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| Nasser |
If roaring masses took to the street
across Egypt holding Nasser’s picture high and chanting slogans quoting some of
his words, some say “those are the deceived naïve people who are gathered by a whistle
and dispersed by a whip!
If it was proven that national
independence, free will, social equality, and that freedom of expression is
connected to freedom to work and eat, and that Arab solidarity and Egypt’s
national role were foundations laid down practically and actually in his time
and through his policies, and that the future of our country relies on reviving
such concepts and building over them to complete what was already achieved
before, some say “those are worn-out old concepts and even if they were true
and necessary at that time, he did it on the expense of democracy!
If people started talking non-stop
about his achievements and his memory was revived through praising his
principles, stances, and role in the international liberation movement in places
very far away from Egypt; in Latin America and in the heart of the African and
Asian continents, some say “those are shallow-minded impressionists who have
never experienced his tyranny and dictatorship”!
If authentic and certified international
scientific studies have affirmed that the High Dam was the first engineering
project in the twentieth century, and that industrialization in many fields was
pioneering in the African continent and the middle east, and that the first
five-phase plan was an outstanding achievement, some say “but the dam has
deprived us of sardines and has drown the animosity of the World Bank, the
West, and America, and that industrialization, development, and the social
aspects involved have helped smear the great liberal era under the reign of the
late king, the British base in Suez Canal, and control practiced by the eastern
secretary in the British embassy in Egypt!
If it was said that applying nationalization
on Suez Canal was an excellent patriotic decision, and that the 1956 Suez War was
the historical moment signaling the decline and termination of old colonialization,
and that modern history is categorized in some aspects into pre-Suez War era and
post-Suez War era, some say “it was a hasty reckless decision for the Canal concession
contract was due to end in 1968 and that there was no need for that ‘fight’”. If
you reply back that Gibraltar concession was also due to end in 1968 but is
still under their control until now and that history has proven that the
British have never let away such an important monopoly like that of the Suez
Canal, they say “we should have waited to 1968 and then see”!
If you tell them that the Egyptian
soft power has enjoyed a roaring success during his era; in Cinema, theatre,
folkloric arts, magazines open for all political schools like at-Talie’a[1]
for the Marxist Left, al-Kateb[2]
for the National Left, al-Magalla[3]
for Liberals, as-Siyasa al-Dawliya[4]
for true academics, and all opinion and literature sections in Al Ahram
newspaper embracing all ideologies and their representatives like Louis Awad[5],
Lutfi al-Kholi[6],
Tawfiq el-Hakim[7],
Naguib Mahfouz[8],
Moa’nes[9],
Fawzi, Bent el-Shati[10],
Salah Jahin[11],
and others, they say “all this worth nothing in the absence of the great
liberal democracy”!
I learnt through my academic study in history
department – before and after earning my bachelor degree – and then through
practicing the profession of reading and the hobby of writing that there is no
such thing as neutrality in adopting an opinion, nor in the theoretical processing
of human phenomena; whether social or non social, and that there is no identical
matching between neutrality, in the literal meaning of the word, and
objectiveness, for the latter could be described in a way or another as a
biased stance toward a certain interpretation as per the facts, evidences, and criteria
we have, and discipline tools we adopt in our research and readings. That’s why
despite facts and incidents are the same in a certain historical context, we
can spot differences in analysis, evaluation, and extracting morals – if I can
say – from one researcher or historian to another.
However, sometimes we meet people
who happened to be writing in journalism and who have relentlessly dedicated
themselves – as if it was a divine message delivered to them – to staging
continuous attack on July 1952 revolution, Nasser, and “military men” as they
like to call our great Egyptian army. We could have discussed what they say and
agree or disagree to some of it unless I discovered – as I was one of those who
happened to participate in such arguments – that those gentlemen have no discipline
rules, scientific basis, or any near-logic criteria at all supporting their
opinions; those who have consecrated themselves for assassinating July
revolution, Nasser, and what they call “military men”. At this time – I here present
my judgment according to my own belief that I established and accumulated
through tens of discussions – one shall choose to adopt a stance of three;
either you stay silent and get yourself busy doing something useful, or you
consider the whole matter an interesting folkloric show and hence it would be
even more interesting if discussion turned into drawing more attack and
criticism, or you resort to what many research disciplines’ professors
consider as “the lastly-adopted methodology in interpreting history”; that is the
psychological analysis.
I may say it’s sometimes useful; that
is when you discover that some of them hate to see his father’s image in Nasser;
the father who might have adopted the Nasserism ideology or was a man of the
Nasserist era, and because they are incapable of assassinating the tyrant or careless
Patriarch father deep in their mind, they tend to assassinate the symbol. You may
also discover that some of them are actually avenging themselves by
assassinating a certain phase of their own personal history when they were Ba’thists[12]
or Nasserists and not liberals, of course this is after they had experienced
how nice the Parisian Liberalism or Sadat’s Infitah[13]
is as the former granted them academic positions in university and the latter guaranteed
them jobs in a print!
The 44th anniversary of
Gamal Abdel Nasser leaving our world is due next Sunday. The biggest commemoration
he can receive is that he is still well remembered and still a matter of
dispute after all these years… He is eternal in the conscience of these roaring
masses that have and will never be gathered by a whistle and dispersed by a whip
as proved by Jan 25, June 30 revolutions and before them was the brave
resistance of this people witnessed since Napoléon Bonaparte invaded Egypt until Jan 1977.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article
was published in Al Ahram newspaper on September 25, 2014.
To see the
Arabic article, go to:
#alahram #ahmed_elgammal #nasser #gamal_abdel_nasser #Nasserism
[5] Louis
Awad: (Arabic: لويس عوض) (el-Minya, 1915 - 1990) was an Egyptian intellectual and writer. (Source:
Wikipedia)
[6] Lutfi
el-Kholi: (Arabic: لطفي الخولي)
(1928 – 1999) was Leftist political and theatre writer. He was also a short
story writer. (Source: Wikipedia)
[7] Tawfiq
el-Hakim: (Arabic: توفيق الحكيم) (October 9, 1898 – July 26, 1987) was a prominent Egyptian writer.
He is one of the pioneers of the Arabic novel and drama. (Source:
Wikipedia)
[8] Naguib
Mahfouz: (Arabic: نجيب محفوظ) (December 11, 1911 – August 30, 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded
as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic
literature, along with Tawfiq
el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism.
He published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and
five plays over a 70-year career. Many of his works have been made into Egyptian and
foreign films. (Source: Wikipedia)
[10] Aisha
Abd al-Rahman: (Arabic: عائشة عبد الرحمن) (1913
– 1 December 1998) was an Egyptian author and
professor of literature who published under the pen name Bint
al-Shati ("Daughter of the Riverbank"). (Source: Wikipedia)
[11] Mohammad
Salah Eldin Bahgat Helmy :(Arabic: صلاح الدين بهجت حلمى), known
as "Salah Jaheen" or "Salah Jahin" (Arabic:(صلاح جاهين (December
25, 1930 – April 21, 1986) was a leading Egyptian poet, lyricist, playwright and cartoonist. (Source: Wikipedia)
[13] 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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