Issue No. 595
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18 - 24 July 2002 Issue No. 595 Special |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
A defining moment
Asked to identify the defining moment in modern Egyptian history the vast majority of those questioned will point to the 1952 Revolution, the 50th anniversary of which falls on Tuesday.
Click to view captionSince antiquity foreign powers had controlled the country; now, in poet Salah Jahin's image, the national movement was finally giving birth to a home-grown political entity. Nasser -- whom Jahin equated with a mythical factory worker, arms gleaming with the sweat of fair-wage toil -- became the first Egyptian to rule Egypt: if the statement has been too often repeated, if it is too familiar to retain anything but the ghost of its once shocking impact, it is nonetheless necessary to recall. Regardless of the success of the first Egyptian government in reflecting the ambitions of the people it was Nasser's ability to tap grassroots support that initially sustained the revolution.
Driven by nationalist and later -- in tune with the times -- socialist impulses, the new regime undertook agricultural reform, made education free for all and began rebuilding the army that had given birth to the revolution in the first place. Internationally, it endorsed Arab unity in order to combat the threat posed by Israel, and championed the Non-Aligned Movement.
The building of the High Dam was the quintessential anti-imperialist gesture: the nationalisation of the Suez Canal and the Tripartite Aggression invested the project with critical mass; Nasser and the nascent republic he led emerged as Third World political agents to be reckoned with. The July Revolution became the catalyst for liberation movements across the Arab world and Africa.
There are those who think that Nasser stressed foreign affairs at the expense of democratic life within Egypt. From 1954 till the defeat of 1967 individual freedoms incurred significant losses.
The defeat itself was a cancer that spread into every part of the body of the nation. Nasser's successors inherited many burdens. Economic hardship and a weakened army notwithstanding, it was incumbent on President Sadat to liberate Sinai, which began with the October victory of 1973.
Whatever the balance sheet of the revolution it eventually gave way to a new Egypt, an Egypt which President Mubarak is now steering towards peace, democracy and progress.
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