Anticipating upheaval

By Ammar Ali Hassan

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Twenty years ago, when I was in college, I remember reading a book about Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Anwar El-Sadat. One sentence caught my attention, and it went more or less, "The cats that got fat in Nasser's time pressured Sadat into making them richer, and the decision to open up the economy came about as a result."

I remember this sentence every time we celebrate the 1952 Revolution. I was born right after the 1967 defeat, and yet I always felt a certain affinity to the revolution and what it did. The free education, the agrarian reform, the changes in the countryside, all of this is a world apart from the gruelling stories my grandfather told me about the former inequities in the countryside, about how the big landowners abused the villagers who lived in slave-like circumstances. Later on, I came to accept the scientific labelling of the "revolution" as a "coup". In my mind, this didn't matter much. So what if it was a "revolutionary coup"?

Say what you might, but the majority of the population idolised their leaders at the time and many bought into the country's new self-image as proud and independent, regionally in charge and internationally influential.

The downside was democracy. It was the price we were made to pay for what the leaders called "social justice". And once Nasser was gone, even that "social justice" couldn't survive for long.

In today's Egypt, entire classes are being sidestepped by economic growth, consumerism is the name of the game, and corruption is rampant. Worse, we've lost our regional appeal, international voice, and a lot of our multi-faceted culture.

Little is left from the 1952 Revolution aside from nostalgia and the television appearances of Mohamed Hassanein Heikal. Many hate the revolution. Others say that if it were a genuine revolution it would not have died with Nasser.

The majority don't care. Their main worry is how to make ends meet, how to put food on the table. And yet, I detect a glimpse in their eyes whenever the pre-revolution period is mentioned. This is the period into which everyone seems to be taking a renewed interest. Is this a sign of hope? Are we living in anticipation of impending upheaval?

This week's Soapbox speaker is a writer and researcher in political sociology.