Egypt’s missing political middle

Source:
Al-Monitor
Date of source:
29 Jan 2014
Reference:
Dear reader, I know that these lines will be heavy on the eyes and on your
conscience, but I ask you to consider them and I hope that they motivate you to
take action.
I always recall my meeting with Ahmed Zaki, an Egyptian journalist living and
working in London. Zaki explained to me that the modern Egyptian state — since
Muhammed Ali — has monopolized the ruling elite and the production of this
elite. This began with the educational missions Muhammed Ali sent to France
and continues even to this day. As a result, the ruling elite has naturally been
closer to the authorities than to the public, to the point that sometimes this
elite's vision and demands are separate from the reality and popular needs.
Another syndrome that has managed to survive since the days of Muhammed Ali
is the conflict over power between the army's institution and the religious
current. This has persisted from the time Muhammed Ali sent his son Ibrahim
Pasha to eliminate the Wahhabist religious movement until today, where we see
this syndrome in one way or another. Egyptian writer Farag Foda, who was
assassinated by the Islamists in 1992, spoke about this topic
[1]
.
He said that the only way out of this syndrome and vicious cycle is the formation
of a strong secular political current in Egypt that is outside the cloak of the
authorities — whether military or Islamic.
The regime of former President Hosni Mubarak has left Egypt void
[2]
 of any
uncorrupt political or administrative cadres. The deepest problem facing the
revolution
[3]
 and the state is the absence of uncorrupt cadres capable of
managing the state efficiently. Indeed, Mubarak's heavy legacy is the corrupt
cadres that have experience in managing the state, and nationalist cadres
without any experience in managing the state. Here I'm not just talking about
ministers, governors and members of parliament but also about second-, thirdand fourth-level state employees. We live in a country where only a single
department in a single university teaches public administration. This is a state
whose experienced political cadres have graduated from the school on the National Democratic Party, with all its corruption.
On the other hand, most of the educated middle class sees no need to involve
themselves in public or political work, in light of this totalitarian regime.
Likewise, the regime has persisted in propelling and supporting all types of
charitable projects that will put the minds of the middle and upper classes at
rest, through giving money to the poor. This allows them to sleep well at night,
convinced that they did everything they could and what is dictated by religion
and conscience. The middle class submitted and completely abandoned their
public role, their societal role and — most importantly — their political role.
Even today, after the revolution against the regime and the emergence of the
role of the middle class in the popular movement, many believe that the middle
class had performed its role by taking to the streets for a few days to protest once
against the Mubarak regime, and another time against the Muslim Brotherhood
regime. However, this is absolutely not true and not sufficient. And even those
from the upper and middle classes who were doing their societal duty have shied
away from these efforts in a political framework or through a political party,
using as a pretext the corruption of the political elite and the stances of political
parties. The majority of the middle and upper classes persist in criticizing
political parties and all that they do merely from behind their iPads and on their
mobile phones. Everyone is waiting for the other to do something, and everyone
is ready to criticize any act, but who wants to actually do anything?
Those who have busied themselves with public work since the January 25
Revolution
[4]
 as well as those affiliated with the revolution have entered into
many battles with opponents and enemies of the revolution. And the revolution
did in fact succeed in toppling Mubarak and his National Democratic Party, and
then the Military Council, and then the Brotherhood regime. However, every
time the revolution did not reach the seat of power, the latter was always
usurped by a third party. The worst thing about all of this — until now — is that a
lot of the "revolutionaries" did not learn the most important lesson on these
three occasions — that is, what is more important than toppling the regime is
what kind of regime comes after it. I argue that the primary battle facing the
revolution, and which the revolutionary forces did not focus on sufficiently, is
how to establish a political alternative that is outside the control of the state and
the regime. All battles — without building an alternative — against one party to
topple it, will lead to the same result: Power will fall in the hands of a third party
that is more radical and violent. This is a vicious and terrifying circle.
The only way out for the revolution, the state and society is for the revolutionary
current to realize that the primary battle in the Egyptian revolution — and what
they need to focus their efforts and time on — is building a civil alternative. The
latter should be composed of partisan cadres and organizations that have
societal roots, not under the cloak of the state. Furthermore, the state must
realize that the era of controlling production of the ruling elite has ended, and
that this is not befitting of a modern state. Only a peaceful, partisan political
current — in which political parties operate with full freedom in the framework
of competition — is capable of producing a strong deep-rooted political class
that always strives to master their work to serve citizens. These efforts must be
carried out so that these parties can compete, and their primary concern should
not be flattering the authorities to reach a political post.
The most important of all is that the upper and middle classes realize that they
have political and societal responsibilities that must be met, otherwise these
classes are inevitably transient. Many of the cadres that have good experience in
managing institutions and international companies must begin to shoulder their
responsibilities toward society. They must begin public work and building
experience in this field, to produce partisan cadres that work in political
parties — for they are the most capable of doing this. Criticizing political parties
and those working for these parties is of no use. The only way to make progress
is working with these parties, competing and replacing these old faces. This class
must realize that if in the next 10 years they are not able to lift a sufficient
number of people from the lower class to the middle class, the economy and the
state as a whole will not be able to continue. This is because the middle class,
which is the most productive, does not have enough people to produce what is
needed to support the economy. This is the duty and responsibility of that class
toward their children and future generations.
Everyone must realize that the biggest problem and the primary battle involves
rebuilding the Egyptian citizen himself, before anything else. The thing that the
Mubarak regime corrupted the most and persisted in its destruction were the
citizens themselves. Our primary battle is to build an alternative to the regime
and not to topple the regime, for the regime will not fall unless we have created
an alternative.