Alaa Al Aswani: When will we learn from the people?

This is an incident I witnessed myself a few years ago. I was walking in downtown Cairo and stopped to buy some newspapers from the woman who sells them there. I found the newspapers and books spread out on the pavement as usual but the woman wasn’t there. I thought she must have gone off on some errand and would come back so I stood around waiting for her. But I soon noticed a sign placed on top of the newspapers, written in large crooked letters. The woman said in the sign that the police had arrested her unfairly at the instigation of the owner of the shoe shop nearby and that she supported her orphaned children with the money she made selling newspapers. She asked customers to take whatever newspapers they wanted and put the money in a cardboard box with a slot cut in the top, placed on top of the newspapers. I took a newspaper and put the money in the slot, and then I had the idea of watching what other customers would do. I moved away and observed what happened for a full half-hour. Several customers came along, looked surprised, hesitated a moment, then took the papers they wanted and put the money in the slot. One person behaved differently: after taking a newspaper he opened the box, took out some of the money, put a large banknote inside and then closed the box, in other words he used the money in the box to make change for his banknote. Later I thought about what happened. These were ordinary Egyptians who suddenly found themselves unmonitored. Any one of them could have taken for free as many newspapers and magazines as he wanted, or even taken the cash from the box, but they all behaved honestly and made sure they paid the woman in full. I also thought that these same passers-by, despite behaving honourably in the case of the woman selling newspapers, might behave quite differently in other situations. If, for example, they could avoid paying their taxes, they would not hesitate for a moment. What is it that made the same people honest with the newspaper woman and then find devious ways of evading taxes? The reason is that in the first case they faced a real and just cause: a woman struggling to bring up orphans and unjustly arrested by the police. But the state’s taxes they see as a specious cause because they know how corrupt the government is and that in Egypt it is the poor who pay their taxes in full while the rich and powerful usually resort to big accounting firms which help them evade taxes by legal means. They also know that taxes are rarely spent on services for the people. Those simple passers-by make up a sample of the great bulk of the Egyptian people. Members of the ruling National Democratic Party, people affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, political activists and members of all political parties put together account for no more than five million Egyptians at the very most. That means there are 75 million Egyptians who make up the silent majority in Egypt, completely withdrawn from political life. The reasons for this withdrawal are threefold, in my opinion:

Firstly, Egyptians do not trust anything the regime does or says. In fact, they read official statements in the sense opposite to the sense intended. For example, if the Ministry of Health announces that a certain disease is not present in Egypt that confirms to them that the disease is indeed present. If the government denies it is going to put up prices they are certain that it will out them up. This legacy of mistrust between Egyptians and the government means they always prefer not to deal with the government because all they expect from it is lies and iniquity.

Secondly, Egyptians cannot see anyone in the opposition who is persuasive and credible, and they see most opposition parties as no less corrupt and hypocritical than the government.

The third reason why Egyptians have withdrawn is that they face a bitter daily struggle, which saps their energy, to feed and educate their children. But the withdrawal of most Egyptians from public affairs does not at all mean they are passive, cowardly or uninterested in what is happening in their country. On the contrary, they have their way of assessing events and dealing with them. These silent people are those who demonstrated by the thousands across Egypt and underwent beatings, detention and torture, in order to protest at the U.S. attack on Iraq and to sympathize with the victims of the Gaza massacre. They are those who organized hundreds of strikes and came out to block the highways in protest at the inhumane conditions in which they live. Simple Egyptians often have a sound political instinct that enables them to make better judgments than some academics and intellectuals. In 1970 President Gamal Abdel Nasser died, after suffering a humiliating defeat which led to the occupation of Egyptian territory. Since that day the intellectuals have been embroiled in a long debate, which still continues, over the positive and negative aspects of Abdel Nasser. But ordinary Egyptians came out in their million at Abdel Nasser’s funeral to say farewell to the leader in an iconic scene unprecedented in Egypt except in the case of nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul. Egyptians forgave Abdel Nasser his defeat and his regime’s faults because they understood through their common sense how sincere, honourable and magnanimous he was.

Years later, when Anwar Sadat signed a peace agreement with Israel, Egyptians could not oppose the agreement but they undermined it in their own way, boycotting Israelis completely and not allowing any Egyptian to deal with them. The silent majority in Egypt is not in a coma and is not isolated from life but it has its own way of assessing events and dealing with them. During the regrettable events which took place recently between Egypt and Algeria because of a football match, regardless of the vicious reciprocal media war between the two countries, Egyptians felt that what happened was more than just football hooliganism and that the Algerian regime was implicated in an organized crime, using military planes to bring the thugs who assaulted the dignity and honour of Egyptians. They were angry, but some writers and intellectuals, as usual, did not understand their sense of humiliation. They looked down on the Egyptians and accused them of behaving like a mob. Last week the well-known Algerian resistance fighter, Djamila Bouhired, put out a statement announcing that she was short of money and needed to pay for medical treatment for various diseases of old age. An account was opened for donations to Djamila Bouhired and, according to the newspaper al-Youm al-Sabie, the donations from Egyptians amounted to 80,000 pounds in two days. That’s how Egyptians proved once again how civilized they are. They demand an official apology from the Algerian regime for the crimes it committed against Egyptians but at the same time they understand well the difference between the Algerian regime and the Algerian people. They also understand the difference between Algeria’s thugs and its heroes and martyrs. Although they were humiliated by what the Algerian thugs did they still thought it their duty to contribute as much as they could towards the medical costs of a resistance fighter whom they have long loved and considered a model of honour and courage. I don’t mean of course that Egyptians are a people without flaws. In fact the corrupt and oppressive regime which sits on top of Egyptians has brought about many behavioral defects which it is our duty to criticize and to remedy, but we do not have the right to look down on Egyptians, make fun of them or insult them. The real value of an intellectual is determined by his relationship with people. That’s what history teaches us – that intellectuals who grow apart from the people and despise them immediately lose their value and their influence, however gifted or cultured they may be. The latest lesson we have learned from the Egyptian people is its reaction to attempts to make the presidency hereditary. Over some years millions of pounds have been spent, dozens of seminars have been held and hundreds of articles have been written to portray Mr Gamal Mubarak as the next president of Egypt. But Egyptians are not at all convinced by all that, and as soon as Dr Mohamed ElBaradei appeared as a possible presidential candidate and Egyptians sensed his competence and his sincerity, they rushed to support him with enthusiasm. Egypt is now more ready for change than at any time in the past, but change will not come about unless we learn how to understand, respect and love the Egyptian people. Only then will Egypt arise.

Democracy is the solution.

Posted via web from Tarek's posterous