Al-Ahram Weekly Issue No. 246 9 - 15 November 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Orthodoxy with twist

Farid Abdel-Karim, 65, is a former high official of the Arab Socialist Union who, in the 1980s, led one of three legal battles for the establishment of a Nasserist party. He advocated the formation of a party under the name of the Nasserist Arab Socialist Party. But it was Diaeddin Dawoud who successfully won a court order sanctioning the establishment of the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party.

Abdel-Karim and members of his fledgling Arab Socialist party joined Dawoud's party, but a fierce power struggle ensued, with Abdel-Karim's supporters insisting he was the rightful leader of the Nasserist movement in the country.

"I am certain to win 90 per cent of the vote in the coming party elections," said Abdel-Karim. "But I believe it is time now for the younger generation to take over."

Born in 1930, Abdel-Karim graduated from Cairo University's Faculty of Law in 1952 and worked as a lawyer. He began his political career in 1966 as the local secretary of the Arab Socialist Union in Giza district of Dokki. Two years later, he became a member of the ASU's national congress and was later elected to membership of the ASU's Central Committee. In 1971 he and a group of other Nasser aides were accused by President Anwar El-Sadat of conspiring to overthrow him. He was sentenced to death but Sadat later reduced the sentence to 25 years imprisonment. He was released in 1981 but re-arrested two months later, finally regaining his freedom in 1982.

Among the old guard Nasserists, Abdel-Karim is recognised as the most militant. His more orthodox brand of Nasserism witnessed a significant development in recent years however, as he began to advocate a Nasserist/Islamist alliance.

Despite past hostility between Nasserists and Islamists, Abdel-Karim believes that cooperation between the two groups is now possible. There are, he says, some Islamist leaders who acknowledge Nasserist precepts concerning Arab, Islamic and human issues, adding: "There is no doubt that Islam advocates social justice, a Nasserist principle."

In addition to his law practice, Abdel-Karim delivers lectures in Arab countries, rejecting normalisation of relations with Israel and "Middle Easternism", as opposed to Arabism. He describes the former as treason and "the crime of the age".

A touch of moderation

Mohamed Fayeq, 66, is a member of the political bureau of the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party and secretary-general of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR). He is widely recognised as representing the moderate face of Nasserism, while his focus on human rights seems to underline his belief in the necessity of a renewal of Nasserism, which has been associated with authoritarianism. He is criticised by both the Party's militant youth and the more orthodox old-guard as advocating a tame brand of Nasserism that has lost its revolutionary edge.

Born in the Nile Delta town of Mansoura, Fayeq graduated from the Military Academy in 1948 and joined the Artillery Corps. On the eve of 23 July 1952, he took part in the revolutionary officers' siege of the Abdin Palace, which, three days later, led to the overthrow of King Farouk.

In 1955, Fayeq began a political career when he was appointed director of the African Affairs Department at the Presidency of the Republic. His eight-year occupancy of this post was interrupted in 1956 when he fought in the Suez War as an artillery officer.

Since 1963, Fayeq has represented Egypt at a number of international gatherings, including the UN General Assembly, and served as President Nasser's personal envoy to East and West African countries. At home, Fayeq held the posts of information minister in three cabinets, as well as minister of state for foreign affairs, and has been a member of the People's Assembly.

In May 1971, Fayeq resigned his post as information minister shortly before the late President Anwar Sadat ordered his arrest, along with other top Nasser aides, in what Sadat described as his "corrective revolution". They were accused of planning to overthrow the government. Fayeq was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and released in 1981.

Fayeq, who now runs a publishing house, has frozen his membership of the Nasserist Party's political bureau in order to devote more time and effort to his human rights work, and so that the public will not confuse the objectives of the party with those of the AOHR.

"Human rights work is not a party activity, although it should be at the top of all the parties' agendas," he says. Fayeq has held the post of AOHR secretary-general since 1987.

The graduate

Hamdin El-Sabahi, a member of the Nasserist party's political bureau, is a representative of the younger generation of Nasserists who became active in the student movement of the early '70s. Before obtaining a degree in mass communications, he was part of a group which established the Nasserist Thought Club at Cairo University in 1974. He was head of the Cairo University Student Union in 1975-76 and deputy chairman of the General Federation of Students in 1975-1977.

Following the food riots of January 1977, Sabahi publicly opposed President Anwar El-Sadat at a televised meeting between the president and the General Federation of Students. As a result, he was banned from working in the national press.

Sabahi was arrested on numerous occasions for his political activities. He was the younger member of a group of national political figure, from various ideologies, whom Sadat sent to jail in September 1981, one month before his assassination. The last time he was arrested was in 1991, when he spoke before Cairo University students demonstrating against the American-led war against Iraq, following its occupation of Kuwait.

He is a strong believer in the necessity of building up a national front to oppose what he calls "American hegemony and the policy of surrendering to the Zionist enemy". He took part in setting up committees of solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples and opposing normalisation of relations with Israel.

A member of the Press Syndicate and the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), Sabahi is director of the Arab Homeland Information Office. He is running for election in his native constituency of Al-Borollos in the northern Delta.

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