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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 August 2000 Issue No. 495 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 August 2000 Issue No. 495
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The last pasha
By Shaden Shehab
Charismatic, tough, astute, strong, regal, elegant are some of the words that have been used to describe Mohamed Fouad Serageddin "Pasha."
His insistence on being called the "pasha," even long after such aristocratic titles were abolished by the 1952 anti-monarchy revolution, may seem droll or even bizarre. But to him, it was a matter of principle. He wanted to firmly remind everyone of his rejection of the revolution.
Serageddin, the leader of the largest legal opposition party, the Wafd, died on 9 August at the age of 90. He was admitted to hospital two days earlier, suffering from a heart condition, compounded by pneumonia, low blood pressure and diabetes.
Regardless of whether they agreed with him politically, most Egyptians held him in high esteem; his demise is perceived widely as the postscript to a momentous chapter in the nation's history.
Serageddin's political survival to the ripe old age of 90 would have seemed incredible three decades ago. His maverick rise to political prominence in the Wafd Party in the 1940s came to an abrupt and what seemed then a final and humiliating end with the July 1952 Free Officers revolution. Not only did the new revolutionary regime prosecute and imprison him as well as sequestrate his property (a fate he shared with many representatives of the "old order"), he was also particularly stigmatised as the man who most symbolised the "corruption" of the Wafd, the party which had led the national struggle for independence for over three decades, winning the hearts and minds of the great majority of the people. In the years from 1924 (the year the first popularly elected parliament in Egyptian history was formed) and up to 23 July 1952, the Wafd was assured a sweeping majority in every free election held during that period.
CENTURY SEALED: His life spanned most of the 20th century; his political career mirrored the massive convulsions that accompanied the building of the Egyptian nation. This week Egypt bid farewell to Fouad Serageddin. Above (clockwise, from top left), the Pasha at the peak of his career, as cabinet minister and Wafd secretary general; sharing a joke with the "leader of the nation", El-Nahhas; facing humiliation before a "revolutionary" court
Serageddin, however, was destined to bounce back into the political life of the country after over a quarter of a century of nearly total obscurity. Already, he was close on 70. He presided over the short-lived attempt to revive the Wafd under the late President Anwar El-Sadat, who had him imprisoned, along with nearly a thousand other political figures from across the political spectrum, in the fateful September 1981 arrests of opposition political and religious leaders. Sadat was assassinated less than a month later.
Following his release by President Hosni Mubarak in 1982, Serageddin staged yet another political comeback, reviving the Wafd Party, which he led until his death.
Serageddin obtained a law degree from King Fouad University, now Cairo University, in 1931 and, a year later, embarked on a legal career as a district prosecutor. It was in 1936, a year before King Fouad died, that he made his rendezvous with Egypt's political history by joining the Wafd Party.
Serageddin, who hailed from an aristocratic land-owning family, won an uncontested election to the House of Representatives in 1936 at the age of 26. The youngest MP ever, he had to forge a birth certificate to show that he was 30 -- the minimum age required by law for the position. He retained his seat until 1942.
The Wafd Party was often in government and Serageddin served as cabinet minister five times before 1952. In 1942, at the age of 32, he gained a cabinet position for the first time, serving as minister of agriculture. Afterwards, he filled the posts of interior, social affairs, transportation, health, education and finance minister. He became a member of the Senate in 1946 and rose, two years later, at the age of 38, to secretary-general of the Wafd Party.
During Serageddin's tenure as secretary-general, Prime Minister and Wafd Party leader Mustafa El-Nahhas took what was possibly the most momentous decision of his career -- abrogating the 1936 Alliance and Friendship Treaty with Britain, which provided the legal cover for Britain's effective occupation of the country. He told parliament that "for Egypt's sake, we signed the treaty and, for Egypt's sake, I ask you to abrogate it." Under the treaty, Egypt had the right to post diplomatic envoys abroad and the British military occupation was limited to the main cities. The British forces were to be stationed only in the Suez Canal zone in peace time, while the British navy could use Alexandria for eight years and could move outside the canal zone only in times of war.
From 1950 to 1952, when the nation was in turmoil, Serageddin was minister of the interior, doubling as finance minister. He takes credit for ordering a police garrison in Ismailia, armed with old rifles only, to engage in a suicidal battle with British occupation forces using field guns. That was on 25 January 1952. The following day, the landmarks of Cairo, including department stores, cinemas and theatres, were burned down. He and the Wafdist cabinet were dismissed.
After the Free Officers revolution in July 1952, Serageddin was put on trial and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. He spent three years behind bars.
"It was a very difficult time," he once recalled, "I had to sleep on a mat, wore prison clothes and suffered solitary confinement."
