On the first day of
Hosni Mubarak’s trial last week, after the whole world had
seen the ousted Egyptian president brought on a stretcher and his emaciated face
peering through the bars of a huge cage, representatives of all political
movements in Egypt enthused about what they called a momentous historic
event.
In their own ways, they hailed justice being done and the triumph
of the people of Egypt over corruption and abuse.
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Brotherhood, Dr. Saad Katatani emphasized that the trial ushers the phase of
reconstruction and development of his country.
For the Wafd, Issam
Sheikha, a member of the party’s Supreme Council, stressed that this was not
vengeance but a public display of justice and a clear warning to all those who
would rule Egypt in the future.
For Sayed Abd Alaal, secretary- general
of the Tagammu party – the united national progressive movement that is the
party of the Left – the trial is the beginning of a new political life and the
people have shown that they can bring to book those who abused
them.
Going one step further, Issam al-Islambuli, a member of the
Nasserist party, declared that this was an enormous step forward on the way to
the construction of the new Egypt about to rise on the basis of democracy,
freedom, justice and the respect of law.
Ayman el-Nur, founder of the El
Rad (tomorrow) party, said that the revolution had succeeded in creating new
rules for justice and retribution.
Last but not least, a member of the
January 25 youth coalition declared that Mubarak’s trial was “the pinnacle of
justice” and that it was “an historic event for the whole world and not just for
Egypt.”
Indeed high sounding words such as politicians love to use to
accompany important or founding events in the life of a country. Words befitting
a revolutionary period that brought down Mubarak’s regime and also – perhaps –
the 60-years rule of the army. Words defining the mood in the country today, and
its hopes for the future.
There is only one problem.
The
representatives of all these parties conveniently forget and try to make their
country forget how Egypt descended into today’s calamitous situation.
The
Muslim Brotherhood does not want to remember that it, together with the Fascist
movement Young Egypt, threw the country into chaos in the 40s, bringing to an
end the only democratic episode in the history of Egypt and precipitating the
Officers Coup of July 1952. It also forgets to mention the platform today of its
own party – Justice and Freedom – calling for the establishment of an Islamic
rule based on the Koran and Shari’a (Islamic Law), in other words a theocratic
dictatorship that would make Mubarak’s regime sound like the embodiment of
liberal democracy.
The representative of the Wafd forgot to mention his
party’s failure to install a viable parliamentary regime during its rule – from
the 20s to the 40s – a failure that, coupled with the subversive activities of
the Muslim Brothers, led to the aforementioned Officers Coup.
The member
of the Nasserist party – which somehow managed to keep afloat throughout the
Mubarak years – did not see fit to mention that Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regime was
a hard-core dictatorship: Freedom of speech was abolished, ordinary people lived
in fear of the Muhabarat secret police coming to make arrests at the crack of
dawn – a technique that Nasser learned from his friends in Soviet Moscow. Nor
did he mention the executions of the enemies of the regime – something that
Mubarak never did. Perhaps worse, he forgot that the nationalization of the
industries by Nasser dealt a death blow to the Egyptian economy and was largely
responsible for today’s disastrous situation.
Lastly, the representative
of the January 25 coalition deludes himself if he believes that humiliating
Mubarak is an historic event for the whole world that will change the course of
history.
That is not to say that Mubarak does not bear his share of blame
for the abysmal political and economic situation of Egypt after 30 years of his
rule.
However, the people of Egypt should also keep in mind the social
and religious factors that have been and still are the main stumbling block
preventing democracy and economic progress in Egypt – and indeed throughout the
Arab world.
In many conversations between Westerners and Egyptian friends
in Cairo, one of the main topics was why did industrialization stop at the
frontiers of Islam. Why is there no developed Arab country? Why is the Arab
region one of the poorest of the world? The answers given by the Egyptians were
unequivocal: There were two main factors that prevented progress: first, Islam,
and second, the feudal/tribal makeup of Arab societies. These two factors froze
a medieval way of life and set up a screen of sand between the Arab region and
Europe where progress was taking place at a rapid pace – this in spite of their
proximity and of the developed commercial exchanges in the Mediterranean. The
Arab world was left behind while Europe moved ahead.
The big question is
what “new Egypt” is going to emerge from the events of the January 25
Revolution.
Will it be a country willing to go to the roots of the
problem and to tackle the main obstacles to its progress? This would be a
painful process, lengthy and convoluted, fraught with controversies and perhaps
difficult conflicts. A process that may seem impossible in the foreseeable
future, though it is the only one that can save this great and important
country.
If, on the other hand, as all the politicians said, the trial of
Hosni Mubarak – the image of an old and ailing leader on a stretcher in a cage –
becomes the defining event setting Egypt on a new path, then there is nothing to
hope for.
Zvi Mazel was ambassador to Egypt from 1996 to 2001 and is now
a fellow of The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.