While
tracing the roots of our current reality that we live, historical events come
flooding to my memory, playing like a documentary film captured by the camera just
at the time they happened!
I remember a
trip I made to Yemen in 1986. At that time, fighting among political factions
in the south has just ended. I was assigned a journalistic task where I met
President Ali Nasser Muhammed who managed to have control over Sana’a along
with some of his aides; of them Muhammed Ali Ahmed and another one called
‘akkoush. I made several journalistic meetings that were published at that time
in the UAE “Al-Khaleej” newspaper where I used to work.
Of what I
heard, recorded and published – at that time – was a narration of historical
events that has to do with the relation of communist Marxists in southern Yemen
to Egypt and president Nasser. Such narration included an audacious sincere
self-criticism, as well as humorous situations worthy telling.
They said
that after they managed to get command of the rule in the south, then adopting
the Marxism-Leninism as an ideology, they used to attack Nasser and describe
him as the petit bourgeois. As per the marxist analysis, the petite bourgeoisie
is considered one of the big obstacles facing the socialist revolution, and the
petit bourgeois is the one who has one foot on the way of progress with the
other one immersed in the swamp of regression, and most probably he eventually takes
sides with regression and anti-revolution powers.
President
Ali Nasser laughed when he said that it happened that they were among an elite
Yemeni delegation of comrades, and this delegation made a visit to Cairo on
their way back from London. They met President Nasser who welcomed them saying
while laughing: “You call me the anti-revolution petit bourgeois who stands
against the scientific socialism… so, let us see if this is true or not… I have
nationalized the Suez Canal, built the High Dam and before this, we made great
progress in enhancing the social circumstances of peasants regarding agrarian
reform… so, what have you; revolutionaries, done in Aden?”… He continued: “I
believe you did nothing but nationalizing Aden’s summer cinema!”…
Afterwards,
I was surprised when Mr. ‘akkoush said that he was a governor of “Al-Mahra”
governorate; which is a barren coastal area whose land is nothing but salty marshes
that is not fit at all for whatsoever cultivation. Therefore, its people live
on fishing and salting fish… “I was astonished when I saw my comrades in
leadership allocating more than 30 million dollars for establishing prototype
farms in Al-Mahra… Protesting to this with a thorough explanation of the
geographical nature of the governorate, they replied saying that they wanted to
“jump the gun” and kept explaining how the revolution and “genuine” real
fighter revolutionaries do not succumb to the reality, rather they “jump the
gun”; meaning to overcome the obstacles, whether regarding place or time, to
reach a phase where it is possible to achieve the goal!”... ‘akkoush said that
he described this issue of “jumping the gun” as the “revolutionary gymnastics”.
He stayed
silent for a moment as if he was recalling something, and then said: “Before
this ideological commitment thing, we used to fight the British occupation and
kill their soldiers by Nasser!”… When I asked him how? He said: “We used to
fasten mines and bombs in the walls of some fences in Aden and other cities,
and cover them with Nasser’s posters, then the British soldiers rush to remove,
rip apart and burn the posters for the mines to explode at them.”
“… Until we
were cursed by some theorists who abided by the literal interpretation of the
ideology saying that Nasser is a petit bourgeois. I also remember that day when
we heard of Nasser’s death, some stood shooting bullets in the open air in
celebration and shouting happily: “the petit bourgeois is dead””. Then, he mentioned
the name of one of the Lebanese writers and thinkers among them; Fawwaz
Tarabulsi!
I remembered
that journalistic story while following eagerly the activity of some who practice
politics and their media and political discourse in which they criticize the
regime in Egypt as per what they think are the democratic civil standards while
introducing themselves to the society as leaders seeking to save the country
from tyranny, dictatorship and freedoms oppression!
Before
continuing, I would like to point to a dilemma of certain kind; that is the
dilemma that the writer or journalist can find himself stuck between the mallet
of a reality that we have to discuss, analyze and criticize – taking into
consideration that critic is different to criticizing – and the anvil of
decades-long friendship, political fellowship and an ideological faith that is common
in a way or another.
As a result,
the personal conflict stands still between taking sides with friendship,
fellowship and letting go of what one sees of faults and flaws worthy to be
detected, discussed, analyzed and criticized… and between taking sides of what
one thinks is the professional, ideological and ethical stance that he should
not deviate away from. Therefore, there is an old rule saying that a writer or
thinker should not join, for a moment, an organization or a group of any
political aspect, and that believing in an ideological concept is different to
belonging to a functioning political group!
I believe
that the basis for enacting any political or ideological evaluation tool is to
meet the conditions and criteria for such evaluation tool by those who adopt it;
of those conditions are transparency, frankness, clarity, cultural, ideological
and political cohesion, also the social one… all such conditions should exist
among the team leading towards achieving the goal; in our case here in Egypt,
this goal is the “democratic civil state”.
Consequently,
I call upon all those interested to practice those conditions in public in
front of the ones supposed to be the true judges regarding the arena of the
Egyptian political activity; I here mean the great Egyptian people.
Translated
by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on November 1, 2019.
To see the original Arabic article, go to:
https://ahmadelgammal.blogspot.com/2019/11/blog-post.html
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