Obituary:

An officer and a democrat

By Fatemah Farag

Lutfi Waked

Born in 1920 to a well-to-do family in Kafr Saqr in the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya, Waked was to become a fighter in the 1948 War, head of Gamal Abdel-Nasser's office and later a top figure in the Tagammu.

In a 1985 interview, Waked shed light on some factors that shaped his political leanings, singling out the influence of two uncles. The first was Ahmed Lutfi El-Sayed Pasha, the well-known liberal thinker. The second was Imam Waked, who spent 15 years in prison because of his alleged participation in a plan to assassinate Lord Kitchener, the British Commissioner in Cairo. Although his father was a member of the House of Representatives as well as mayor (omdah) of his town, Waked gave him credit for his first lessons in social justice.

Waked began his political career by joining the Misr El-Fatah [Young Egypt] Party and was arrested for the first time in November 1935 for taking part in an anti-British demonstration. The arrest did not stop him from actively participating in this type of political action until 1938 when he joined the military academy.

This is where he met Tagammu chairman Khaled Mohieddin for the first time -- a meeting which marked the start of a long personal and political relationship. However, both parted after graduation when Waked was assigned to the border corps. And in the course of the 1948 War, Waked met Nasser for the first time. A year later, Nasser recruited him to the Free Officers Movement. Later, between 1954 and 1957, Waked acted as the head of Nasser's office, playing a prominent role in preparing militia groups to fight in Palestine. This endeavour took him to Jordan in 1955 and marked a more pan-Arab phase in his political life.

In 1957, Nasser chose him to replace Salah Salem as head of the Al-Shaab newspaper. However, Nasser turned against him following the collapse of the Egypt-Syria union in 1961. As a result of his earlier pan-Arab connections, Waked had become involved with a group of officers who called themselves the New Free Officers, headed by Dawoud Eweiss. After the split with Syria, they decided to distribute of leaflets criticising the government. When Nasser became aware of Waked's involvement, he ordered his arrest. The result was a 15-year prison sentence, which Nasser reduced to 27 months.

Following his release, Waked dropped out of politics for many years, returning with the establishment of a monthly magazine called Al-Kateb with Kamal Rifaat in 1975. The magazine is remembered by columnist Salah Eissa as "lively and provocative. It showed that Waked was a true liberal thinker."

The magazine was eventually closed down and, three years later, Waked was to play a prominent role in the establishment of the Tagammu Party. He chose Tagammu, Waked once said, because he defined himself as a unionist, democrat and leftist. His close friendship with Mohieddin was also a decisive factor.

Waked served as a member of parliament for one term, headed Tagammu's official organ, Al-Ahali, and later rose to become the party's vice-president. For some, he represented a conservative, pro-government nationalist trend within the party, but others emphasised different aspects of his career. "I remember that with the beginning of Al-Ahali, there were many confiscations and difficult situations and he always took a firm stance and never backed down," said Eissa. However, both ends of the Tagammu spectrum agree that in the past 20 years he avoided party conflicts and did not play a dynamic role within the albeit-limited sphere of leftist political activity.

He will be remembered as one of the last of a rapidly diminishing breed -- the army officer-turned-politician. "This is what made him stand out as a character in his own right," said Eissa.