Issue No. 599
Opinion
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15 - 21 August 2002 Issue No. 599 Opinion |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
July's legacy
Celebrations to mark the July Revolution's golden jubilee last month surprised many. The current regime, it is often suggested, capitalises on a tentative connection with July in order to gain a legitimacy it would otherwise lack while at the same time it has systematically abandoned the policies that most marked the revolution.Such people forget that revolutions are by definition short-lived affair. They are the product of exceptional circumstances and do not operate in the same way for very long. Those who censure this year's July celebrations ignore the fact that the present Egyptian constitution, drafted in 1971, is a version of earlier constitutions, all of which rely on the notion of integrating official bodies into a single executive authority, represented by a single figure, the president of the republic. They also forget the July Revolution tended to adopt new and often contradictory policies: once a socialist force opposed to Israel it subsequently turned into a capitalist, Western- allied force working towards peace with Israel. But it is only fair to both the Revolution and the present regime to note how the former established values -- the primacy of national will, a commitment to Egypt's Arab identity and to social welfare -- that continue to play a major part in Egyptian affairs.
The issue is not whether the present regime truly reflects the principle of July but if the present, July-inspired constitution remains viable. Only by radically revising the constitution to break up the centralisation of authority will Egypt regain some of its vitality.
This week's Soapbox speaker is editor- in-chief of the weekly Al-Qahira.
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