective
conscience.
Translated
by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on
September 26, 2019.
To see the original Arabic article, go to:
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