I
used to give speeches in the political conferences and lectures in the
intellectual seminars invited to by the Arab students studying in Cairo
including an Arab-national group of them who established the “league of
Nasserite unionist Arab students” and which had affiliates spread all over the
European countries where students adopting the same ideology study.
I
used to glorify the role of the Arab nationalism and degrade believing in the
Egyptian nationalism as the Arab nationalism wave was really high, like the
Nasserite ideology, and at its peak… that led to conflicts even within the Arab
national ideology among Nasserists, Ba’thists and Arab nationalists’ movement
that later adopted a Leninist Marxist orientation.
Adding
to this conflict – inside the same Arab nationalism structure – the rise of the
movement of the Libyan revolutionary committees that called for the third world
theory, Green Book and leadership of Muammar Gaddafi… such era deserves
testimonies written over it to become a historical scientific material on which
researchers, who will write about it and read it well equipped with tools of
scientific discipline, can depend on.
Anyway,
I wrote in my last article that the Libyan matter is not yet over… many
expected that I would write about what is happening right now but they were
disappointed as they found the article tackling relations, conversations and
names… actually, what I wrote was an introduction for what will come later.
As
now, I have – and actually since relatively long time – refrained in a way or
another from exaggerating in glorifying the Arab nationalism ideology on the
expense of our belonging to our country; Egypt… I reread the July, 1952
revolution and Gamal Abdel-Nasser and found that Egypt was the main focus and at
the centre.
And
that all what happened of glorifying the idea and Arab nationalism movement and
national liberation movement in Africa, Asia and Latin America and having a
strong relation between Cairo and those capitals reaching to the level of
moving in one entity as if we are standing before a forest of banyan fig trees
with their branches intertwined and reaching down to the ground with its airy
roots that you cannot tell which tree is the mother one that started all this
forest.
I mean
that Nasser and his working team intentionally aligned the national and liberation
circles in a network forming the strong and living defense for the role of
Egypt that if, for a reason or another, was in the background of the scene, it
is because the whole forest is representing it or taking Egypt as a model.
Therefore,
what affects my stance towards what is happening in Libya now and also what is
happening in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the
Arab world is how much this can affect Egypt as a country that Nadim al-Bitar regarded
as the base country in the Arab world.
We witnessed
the time when the British and American military bases were open and operating
in the countries neighboring Egypt… we experienced what was said and later
proved true when Egypt waited in 1967 for the invasion airplanes to come from
the east but actually they came from the west; from Libya, Wheelus and al-Adhm
air bases and others… I do not want to talk again about the old disputes with
Saudi Arabia as I do believe that the two countries are in deep need of each other
in this era and that their losses in the times of dispute and conflict was
devastating to both sides… it is a long talk that we do not have time for.
For
all this, the geo-political map always tells that the biggest target and most
precious one to hit is Egypt… and that destroying, dismantling and fragmenting
the countries around the Egyptian central composition is enough at a certain
moment to dismantle Egypt and destroy it… but the opposite was proved true…
that is the absence and marginalization of the Egyptian role led to the easy implementation
of the plan aiming at targeting the neighboring countries and destroying the
Egyptian state as an independent state that paid heavy prices for its
independence and freedom throughout history.
Al-Fateh
revolution in Libya… May revolution in Sudan… the regime collapse of so-called
Marxist dictators in Syria… the transformations that took place in the Iraqi Ba’th
party… and the setoff of the Palestinian Guerilla movement… all these were like
bandages put on the Egyptian wound after the 1967 defeat… they represented the
hope in a new different era of the Arab nationalism movement…
However,
things worked in the opposite direction quickly – since 4 or 5 decades is
almost nothing compared to the life and historical course of nations and
countries – and those bandages were attacked from within themselves due to
tyranny, groups of common interests, corruption, injustice, absence of proper
planning, wasting resources, authoritative policies on the domestic level and controversial
foreign policy adopted by some of the rulers… etc.
By targeting
and undermining the inter-connections among the centres of those movements and transformations,
engagement and dispute raged to the level of conflict between Baghdad and
Damascus despite they are being ruled by one party… and media and intelligence
wars erupted between Baghdad and Tripoli… also a limited war began between
Egypt and Tripoli… etc until the scene was prepared for what took place a while
after this and which was called the Arab Spring.
What
happened to Iraq and what is still happening in it, in Libya, Syria, Yemen and
all of them is like the iron shield that supported Egypt and cured part of its
wound after its defeat in 1967… it was like a hope for the nation in a new
national liberal movement this time supported by massive revenues of oil… all
this confirms what I want to say… that all what is happening now aims at
hitting the Egyptian composition which is historically, civilization-wise,
culturally and ethnically resistant to dismantle and fragmentation.
For
all this and above the necessity to save the Libyan people from this vicious
tragedy that destroyed their unity and state and killed their hope of a
development matching with their resources and capabilities… for all this, the
necessity for a decisive Egyptian role in such rescue is a rescue for Egypt
itself as it is about defending the roots of our composition and reinforcing
our cohesion bulwarks lest our country is plagued with destruction like what we
see around us… I believe the meaning is clear.
Translated
into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This
article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on September 17, 2015.
To
see the original article, go to:
#alahram
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #Libya
