A new year has begun while some people
still believe that hopes and wishes should always be for goodness, happiness,
achievements, excellence and all that is good and beautiful… however, there are
other people who wish for evil and destruction to prevail… and some of those
have already shifted from hoping into the vicious swamp of evil action and destruction…
and so we have to combat such evil actions starting from resistance using the
political and ideological means… also the psychological therapy… and reaching
to the legal punishment as per stated by the laws.
At the beginning of the New Year, all
hopes and wishes focus to a great extent on the presidency… such wishes that
vary between those who believe the presidency should submit to the capitalist
class ideologically and practically believing it’s the class that will lead
development, progress, liberalism, secularism and save the country out of its
misery.
and in fulfilling such vision, this
class seeks to control media; both seen and written… and to control parts of
the educational process both in the pre-university and university phases… it
also seeks to dominate the political life through occupying top leading
positions in many parties… not to mention, the phenomenon of political funding
that interferes whenever necessary to say its final word.
This class also attacks anyone that it
may doubt can block its way… and so it ceases not to ask to eliminate and ban anyone
who believes in social equality; meaning the socialists in general, whether
Nasserists or Marxists… however, it’s ok for this class to deal with the
islamists as long as they adopt the same capitalist ideology.
Like what happened since the start of Infitah[1]
in the mid seventies… it was not a coincidence that reconciliation – if we can
use this term in such regard – between the ruling regime, represented by Sadat,
and muslim brotherhood was concluded at the time of applying the policy of free
economy or economic Infitah… however, such collaboration grew further at
Mubarak’s era when he allowed the political capitalist islamists to mess at the
grass-roots’ level in the society… that was when the state abstained from
fulfilling its role towards the people… and thus people had to resort to anyone
who can provide them with any little thing of their needs… also, he – Mubarak –
“assigned” them some chairs in the “legislative institution”!
The second vision is the one calling
upon the presidency to adopt revolutionary and radical measures like those
applied in the fifties and sixties... and that an immediate continuation of the
masses’ revolutions that took place on January 25, 2011 and June 30, 2013
should start by taking actions on the domestic and foreign levels… as those who
adopt such vision believe it’s more timely and convenient now to adopt such
measures than in the fifties.
Unlike the first group that is already
establishing its feet in the political, economic and social life, the second group
does nothing but inciting and shouting slogans… and if you searched archives of
those adopting the second vision, you would find some revolutionary persons who
truly believe in and stick to their ideology, yet they act individually… also
you will find others who does nothing but inhibiting any solid concept for
change powers to gather around… and that is due to their selfish conception of leadership
and fake charisma… in such regard, there are a lot of details that are known
for everyone.
Now we come to the third group who
adopts a vision that visualizes the role of the presidency in protecting the
country from terrorism hitting our nation viciously in the heart… and in
keeping the actual achievements going on ground… by establishing mega projects;
the ones underway and those still under planning… combating corruption…
fighting despotism and regaining Egypt’s influential role in all its foreign
circles; Arabian, African, Asian, Mediterranean one… etc… whenever I see an actual
achievement in any of those aspects, I consider it the most powerful program
and revolutionary vision that can be presented to the nation.
I’m not about to go further in
detailing those visions since I cannot deny I’m biased toward the third one
where both capitalist and socialist can find their targets… Since big and small
projects can open the door for the capital to play a vital role and maximize
its revenue… similarly, it can open the door for the working and middle classes
to grow… the thing that will pave the way for the healthy historical social
conflict to take place… such conflict that enabled other societies in the west
and east to reach a state of relative balance.
Also, I’m not about to undermine the capitalist
or inciting visions since I have already written about negativities of the
Egyptian capitalism which refrained from fulfilling the role capitalism in
other societies did… in the same time, I have also written about the different
circumstances and parties governing our time compared to the fifties and sixties.
However, I admit – in this regard –
that I feel I have to recall the vision of leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser after 1967
and how he mentioned more than once that the regime has reached a deadlock and
that radical change measures had to be taken… there are documents of meetings
concluded on the highest level that contain very important text in such regard.
In my opinion, I believe it’s better
to keep the vision of pushing actual achievements on the ground in all fields…
starting from fighting terrorism in all possible means; ideologically,
politically and security and combat-wise.
Also we have to widen circles of
positive action so that people can actually feel there is no despotism or
corruption… and that door is open for everyone to participate in building the
country… such thing can deepen the national awareness and enlarge its circle of
effect… so that everyone would know that work… and work alone… is the only
criterion that decides the individual’s position and status in the society.
Long years ago, it happened that
president Sadat was convinced he should have a vision… it was normal that his
was opposite to his predecessor… as Nasser’s vision was already formulated in the
philosophy of the revolution, national action charter, March 30 statement…
meaning all those Nasserist documents.
And so Sadat adopted what is called the
democratic socialism… and thinkers in research centres at that time started
documenting for the democratic socialism… and people started to know the name
of Kreisky … ruling regime in Egypt had met with the Israeli Labor
party in the international seminars of democratic socialism.
Then Sadat asked the late Marxist
thinker Mr. Lotfi el-Kholi to write him a document describing the discipline
and vision of his rule and to act like a theory for his regime… and so el-Kholi
wrote about Sadat’s political school… and Sadat behaved as if his rule had a
discipline, vision and theory… of course we know the rest… unfortunately, we
will not be able to continue here… but maybe later we can talk about the two
experiments witnessed by this nation and that both reached a deadlock.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Al Ahram
newspaper on January 1, 2015.
To see the original article, go to:
#alahram #ahmed_elgammal #presidency
#Egypt
[1] Infitah: (Arabic: إنفتاح) the Arabic word for the open door
policy adopted by President Sadat in the years following 1973 October war.
(Source: Wikipedia)
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