For unknown, ununderstood and unjustifiable reason,
the cabinet in Egypt does not adopt the technic of “paper and pen” despite that
most of its members come from the academia and engineering field including
scientists and professional experts in their specializations.
This technic of “paper and pen” goes back to the fact
that we are a “speaking”nation… and most probably “ignorant” one too… long time
ago, it was difficult for our ancestors to know their rights and duties
precisely… and so the only technic used was “spoken” promises and declarations…
as there was a man whose job was to hike across the roads, streets and allies
in big cities and small ones… in villages, hamlets and farms… shouting out loud
what the ruling authorities want to declare to the public or inform people of…
also, mosques’ rostrums played a role in such thing as they acted as the media
platform where the ruler was declared dead, ousted or even stepping down and
new ruler appointed… the famous phrase giving such notification of change at
that time was “X assumed the power and was being prayed for in mosques”!
The cabinet, that no one questions the efforts it
exerts or the burdens it bears, left us to the rumors… those rumors spreading
through verbal conversations and unverified information going viral over social
media and newspapers… over reasons of raising prices that has a nickname called
“prices movement” without any hint to where these prices are moving… to the right
or to the left… up or down.
And so, non-stop unestablished information went viral
over those assumed reasons… some said that these are the requirements of the
International Bank famous for bankrupting the poor and middle-class worldwide
by making use of their crises since the first time it was established… some others
said such requirements are dictated in this timing specifically after Eid
al-Fitr as most people are broke after spending their money over the
expenses of the feast… some said that such timing synchronizing with the
anniversary of June 30 revolution was chosen because there are some who want to
drive a wedge between president Sisi and the people… those people waiting for
their leader to save them from terrorism, corruption, tyranny and transfer of
power to the former ruler’s son; Gamal Mubarak.
Back to the technic of “paper and pen”, people in old
families used not believe their breadwinner over his account of spending the
salary or money gained from selling the crop… and so he used to say: let us
calculate it by paper and pen… meaning by writing down in real numbers and
precise arithmetic operations.
In our case, the paper and pen are much needed so that
people can know the reality behind the fuel prices and the difference between
its real price since the fuel was first extracted, refined, transported,
marketed and exported to the moment it was sold… it was a must that such
difference between the two numbers decreases and comes to an end since the
state budget can no longer continue bearing the burden of such differences on
the expense of other sectors like education, health, services and other.
The paper and pen are much needed also to know how the
social and economic situations will change – especially those of the poor and
middle-class; meaning the majority – and the time span needed for such change
to take place… they are needed too to refute and explain the social bias of the
regime and government… and if those widespread rumors, saying that the regime
is biased to the favor of the wealthy rich who do not care if they paid an
extra pound or even hundreds in the new increase of fuel prices, are true.
Yes, we need paper and pen to declare facts in
absolute clarity and transparency because we are in trouble… and “we” here goes
not only to those who supported the change in June 30 revolution and stuck to their
stance opposing muslim brotherhood and Mubarak’s regime as well before and
after June 30… but also it goes to wide sectors of people who no longer have a sticking-together
logical interpretation to give reasons for such soaring prices especially their
timings after the feasts and along with the revolution anniversary.
I appeal to the cabinet headed by Mr. Sherif Ismail to
have the same courage they had to correct wrong policies that were not meant to
continue… to give detailed explanation for the reasons, policies, phases, direct
and indirect effects and results related to those correction measures.
In the same time, I would like to add that there is an
unacceptable repetition of what some have called “miss-directing of decisions”
starting from the decision to re-draw the marine borders with Saudi Arabia and
the fate of the two islands… and not ending by the decision to raise fuel
prices and electricity as well.
There is indeed miss-directing of that issue of the
two islands regarding the timing, the way it was declared and the circumstances
accompanying… the same thing happens again with correcting the course of
economic situation to the extent that our case appears as if there are some
conspiring against the popularity of the president which he earned through his
clear stances and his ability to face the crises and take decisive decisions.
For God sake, get a professional politics director!
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in
Al Ahram newspaper on July 6, 2017.
To see the original article,
go to:
#alahram #ahmed_elgammal
#Egypt
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