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

Message from the past - updated

Diaeddin Dawoud, leader of the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party, began to legal practice after graduating from Cairo University's Faculty of Law in 1949. He was elected a member of the People's Assembly in 1964 and, four years later, was appointed as minister of social affairs in a cabinet headed by President Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

He held the post for only seven months, but in October 1968 he became a member of the Higher Executive Committee, or collective leadership, of the Arab Socialist Union (ASU), the sole political party at the time. He was re-elected to the People's Assembly in 1969 and, a year later, became a member of the ASU general-secretariat.

After Nasser's death and President Anwar El-Sadat's rise to power, Dawoud was arrested along with a group of top Nasser aides, put on trial on charges of conspiring to overthrow the regime, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

He was released in 1981 but it was only in 1987 that he was allowed to become politically active again by the order of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Dawoud fought a long legal battle until an administrative court approved the establishment of the Nasserist Party in 1992. In the same year, he was elected by a general party congress as the party's leader.

The Nasserists are contesting parliamentary elections as a political party for the first time. How do you rate the party's chances?

The Nasserist Party is certainly a competitive party with a distinct ideological and political message - Nasser's ideas updated. It has experienced and skilled cadres and a large following, strongly loyal to the party's principles. We are qualified to discharge our share of responsibility, but are we allowed to?

For the past five years, since the outgoing People's Assembly first convened, we have been urging a modification of election procedures, as the present system discourages qualified people from nominating themselves, but the government did not respond. As the situation remains unchanged, opposition candidates take a big risk by contesting elections; they accept they will have to enter battles some of which are bloody, some costly, and all to no avail.

The National Democratic Party (NDP) has a firm hold on power, claiming to be the representative of the majority, although it does little to meet the wishes of that majority. So, the incumbent government is also the future government. It is a government for all seasons.

The party is often accused of being a prisoner of Nasserist ideology, falling back on what Nasser would have said or done in a given situation. How true is this?

There is no school of thought that does not refer to its origins: Marxists refer to Marx and Lenin, capitalists refer to their philosophers and religionists to their holy books. Speaking objectively, Nasser did not invent anything new. He moulded the applicable precepts of already-existing ideologies and put them to melt in the crucible of the July Revolution.

As a party, we are dealing with the status quo, which does not differ much from the situation that existed before the revolution. In the pre-revolution era, we did not have strong relations with the Arab states, foreign powers were dominant, the economy was capitalist, Egypt had no independent will and poverty was rampant.

The situation now is not very much different. Egyptian national will is chained by heavy debts which have placed us at the mercy of the Paris Club [of creditors] and the International Monetary Fund. We agreed to cooperate with Israel, thus allowing it to take on the Arab countries one by one. The Arab League has reached an unprecedented point of weakness and the Arab countries are divided into axes, one in the Gulf and another in north-west Africa.

Faced with this situation, we have to refer to Nasser's approach, which proved successful and had many positive aspects. Referring to this approach is in no way reactionary because we believe that Nasser's thoughts can be developed to deal with the present.

It has been said that Nasserism had a greater impact before the establishment of the party, whose achievements do not live up to Nasser's name. What do you think?

As I just said, the ruling NDP has a tight control on power. As an opposition party, we are denied access to the media, which is monopolised by the NDP and the government. The so-called national newspapers and magazines, even the foreign-language newspapers, are in fact pro-government. Most opposition parties only have a weekly mouthpiece, and this is not enough. A rotation of power appears impossible.

Moreover, the political parties' law includes many restrictions on organisation and funding. According to this law, public meetings of any party must be held indoors. The NDP, which took over the headquarters and offices of the Arab Socialist Union, could do this easily. But we had to look for six months for a place that could accommodate 250 people in order to hold the meetings of our central committee.

The law prohibits parties from accepting donations in private, either from individuals or groups. If we receive a grant of LE500, for instance, we are obliged to make an announcement in a daily newspaper, which costs us LE200.

Political parties also come under the supervision of the Central Auditing Agency, which deals with them as profit-making companies. But our newly-established party, which relies exclusively on members' subscriptions, does not even have an auditing department. We simply hire an accountant at the end of each fiscal year to do the books.

Besides, people are intimidated and discouraged from cooperating with us. Our supporters are subject to arrest while handling out party literature or posters. Whenever we have a meeting at the party's headquarters, the surroundings streets are closed by dozens of policemen who harass those arriving to attend.

The party has failed to bring all Nasserists into its fold. How do you explain this?

Establishing the party was another problem. Nasserists had to fight a long and fierce battle with the government, and other groups, before their party came into existence on the strength of a court decision and against the will of the Political Parties Committee.

When this battle ended, Nasserists were divided into several conflicting groups. There was the 1960s group, members of the ASU, cabinet ministers and governors, whose politics were shaped while working with the late President Nasser. Another group was the 1970s students, who had set up Nasserist forums in universities; they were totally self-reliant and had no guidance or organised bodies. There were also groups of workers and farmers who championed the achievements of the Nasserist era. For these components to merge into one entity is a complicated process that requires time and effort.

The party's poor performance has been blamed on the split between the "old guard" and the younger generation. The latter describe you as ex-state functionaries who lack creativity while still monopolising authority.

These are more allegations and twisting of facts than indicate self-interest. Those who make these allegations, disregarding our special way of applying democracy, are after power, not the party's best interests. They should not have leading positions in a party that carries Nasser's name.

If we are going to stick to democracy, we should show respect for the outcome of the democratic process. Since the establishment of the party, all its high posts have been filled by election by the party's general congress.

The party's dissenters claim that the election was rigged, but any election can be the target of such accusations. Although these people are a minority, no more than 30, they have equal representation in the party's political bureau.

As for myself, I was appointed only once in a governmental position, as minister of social affairs under Nasser, and that was only for a brief period. But I have held other posts - I was a member of the ASU Central Committee and Higher Executive Committee - by election.

I am not planning to run for election for another term as party leader. I am going to retire to my home village, where I will work to serve the interests of my constituents.

There is a trend within the party that advocates a coalition with the Islamists, despite hostility towards them under Nasser. How do you view this?

The Islamists have made their presence felt in Egypt and other Arab countries and this is a fact. We do not wish to be involved in further conflict with them, although they do not hide their feelings of hostility towards us. We no longer think of the past, but I think that neither the Nasserists nor the Islamists are ready to forget this past.

As a political party, we cannot ignore the other existing parties or ideologies, regardless of whether we agree or disagree with them. But we are not involved in any sort of compromise or coalition with any of these trends.

Would you favour the establishment of an Islamist political party?

Certainly not. My personal point of view is that the call for applying Islamic Shari'a cannot be accepted as a pretext for turning ulamas [Muslim scholars] into politicians. I am completely opposed to a theocratic government.

Ijtihad [interpretation of the Qur'an and Mohamed's sayings] is the job for a scholar, but that scholar is not entitled to impose his views on others.

The Islamists do not have a programme and their policies do not go beyond slogans. They uphold the slogan: "Islam is the solution" which we, as Muslims, do not dispute. But they have yet to explain how landlord-tenant or public sector problems can be addressed in the context of this slogan.

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