The necessity to head towards the East
imposes itself on everyone interested in the present and future of our country…
in many times some think that the enthusiasm of those having leftist and
Arab-national political and intellectual orientations to have such heading
towards the East indicates a hidden desire to smash the relationship between
Egypt and the West… atop of these relationships is Egypt’s relationship with
the United States of America… especially that some of the important countries
in the East are still raising slogans of communism like China and Vietnam… as both
of them have a communist party that has its own intellectually deep-rooted
beliefs and known structures… even if dealing with the changes that took place
in the world made the policies of those countries look estranged from their
ideological belief.
If one kept detailing the historical
experiences we had throughout the contemporary and modern eras; meaning since
the French Campaign at the end of the eighteenth century until our present time,
one would not be able to defend our relationship with the West… actually the
list of accusations and convictions is full… at least since the Convention of
London of 1840 which brought the modernization project of Muhammed Ali Pasha to
an end… to the latest resolution of the Congress to decrease the American aid
to Egypt… and the systematic journalistic campaigns attacking Egypt and reports
of organizations like Human Rights Watch that makes up all that has to do with
besieging Egypt and undermining its political regime.
I do not want to go into details lest
some may believe what West politicians, especially those of the American
administration, say when they always accuse us of escaping from the reality to recalling
history and pains instead of engaging with the present and thinking and
planning for the future.
In my opinion, heading East seems a pressing
necessity and does not necessitate that it should be done on the expense of
other relationships as I said before… actually, keeping our relationships with
the Western Bloc – if one can still use the term – entails such pressing necessity
in order to achieve balance and reach the maximum limit of interests of what
parties of international relationships want.
I still remember what Sheikh Ali
Algergawi wrote about his journey to Japan at the end of the first decade of the
twentieth century. He recorded its details in his unique book “the Japanese
Journey” which late friend professor Dr. Ra’ouf Abbas Hamed wrote another
introduction to it in its latest edition. Since that time, the hope of
strengthening our relationships with the East captivates many.
To be more specific, the East does not
mean only what used to be called the Communist Bloc… and not only Tigers of
Eastern Asia too… actually, it broadens to include many countries stretching
from the east of the Arab Gulf; meaning Iran, Pakistan, India, China, Russia
and reaching to Japan and the far East.
It is not a coincidence that these
countries have qualities the West may lack like the mutual cultural,
civilization, and doctrinal roots we have in common… it is not our point now to
go into details but it is an encouraging call to employ such factors in improving
the relationships that look promising and full of progress chances in more than
one field.
Here comes the president interest in
cementing Egypt’s relationship with the East and his final visit to China and
Vietnam is like what some may call “dealing with the disaster that hit the established
role of the nation”… disaster here means the negligence and dereliction that
hit many of the long-established roots of the Egyptian role in Asia, Africa,
and Latin America… such negligence led to the wide spread of the Zionist
Israeli role in areas that were once almost close before it because it
represents an ugly face of the anti-liberation racist settlement colonization that
practices aggression and occupation.
I do not want to go deep into details in
the glorious history Egypt made with China and Vietnam in specific… but I may
mention a piece of information; that is Egypt was the first Arab country to recognize
the “People’s” republic of China and establish strong relationships with her…
and the first Arab country to stand strongly in solidarity with the right of
the Vietnamese people in liberation and resisting the vicious American
aggression…
Throughout such glorious history, one
finds himself recalling great names like Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Mao Zedong, Zhou
Enlai, Ho Chi Minh, general Giap… such names that evoke a sense of healthy nostalgia
in us that makes us feel proud and hopeful of a better life.
China and Vietnam kept what is regarded
as established foundations connected to their independence and liberation… in
the same time, they coped up with the changes, accumulated experiences, and
built up economies governed by the latest mechanisms… and China became the
second strongest economy worldwide while Vietnam was able to place itself over
the way of rapid progress.
It is very noticeable how they respect
the figures that established all this and fought in order to reach such stage… how
inspiring and affecting that scene was of president Sisi shaking hands with the
leaders there while in the same hall, there were pictures and statues of the
founding leaders whose names are held by airports, squares, and big projects…
and so, I believe it is time that Cairo airport shall hold the name of Gamal
Abdel-Nasser like the case of Ho Chi Minh airport.
Some of those having a bad national
conscience tried to omit Nasser’s name from Nasser’s lake by saying lake of the
Dam despite that the international atlases still have Nasser’s name over the
lake… also, Nasser’s name was omitted from the name of the stadium built in the
man’s time and which held his name after he passed away then it was changed to
Cairo Stadium… this is really shameful.
Translated into English by: Dalia
Elnaggar
This article was
published in Al Ahram newspaper on September 13, 2017.
To see the
original article, go to:
#alahram
#ahmed_elnaggar #Egypt #heading_east #Nasser
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