For difficult personal circumstances,
I could not participate in the intellectuals’ conference that was held days
ago. I was invited among others to present papers around the role of Al-Azhar
and the church in amending and revising the religious discourse.
First, I would like to hail and value
the effort exerted by those how came up with the idea of such conference and
worked hard to plan for its agenda… they chose specific issues to tackle and
invited the thinkers, intellectuals and experienced people to take part in the
conference… I believe this is the way earnestly required in the coming phase of
the Egyptian national public work… and I hope that all different Egyptian
institutions and public entities work to tackle the issues they work on with
those in charge of such issues to examine them and reach results that deliver
us to another not-less-important phase… as diagnosing the problems became a
well-practiced skill of the Egyptian elite bunch to the extent that our beloved
Egypt became full of people who know all about the symptoms and diseases of our
country… we reached saturation level in such field and people got fed up with
all those who just diagnose the problem… so some suggested we shall move from
the diagnosing phase to the one of prescribing the therapy.
Here comes the big dilemma as we have
as many ways and disciplines of therapy as the number of political orientations
and thought schools existing in Egypt… some thought that it is enough to belong
to the Left for example to find that all leftists are united all in one in
their solutions for our problems in Egypt… but actually this thought is not
applicable in reality because one can find many schools in the Left… and inside
each school, there is a lot of varieties… and inside each variety, there is a
lot of diversifications…etc… until we reach the microscopic level!
This applies to those belonging to the
Marxist school and also others believing in the Arab-Nationalism… on the other
side, the same phenomenon exists in the Right… as inside it, one finds some
adopting the Liberal principles… others believing in the capitalist
orientation… also, the ones adopting the religious references.
From diagnosis to prescribing therapy,
we find ourselves standing on another verge that we have to jump off to
reality… as it was found that diagnosis and prescribing different ways of
therapy is a great well-appreciated effort… however, such effort remains still
in the theoretical frame and maybe the oral one… and it has nothing to do with
the case itself… as everyone – either those who diagnosed the problem or others
who described the solution – is waiting for those who can apply such planned
solutions in reality… those who can turn such great theoretical effort and
transform it into a practical reality that addresses our diseases and heals our
social body and prevents it from relapsing… while waiting for those who can
apply in reality, another big dilemma in our beloved Egypt appears… it is a
chronic one that took place in many eras of our time bearing more than a name.
We remember when Muhammed Ali Pasha
tried seriously to bridge the gap between diagnosing the problem and prescribing
the solution and between the one who tackles the problem and monitors its
development… and so he asked for the help of experts from abroad like the Saint
Simon group; meaning those who believed in the ideas of Henri de Saint Simon in
France… after this, missions were dispatched to Europe seeking education to
enable those sent to apply and execute the therapy prescriptions in reality.
It was said that Muhammed Ali Pasha
used to order the young gentleman coming back from the mission be accommodated
in a residential place in the citadel and orders him to write briefs of what he
studied and of other books… then he welcomes him in a certain protocol way in
the presence of experts… in case he is satisfied of his performance and
knowledge level, he rewards the gentleman, gives him a rank and assign him the
task in the field he was specialized in.
In such manner, Egypt witnessed the
beginning of its modern civil renaissance at that time … but when the curve
went down and all scientists and experts were let go, all renaissance projects
came to an end on the hands of some successors of Muhammed Ali Pasha and so the
country went into deterioration, started to beg for loans and finally came the
occupation.
Again, the problem with the July, 1952
regime was what the famous quote explained in few words; that leader Nasser had
applied socialism with socialists truly believing in his goals and interpreting
them into reality… and again we all know what happened later.
On the other side; the Infitah
capitalistic orientation did suffer from the same problem… as once the economic
policy shifted to capitalism prior to the mid-seventies of the twentieth
century, the new capitalists hit all the big achievements done by the Nasserite
era… and what they could not destroy, they suffocated and emptied it out of any
meaning without realizing that all what they destroy belongs to Egypt and the
efforts and blood sacrificed by its own sons… and not an achievement of July,
1952 and Nasser.
Capitalism was applied in Egypt in a
way that belongs to corruption republics in Latin America more than the real
serious capitalism applied in other countries like western Europe… and so we
all witnessed the unbridled Infitah, fat cats; those who made fortunes
out of corruption, and emptying Egypt out of its fortunes, brilliant minds and
experienced cadres until what happened later and we all lived starting from the
great Egyptian uprising in January, 1977 known as the uprising of bread whose
slogans turned from describing the economic suffering of the people to
describing the whole corrupt equation and asking for the removal of the regime
and toppling Anwar Sadat... and not ending by January 25th, 2011
revolution along with its successive
surges.
Turning back to the intellectuals’
conference which is definitely a step forward and much-needed effort, I believe
all who planned and participated in it along with all who care about this
country, especially its soft power; meaning thought, culture, arts, scientific
research and others, shall transfer all their solutions into reality by
communicating with people in charge in cultural palaces, social clubs, civil
work communities and with those in charge of bringing up the new generations
and communicating with people in villages, cities and deserts to engender an
enlightened public awareness that stands firm against all who claim to
represent religions and that refuses the fraud of those who try to come back through
the gate of June, 30 to the forefront of the political scene once again… those
who looted our beloved Egypt and destroyed its capabilities with their National
Democratic Party and its policies’ committee.
Again, I welcome the idea of such
conference and greet the people who worked hard to hold it and plan its agenda.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article
was published in Al Ahram newspaper on October 10, 2013.
To see the
original article, go to:
#alahram
#ahmed_elgammal #intellectuals_conference #Egypt
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