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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 June 1999 Issue No. 435 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 June 1999 Issue No. 435
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Interview Travel Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Kamaleddin Hussein (1921-1999)
Unyielding to the end
By Fatemah Farag
Kamaleddin Hussein, a former vice-president and a member of the Revolution Command Council set up by the July 1952 Revolution led by Gamal Abdel-Nasser, passed away this week at 78 years of age due to complications caused by liver cirrhosis. President Hosni Mubarak led mourners at his funeral on Sunday.
Kamaleddin Hussein
Born in the Delta governorate of Qalyubiya in June 1921, Hussein joined the Military Academy, graduating in 1939. He served in the Western Desert, fought in the 1948 Palestine War and later taught at the Military Academy and the Military Staff College.
But it was his being part of Abdel-Nasser's Free Officers Movement that propelled him to power and also into the thick of events that changed the course of national history. A member of the Revolution Command Council, Hussein was appointed as minister of social affairs in 1954, minister of education in 1956 and minister of local administration in 1960. Later in the same year, he was elevated to vice-president. Other positions he held included the chairmanship of the Teachers Syndicate, the Supreme Council of Arts, Literature and Social Sciences, the Afro-Asian Youth Conference and the Egyptian Olympic Committee. Hussein is also remembered for his role in leading the popular armed resistance in the coastal city of Port Said following the 1956 tripartite aggression against Egypt.
Hussein possessed an unbending sense of right and wrong, which on more than one occasion earned him Abdel-Nasser's displeasure. However, it was under Abdel-Nasser's successor, President Anwar El-Sadat that he was forced out of public life for the last time.
Hussein was the target of Sadat's wrath following the food riots of January 1977. At the time, Egyptians took to the streets to protest a government decision to raise the prices of bread and other foodstuffs, forcing the government to backtrack. Sadat reacted by introducing legislation to tighten restrictions on political activity. These included laws on "national unity" and "social peace" that were dubbed by his opponents as "laws of ill repute". Hussein took the opposition's side, publishing an open letter to Sadat, in which he declared that "codifying injustice is worse than injustice itself".
As a result, Hussein lost his parliamentary seat. Elections were held at his home constituency in Banha and, when Hussein typically decided to contest them, he was barred.
His twilight years had begun. His last battle was against illness. Mubarak and top government officials marched behind his coffin, draped in the Egyptian flag and mounted on a horse-drawn gun carriage. Hussein was buried in Banha, his home-town.
