Today, we put an end to
the first part of the rich dialogue that took place on the pages of the Almasry
alyoum newspaper along with e-mail and social media websites about the alternative
that can occupy the space left by rejecting the groups claiming to represent
the only Islamic religious reference.
The second part I believe
will be about shifting from the phase of giving opinions to paving the way for
real action that can encompass all those eager for positive action in the
nationalist domain… and third part could be about planning… tasks distribution…
roles integration, experience and connecting with those who can help execute
and address people whom we wish can represent cadres for the desired change.
I have opened the door
for all points of view… inside Egypt and abroad… but I haven’t published here
any of what I received on e-mail or Facebook which included any violation to
dialogue ethics like insults or so… which is considered a real change in my character…
I am the one who has never missed a chance to engage using all weapons and
words!
I have already promised
to submit my opinion about the alternative in the end… but first, I’d like to
thank Mr. Ghassan Tahboob, the Arab thinker and distinguished media man who was
the first to impose the question around which we have discussed.
I noticed that some understood
the alternative we mean as what we should do in education, culture and other fields
of human activities … while some others understood the space left as the
absence of some people or muslim brotherhood group and all their likes while
they still exist… are spreading and active in more than one field and place… others,
meantime, thought that the alternative to “inclination towards religious
references” is to head towards nationalism… towards secularism… believing these
are the root solution for all problems… and that both of them is the remedy to
all mistakes! I’m not going to comment on every opinion I received as this will
make it an endless discussion lasting for weeks even if we published such
discussion daily… now I shall present my opinion about what I think is the
alternative.
First, I believe the
alternative intended is the answer to the key question: how can we – with all
our different political and thought inclinations, ideological stances and
economic and sociological situations – all work so that the nation can have proper
education, health system, living standards… to the end of the list… that are
adequate to what our beloved Egypt deserves and to make her an active strong
nation like the rest of the live developed nations in the north, east, west…
and even in the south?!
How can Egypt have a
decent political life where active political parties are effective because they
represent social powers or adopt key ideas… how can Egypt regain its own comprehensive
integrating cultural civilized distinguished character encompassing all its
geographical and historical prerequisites… how can Egypt well employ its
geographical position, situation and stance in Africa, Arab region, third world
and the whole world in a way that is adequate and comparable to its
geographical, geo-political, civilized and long-time-in-history facts… to the
rest… without having negative effect of such prospected role like what happened
before in previous times when Egypt was hit hard due to its role?!
I believe no one disagrees
with what I said… and so the case now is not who you are or who I am… whether intellectually,
ideologically or politically… the case is about every one of us orbiting around
one centre… no matter how far every one of us from that centre is… but we all
should orbit one centre… that is Egypt… and Egypt here is not a vague word…
when we say Egypt we mean the state along with its land, sea, air, people, and
authorities distributed among legislative, judiciary and executive… we mean the
state that came to eminence before most, if not all, other states… Egypt that
has been through many and long historical phases with the line chart
representing its history fluctuating between ups and downs… the catastrophe was
always when that continuous line representing the long history is cut.
It was proved that the
national consensus, solidarity and desire for collective work appear the most
and even double in times of shifting from “decline and decadence” to “rise and
power”… in such case, and in my opinion, I believe the mechanism or the way
adopted to reach the national consensus and orbiting around one centre; that is
Egypt… is expressed in one sentence… “Keeping the Egyptian state to the last
moment and doing all that can enable this state to go bigger and greater... It’s
a clear goal: the balanced strong cohesive Egypt qualified to do its role”!...
meaning; whether you are liberal… secular… nationalist… islamist… or even an
Egyptian chauvinist not believing in any ideology or having no orientation at
all… Ok… fine… but what I understand is that whoever you are… you shall not
mind if you work hard with everyone else so that we can have an advanced
distinguished proper education in Egypt and the same thing regarding all other
fields!
I believe you agree with
me that the scientific and technical progress in the world now has already put
down the criteria needed to achieve such goals… exactly like the case when we
build a sky-scraper… you make soil tests, foundations’ cement mix… to the rest
of steps, procedures and standards already-known to build a sky-scraper where
these standards are supervised by human experts regardless of their
intellectual, political, religious or even non-religious orientation they may
have!
Does this mean we shall
have a one-style society with no differences at all? … the answer is No…
absolutely not… being different is not only a must, but inevitable… however, I believe
such difference shall always be channeled into the way of doing better in the
task entitled to you… and guaranteeing the best results within prescribed time
schedules!
In my opinion, the first
step on this way is that we shall all unite on one target; that is studying
what happened to Egypt and Egyptians and caused such tragic shift from a
society that once united in one to stand against the enemy and remedy the
causes and effects of 1967 War… and they had what they want through the War of
Attrition and the October 1973 War… to the society we live in now… suddenly,
everything changed… concepts we never witnessed before prevailed… Divide,
despair, looting, stealing, illegal enrichment, loss of national will,
collective migration either to the Arab region or the world, adopting systems
obstructing to development and progress and consecrating in the same time the
concept of individual salvation and making profits over the nations’ dead body!
Then I suggest that some
of us meet to discuss and study reasons behind failure of political parties and
groups, the thing that poured in the benefit of religion-proclaimed ideologies
on the expense of leftist and liberal ideologies… we shall also discuss
precursors and results of January 25th and June 30th
revolutions!
All this shall lead to
finding the answer for the question asking how the Egyptian state can be the
centre we orbit around… how we can achieve all we aspire to in all fields… and
how we can avoid falling again like we did before when we fell in the gap of
the interim phase following the October 1973 victory to the mire of looting and
despotism and what came later.
Now, I invite those who
want to participate in the first step about what has happened to our beloved
Egypt to communicate with me.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This
article was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on July 20, 2016.
To
see the original article, go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #alternative
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