We consumed long years debating over
the true discipline and philosophy of Nasserism… since the time we used to go
into heated debates with our Marxist colleagues staying awake all night at the
students’ union hall where the political club was at the beginning of the
seventies… and although, we – Nasserists – outnumbered our Marxist colleagues
at Ain Shams University, we tried hard to overcome the excel point they had;
that is the discipline and philosophy.
But it’s over now, since we have
disciplines and philosophies instead of one… as some of us sought aid from the theoretical
production of Dr. Essmat Saif ed-Dawla.
In this regard, we went through a lot
of debates until Mr. Heikal once said that Nasserism has no theory… and then he
received a lot of criticizing replies; most significant was that written by
Saad ed-Din Ibrahim stating that Nasserism is a complete social theory.
I remembered those intense debates… I also
remembered another one that raged years before that about July 23 revolution
and Nasser leadership… and that both have no theory or strategic orientations
based on a comprehensive vision… and so they cannot be regarded as affiliated
to socialism.
That debate started at the beginning
of the fifties and continued even after the philosophy of the revolution was
issued… then the national action charter was issued at the beginning of the
sixties; meaning a decade after July 23 revolution erupted.
And since Nasser had never claimed to
be a philosopher or thinker, he went into establishing achievements on ground
starting from August 1952 when he set the minimum and maximum wage per working
hour… then he issued the first law of agricultural reform… also his aides, like
Muhammed Fayek who was then 25 years old and Fathi ed-Deeb and others, were busy
drawing plans for our foreign policy in the African and Arab geographical
circumferences.
And while Nasser and his team, who
were not intellectuals or culture stars, were busy making achievements in
reality… politicians, intellectuals and lawmen at that time were busy fighting
over the constitution, parties and others… an example was as-Sanhouri and
Soliman Hafez on one side and Al-Wafd party on the other side… while Marxists
and communists were busy debating over whether what was happening a coup of petite
bourgeoisie or monopolizing state capitalism.
I’m not mocking or making fun of
anything… just trying to detect what happened in an important era of our nation’s
history… although, such detection is missing due referencing… but it’s an
attempt to take moral from the past in order not to reproduce what was already
deemed wrong… and so, I might be wrong or exaggerating if I said that actual
achievements on the ground is a vision and discipline itself… such achievement could
be a factory, road, canal, dam, school… etc… as long as it serves a public
demand or national need that serve both economy and defense in the same time.
We were taught and long said that
foreign policy of any country is a reflection of its domestic circumstances…
and that there is a directly proportional relation between the inside and
outside… and so, if we reversed the situation, shall a fruitful growing strong
foreign policy necessarily indicate a strong developing domestic situation?
Here we say that Egypt have succeeded
in the last year following June 30 revolution to act positively within its
foreign circles; southward toward Africa, eastward toward the Arab world and northward
toward Europe… meaning the African, Arab and international circles… moreover,
we can say that Egypt have went farther eastward toward Russia and China and
relatively toward Japan and India… and despite the troubled domestic situation,
we were welcomed in all those circles.
Egypt, in a very distinguished era of
its history, had six points of national action… then came the booklet of “the
revolution philosophy” where its situation and circles of actions were outlined…
than came the national action charter which most, if not all, political and
thought parties took part in its discussion… in addition to all this, Egypt had
a wide-spread political organization including a formation of young political
leaders, very dynamic youth wing and a very charismatic leader… however, we
lost the battle against our enemy in 1967.
After this, Egypt had the ability to
correct its way and to stand once again… then came March 1968 statement to
outline the orientations of that era… and of course we know what followed later
in Sadat’s era and the price we paid and are still paying until our present
time.
I will not include the Soviet Union
experiment which we all witnessed how it ended… also I will not mention the
capitalist communities that faced – and are still facing – endless crises that
it seems they have reached a deadlock.
Now I ask: should any human experiment
get busy putting a detailed course for its actions – meaning a discipline, then
a vision and finally reaching a philosophy – in order to guarantee success?...
or should it begin by establishing actual achievements in reality until it
possesses clear outlines for what is targeted politically, economically and
socially?
Furthermore, getting busy outlining
the “vision” that has a “discipline” based on a “philosophy” could be easy if
the society itself has definite well-established social orientations… meaning
that there are dominating groups or classes capable of imposing their own
vision that can help promote their interests… and even bestow some rights on
others less dominating.
But what if that society is still in a
liquid relatively long state of change and his class conflict is not yet
decided?… the answer is that great serious dangers await the ruling regime since
taking sides in such situation can harm the whole nation and put it in a state
of endless unresolved conflict.
On the other hand, building factories,
paving roads, digging canals, constructing dams, fighting terrorism and securing
borders are productive actions capable of quickly driving the society into a
state of social and class balance… only then we can talk about discipline and
philosophy.
The cup is already half-filled… in a
very short time and through very bad circumstances inflicting our country… so
please, let us leave those who work for what they do… and let all others;
capitalists, Marxists and Nasserists thinkers get busy fighting their “texts’
battles”… let away all those so-called alliances, groups and foreign funding
disputes… and let our nation grow stronger by building more factories, roads,
canals, dams… and also by fighting terrorism and securing borders.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Al Ahram
newspaper on December 18, 2014.
To see the original article, go to:
#alahram #ahmed_elgammal
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