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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 January 2000 Issue No. 464 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 January 2000 Issue No. 464
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Special Books Profile Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Experiencing the state
By Nadia Abou El-MagdShortly before the curtain could fall on 1999, Cairo University's Centre for Political Research and Studies organised its annual conference. Osama El-Baz, President Hosni Mubarak's political adviser, inaugurated the conference, the 13th of its kind, dubbed: "The Egyptian political experience in 100 years."
One of the key issues that dominated and still dominates the political landscape to some extent is the question of identity and citizenship. The Ottomans ruled Egypt from 1517 to 1805 and it was around the latter date that Egyptians started to search for, and move towards, citizenship.
Historian Abdel-Azim Ramadan, in a paper entitled "the controversy between Egyptian nationalism and Arab nationalism," argues that by the end of the 18th century, Egyptian national sentiments were more inclined towards Islamic, not Arab, nationalism.
Ramadan considers the 1919 revolution the first national revolution in Egyptian history. "Previous revolutions tended to liberate the land without that meaning (the establishment of) Egyptian sovereignty on the land." Counter to that trend emerged the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928.
Arab nationalism, according to him, was the byword during President Gamal Abdel-Nasser's days, but with President Anwar El-Sadat visiting Jerusalem and signing the Camp David peace framework accords with Israel in 1978, Egyptian nationalism took over. The result, Ramadan said, was friction between Arab and Egyptian nationalism and confusion about the concept itself.
Assem El-Dessouki, a professor of modern history at Helwan University, said the 1950s and 1960s saw controversy rage around the Egyptian identity. "Questions abounded at the time: 'Is Egypt Arab or Islamic? Pharaonic or Mediterranean? By the 1990s, the questions had changed: Is Egypt Arab, Islamic or part of the new globalism?'"
Another issue raised at the conference was: how did the liberal, socialist/Marxist and Islamist political trends affect Egypt in the 20th century? Mohamed Asfour, a law professor and writer in the liberal opposition daily Al-Wafd, attributed the major events of the past century to foreign pressure. "Imperialism spoilt everything in Egypt, including the constitution," Asfour said, adding that the 21st century will continue to be an "American age."
El-Sayed Yassin, adviser to the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies and one of the conference's moderators, disagreed with Asfour's "conspiracy theory."
"If American hegemony is so dominant, then we have no choice but to surrender," Yassin said. He also rejected Asfour's claim that the superpowers impose the regime and the leader who serves their political and economic interests.
"It's a dangerous charge, as if you're accusing all leaders of being agents," Yassin said. "It is also a negation of Egyptian history."
Rifaat El-Said, secretary-general of the leftist Tagammu Party, was introduced by Professor of history at Ain Shams University Yunan Labib Rizk as a "great former prison inmate." In his paper "Egyptian Marxism over more than a century" El-Said said Marxism was the oldest political movement in modern Egypt, its roots dating back to 1892. Egyptian Marxism was not a reaction to or imitation of the ideology of any state, not even the Soviet Union, El-Said claimed.
Rizk said he, too, had "a left-wing bias." Nevertheless, he added that El-Said "is exaggerating the weight of the Egyptian left."
Nazli Muawad, a political scientist and head of the Centre for Research and Political Studies, said the problem with the left is that when it tried to be Egyptian and presented itself as a new ideology "it did so by denying two inalienable religions: Islam and Christianity." El-Said denied the charge and insisted the Egyptian left was not opposed to religion.
On the same subject, Islamic thinker and lawyer Mohamed Selim El-Awwa said that at the end of the 20th century, the Islamist trend was still suffering while seeking legality. "It is in a worse position than it was 100 years ago," El-Awwa said.
El-Awwa did not mention the militant Islamist trends that emerged in the 1970s such as Shukri Mustafa's Takfir Wal Higra, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya and Al-Jihad. He spoke instead of Al-Wassat group, which split with the Muslim Brotherhood in 1996 and has since been trying to establish its own political party. Despite its failure thus far, El-Awwa believes Al-Wassat has "stirred the stagnant waters of Egyptian political life."
In his paper "The religious institutions and movements: the challenge of the Hakimiyya (ruling in the name of God)," Hassan Hanafi, a philosophy professor at Cairo University, said that the militant violence Egypt witnessed in recent years was a reaction to pent-up frustration. "The citizen is oppressed throughout the day. The news doesn't represent him and neither do the laws, education or the elections." Hanafi claims that if there are free elections, the Islamic movement would win more than 50 per cent of the vote, while the liberal Al-Wafd would garner between 20 and 30 per cent.
Hossam Eissa, a Nasserist law professor at Ain Shams University, disagreed with what he described as "the rosy picture of the Islamist movement" as presented by Hanafi. Eissa added that Hanafi should have analysed the practice in comparison with the discourse.
"I believe every political force should have the right to have a party," Eissa said. But the suppression of the Islamist trend is no justification for violent revenge, Eissa insisted. Rather, he argued, the Islamists should have countered the attempts to sideline them by becoming more open and acting to prove their democratic credentials.
Shawki El-Sayed, lawyer and a member of the Shura Council, spoke of the history of Egypt's experience with political pluralism. There are currently 14 parties in Egypt, eight of which were established by court rulings. Since 1978, the Political Parties Committee has not allowed the establishment of any new parties despite 56 requests to do so. "We can safely say, however, that the stagnation of existing political parties is not due to the law alone, but to the practices of the political parties themselves," El-Sayed said.
When Amani Qandil, the executive director of the Arab Networks for NGOs, presented her paper about the historical evolution of civil society, questioning the role and status of NGOs, more than one speaker argued that NGOs were a Western concept and creation. Mahmoud Ouda, sociology professor at Ain Shams University, said that the functions of the Egyptian state have not changed in 7,000 years. "NGOs are a mechanism to weaken the nation state," Ouda added.
"The retreat of the state is taking place under the guise of civil society and freedom," said Professor Hossam Eissa. "The state's withdrawal threatens the Egyptian existence, social peace and justice and the economy," he added.
According to Muawad, the conference revealed concern over any retreat of the role of the Egyptian state. "We criticise the state, rebel against it, but we say 'no' to its dismissal or resignation."
Despite the format and attempts at civil give-and-take, the conference was clearly polarised. "Most of the speakers were more concerned to make their point than to engage in a dialogue," Fawaz Girgis, professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at New York University, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"They are far from being analytical, critical or objective. This is quite saddening. I expected more serious analysis and political reflection. The Egyptian cultural and political scene is boiling. It is not only polarised but also extremely politicised."
