Crafting the intellect
Integrity and professionalism, in life as in work: Mona Makram Ebeid* tribute to Mohamed Hassanein Heikal
On the occasion of his 80th birthday I felt the urge -- like many others -- to write about an outstanding man who has become something of an institution. I refer, of course, to Heikal, the abbreviated name by which Mohamed Hassanein Heikal has come to be known. And as I thought about what to write my first reading assignment at AUC came to mind. It was On Intellectual Craftsmanship, an essay by C Wright Mills. The most important ideas appear at the beginning of the essay, where Mills writes that "the most admirable thinkers ... do not split their work from their lives. They seem to take both too seriously to allow such dissociations, and they want to use each for the enrichment of the other..."
To me, this is the key to Heikal's career: he used his life experience in his intellectual work ... continually examining it and interpreting it. And this is what Mills meant when he said "... in this sense, craftsmanship is the centre of yourself." The idea of regarding your life's work as a craft is in my view the key to success. It means diligently and persistently developing your skills, even when there is no immediate professional reward for doing so. It means integrity and professionalism in every aspect of your life and work. It also means a whole-hearted, unwavering dedication to work that enables you to persist even when you confront discouragement and temporary setbacks. These are the principles of craftsmanship on which Heikal has drawn.
A close confidante of and advisor to President Nasser, he used his incisive and often controversial editorial, "Bisaraha", to illuminate whatever was left obscure in Nasser's speeches.
And although he shied away from the political stage he has come to enjoy the wide popular appeal that in most countries is the preserve of leading political figures.
It is the vividness and eloquence with which he writes, together with his deep knowledge of the tensions inherent in the psyche and politics of Egypt that make his books so powerful, commanding the admiration of friends and foes alike. His penetrating insights into diplomatic manoeuvering, as well as startlingly candid opinions and portraits of Arab statesmen and world leaders, remain unique.
What has never stopped amazing me is his drawing power: at the Cairo International Book Fair he attracted massive audiences, the majority of whom are in their 20s, that is people who have no direct experiences of the turbulent events of the 1960s and 1970s. It is his reputation, and the candour and courage with which he has voiced political dissent, that holds an endless fascination for his young -- and not so young -- audience, a fact that has discouraged the organisers of the state-run event from inviting him again.
When Dream TV, the only private television channel sanctioned by the state was launched, Al- Ustaz, the name of the Heikal programme, instantly became one of Egypt's most popular. No political analyst could match his overwhelming command of fact and source. In a region mired in political stagnation Heikal spoke with a refreshing and delightfully pugnacious clarity. His gift for the startling, the range and depth of his knowledge and memory, as well as his analytical skills, allow him to avoid grandiose generalisations about the clash of civilisations and to replace them with observations on the "short" 20th century, observations that are shrewd, provocative and often chilling and which cast much light on our possible futures.
It is no wonder that people from all walks of life have seized the opportunity of his 80th birthday to honour and pay homage to the man who has become one of the most distinguished national symbols of our time.
I join them wholeheartedly, and wish many happy returns.
* The writer, a former member of parliament, is professor of political science at the American University in Cairo.
