What
I receive of positive comments over what I write regarding social and personal
memories and stories exceed those comments over the political writings. Perhaps
because the latter, due to its nature, may result in disputes that sometimes reach
to be tough confrontations.
As
to the social and personal memories and stories, they usually stir the emotions
of some of those who read about them, as they remind them of what they lived or
heard about. In many times, they include an easy explanation for the roots of
the innermost composition for some Egyptians whom it happened that they
witnessed similar circumstances. Such memories and stories also include
material that could be a resource or “raw material” for researches in sociology
and social psychology…
Therefore,
I do not exaggerate when I say that every time I prepare myself to write this
article, I feel more biased to record more personal and social memories, until
the political circumstances prevail due to my interest in what is taking place
in our reality.
I
discovered that I usually break my promise for the reader, as many articles end
with a promise to continue later, including a recent article discussing the issue
of opposition from abroad, where I gave an example for this with what happened
to Muhammed Farid; leader of Al-Watani party, and what happened in the
time of Nasser, as I made a promise to continue telling what happened in the
time of Sadat, but I did not fulfill my promise, maybe because there was
another topic that was more compelling or perhaps because I was part of that
and was an eye witness over that era, and contributed politically and
intellectually to it. I also thought that this issue requires more focus and
scrutiny as it has many sides and is difficult to be abridged in one or two
articles, for, in my opinion; there is no enough space for the long-term series
in a daily newspaper.
Anyway,
in Sadat’s era, starting after leader Nasser’s death in 1970 and passing with events
in May 1971 when he was in total command of Egypt’s rule, this era witnessed an
opposition where what was pure political was mixed with what was generally
national…
By
pure political, I mean anything that has ideological aspects most of them were leftist,
and which had the opinion that what happened in May 13, 1971 by Sadat was a
relapse to Nasser’s orientations, although Sadat did not hesitate since the
beginning to declare that he would adopt Nasser’s vision and he bowed in front
of his bust in parliament.
As
to what is generally national, I mean anything related in the first place to
the big national cause bothering all of us, at that time that was the Zionist
Israeli aggression against Egypt and liberating our occupied land.
It
happened that I was then one of a bunch of youth whom most of them were
university students and some others were fresh graduates, and who had
connections with leaders of workers or professional associations. All of them
were members of the “Socialists’ vanguard” political group and members of the Socialist
Youth organization, and they all adopted a common political and social belief
under the title of “the Nasserist movement”.
I
claim that that time era; starting from 1971 until the October 1973 war,
witnessed a massive political and intellectual activity, as universities were in
the heart of the political movement, and students’ unions were very strong to
the extent that they were present at the forefront of the political movement. All
that was manifested in 1972 with a lot of details that are so many and more
complicated to be abridged in such small space…
At
that time, the Nasserist-Marxist dialogue over the theory, approach, phasing
and strategy was at its peak. Also, the national cause was discussed
extensively on the table. Moreover, that era witnessed a massive intellectual
rich activity, as “At-Talie’a” or the Vanguard magazine along with Al-Kateb
and Al-Fekr Al-Mo’aser magazines were thriving with each one of them
representing a different political and ideological orientation. Also, the
political and intellectual gathering clubs used to exist and expand in the
university.
Sadat
tried to deal with what was happening through many ways… the security agencies’
way by doing some arrests from time to time… and another way of containing
anger by arranging meetings with leaders of those movements… a third way was paving
the way for the islamist opposition to take place by empowering the islamist
groups in the university, as Kamal Abul-Magd organized what was called “the
first Islamic assembly” in Ain Shams University in February 1972 to stand in
opposition to Nasser’s intellectual assembly established in 1971…
At
a later stage, Sadat made direct meetings between himself and students’
leaders. I was present in the meeting arranged for Ain Shams University on Thursday
September 20, 1973 in Burg el-Arab and attended by Mamduh Salem, Kamal
Abul-Magd and the elite professor Dr. Ismail Ghanem; the rector. The meeting
started at 10 AM and lasted to 3 PM…
After
the victory in 1973, the political opposition became less intense, until Infitah
took place, and the uprising of January 1977 happened which was an explosion
for the opposition on another broad national basis; the social cause. At that
time, Sadat aimed to break this by his visit to Jerusalem, for the political
opposition to be present again in a more intense way, and for the social and political
causes to unite once again.
And
so, opposition groups started to exist abroad, as there were many of that era’s
leaders, also of journalists, writers and artists there. They travelled and
settled in European and Arabic capitals. And so, organizations were established
and radio stations were launched, and waves of attacking Sadat’s policies
started until he was assassinated on the hands of his islamist allies in
October 1981.
In
my opinion, and as per a thorough observation for what happened, I can say that
Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat all sought to take the place of the
Egyptian role and worked hard for achieving such thing. And so, the Egyptian
opposition abroad, distributed among those capitals, was not a way from those
leaders’ attempts by using them for achieving their goals. This is a long story
I believe we desperately need to put under the spot and analyze to come up with
lessons from it, as all those attempts to change the ruling regime in Egypt
failed.
Translated
by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper
on October 16, 2019.
To see the original Arabic article, go to:
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