He further recollected how a prison police officer was kind to him. He said the officer informed him that he would have to put on prison clothes. "I asked him that the clothes be clean and the correct size. The officer responded that he would bring a tailor in immediately, before the arrival of the chief warden [who might have objected]. And, indeed, in half an hour, I had a prison outfit especially made. This was the fastest tailoring ever done for me in my entire life."
Another officer was similarly kind. Serageddin, who even before 1952 was often portrayed in caricature with an inevitable cigar in his mouth, used to recall asking a prison officer for one of the cigars left with his belongings. The officer agreed. Serageddin found himself "smoking a cigar as I sat on a mat in solitary confinement... I thanked the officer for giving me such a precious gift and pleasure amidst the misery of being in prison."
Due to the confiscation of his once substantial property, Serageddin started a private business as an antique assessor, diamond expert and interior decorator. "But he only worked for affluent families who knew his worth and showed him respect," said Ibrahim Dessouqi Abaza, the Wafd Party's secretary-general. But, for his brother Yassin, a Wafdist MP, these were bitter times indeed. "It is ridiculous and obscene to talk of that time," he fumed.
Regaining his strength and will and gathering around him old Wafdists, Serageddin revived the Wafd Party in 1978 after Sadat switched from a single party, to a multi-party, system. At the time, Sadat referred to Serageddin in one of his speeches as "Louis XVI coming back from the grave."
Within a year, Sadat issued a decree prohibiting those who had held high-ranking positions before the revolution from political party activity. The decree appeared to target Serageddin and the party's secretary-general at the time, Ibrahim Farag. In reaction, the Wafd decided to "freeze" its activities. One month before his assassination in October 1981, Sadat jailed Serageddin along with many political and intellectual figures. "It was the worst and harshest of times. It was pure humiliation," Serageddin reportedly said. He was freed shortly after President Hosni Mubarak took office.
Serageddin had not given up on reviving the Wafd Party, but this time he faced opposition from the Political Parties Committee, a government-controlled body in charge of licensing political parties. The committee held that, in view of the "freeze" decision, the Wafd must apply for a new licence. The Wafd took the case to the Administrative Court, which ruled in its favour in October 1983, making it possible for the party to contest the parliamentary elections of the following year.
Despite his corpulence and advanced age, 73 at the time, he was described by associates as fairly energetic and a tireless campaigner. He was firm and always had the last word, "but it was to the party's benefit and not for the sake of being a dictator," Abaza insists.
The Wafd allied itself with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in the 1984 parliamentary elections and the two managed to gain 57 seats. In the 1987 elections, the Wafd lost its position as the leading opposition force in parliament to a Labour/Muslim Brotherhood alliance, but was nevertheless able to win 35 seats. The Wafd, along with other opposition parties, with the exception of the leftist Tagammu, boycotted the 1990 elections. In the most recent elections of 1995, the Wafd regained its position as the largest representative of the opposition, though gaining a mere six seats.
On many occasions, Serageddin was assailed by opponents for allegedly "living in the past". Serageddin vehemently denied the charge. "People accuse me of being reactionary and against the public sector... No. I am in favour of the public sector and nationalisation in both form and substance. But I am in favour of true nationalisation as practiced in democratic nations. In Britain, coal mines and railway networks were nationalised, but did someone ever hear of nationalising pastry and coffee shops?"
To those who attacked the Wafd or tried to distort its image, Serageddin quoted El-Nahhas's words: "Do not try to tear down the Wafd, because its ideology is engraved in the hearts of people, and its principles have penetrated their hearts. The Wafd has become a creed and an ideology that is impossible to uproot or diminish."
Serageddin was born to a wealthy family of landowners in the Nile Delta province of Kafr Al-Sheikh. He was third among eight children who have all passed away except for his younger brother, Yassin. In his 20s, he married his cousin, Zakia Badrawi. She died 25 years ago and he never remarried. He had three daughters -- Nelly, Fayza, and Nadia. The latter died of cancer in her 50s. Nelly is married to Mohsen Badrawi, and is the mother of Fouad and Nevine. Fayza is married to Samir Badrawi, Mohsen's brother, and is mother to Abdel-Aziz. Nadia was married to the cousin of her sister's husband, Hussein Badrawi, and is survived by a son, Hassan Badrawi.
Serageddin lived in a fairy-tale palace considered one of the landmarks of the posh, Nile-side district of Garden City. The palace reportedly has 22 rooms, with high marble columns flanking the entrance. In nearly every corner of the house, there is a remarkable statue or objet d'art. The stairs leading to the second floor are also bedecked with Roman and Greek statues.
With the death of Serageddin, the saga of the last pasha still in the limelight has ended. By some strange coincidence, Serageddin, like Saad Zaghloul and Mustafa El-Nahhas, passed away in the month of August.
Relates stories:
The long good-bye
No party poopers
The Pasha 19 - 25 October 1995
