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Monday, May 01, 2006

What's Coming, Man of Honour?


I really wonder what it takes to be a leader in Egypt....any sort of a leader?!


There is a very corrupted regime ruling Egypt, a regime that has been draining the Egyptian people of every value. It is so dark so that most of us cannot point out any valuable thing or person. It is so dark so that we incline to every big resonant word...it doesn't matter who says it and for what he/she says it...the only thing that matters is that the word is brand new...tagged with sophistication...full of very artificial meanings.


Who is Ayman Nour? What does he aim at? What are his methods to change and re-build the grand prison of Egypt to turn it into the lovely country of Egypt? What sort of liberty does he refer to? What is the reason behind his sudden popping? Who are his allies? And how do they want to make use of the current state in Egypt?


Who are the members of Kefaya? Do they have a coherent view or coherent expectations? What binds them together? What sort of actions would they do if they were in power with these internal ideological conflicts? Is it just a temporary movement? Does it aim at changing the current president or it aims at changing the entire regime? What differences will they realise?


The judges “movement”, if it is to be so called, is a very important issue. Useful as well...brave also and certainly has its clear-cut impacts on the Egyptian society. A judge is a public official authorised to make sensitive decisions that affect people's livings.....justice in its institutionalised form contributes heavily to the state and to the regime in which we live – in general – so it is so important and crucial that it becomes independent. I salute them for their stand. But why people tag their stand and ironically themselves with honour. It is a mainstream public objection and they jumped in. It was a brave decision....it is, unfortunately, brave to challenge the state or the regime in Egypt. I remember 1968....where were the judges during all this time? Their movement remarkably aids the fight for freedom in Egypt....but it is just an aid not a solution. It can be viewed this way: assume that judges are really independent now....but wait the regime is still the same....maybe Mubarak is gone....people are still the same. What will be judges able to do? Do not give me a nice heck and walk the fine line....they will be able to do nothing at all. We will just enter the never ending maze.....the maze which we are already in.

Judges movement is a critical thing for it helps us to reach an edge over the regime...not because it enlightens our way to freedom. Those who are arguing hard to propagate the judges movement as the way of light are blind....or they are playing the lead clowns. Those are using all of the emotional words to motivate people....they are not speaking to their minds but to their feelings and anger. But where will you anger take us? Not for a lovely dance....not for the warm life we crave....not for the industrial country we need....not for cultural and educational developments that we shall have here in Egypt some day. The debate carries on for any other movement.....we must question them and their intentions as well.


I am not saying simply all of these movements are fake, I just want you to consider these questions and apply them to whatever figure or organisation. I keep my opinion for myself. I am not the man of insight or the man of the eon to judge all of these movements and people....they may be just better than me for their controversial acts and doings.


We all need the change and notice that I am not saying "we all the honourable people need the change". But what kind of change? A change that is able to re-structure how I, you, and all others think. The change we need is a change of mentalities. The change we need is a change of meanings of rights.

We all seek freedom. But to achieve it we have to really define and believe in freedom. We have to figure out what freedom means to us. We have to discover what implements that would lead us to it might be.

The best thing among all of what is happening in the scene now is the notion of objection and opposition itself, not the sayings nor the resonant words. But objection is so much like a blind freak taking all that exists by anger. Objection and public anger must be targeted at a very materialistic actions and aims. It is not an aim to say "Mubarak go to hell, we hate you". But it is an aim to figure out a replacement to the current regime. A replacement that is able to implement equality of rights and social justice. A replacement that is capable of giving rise to culture, awareness, education and science in Egypt. A replacement that will change how we conceive the ruling organisations. A replacement that will eliminate the ruling of whatever elite. A replacement that is able to stop us from making our own gods.

This replacement doesn't need people with wordy mouths aiming at power and power alone....power for its own sake. It needs the Egyptian people to understand what it takes to achieve what they want...it needs them to define what they want...it needs them to rule.

We don't need burnt figures from the past, we don't need those figures who served the current regime once by their silence, once by their stupidity or once with their corruption. We don't need those figures who took the corner silently like hyaenas nor those who kept singing their sole boring hymn, and when they found the chance to haunt some fame or some positions or even some new hymns of devotion they shouted out so buzzy loud in the hope of sharing the prey. We need to make our figures, our modern figures....those who are able to represent our thoughts not the thoughts of the very dark past. And whenever they don't represent us anymore...we have to substitute them. It doesn't matter who the figures might be, it only matters how truthful they are, how fine they represent our ideas, and how hard they work to implement these ideas through clear actions not through loud shouts.

Let's assume that the current regime is now a thing from the very near past....the castle has just crumbled, can you tell me what is going to happen. I have an answer for this....We will be watching the wolves killing each others...discarding any notion of species unity. And after the bloody battle has ended, the strongest wolf will be in power. He will love his winnings..he will love his power. Then, he will guard it and protect his position. The main difference is that we the sheep will have adored his courage. We will have protected our shepherd.


Any sort of public bragging or solidarity is really valuable, but its value will eventually fade to waste if it's not supported by plans, methodologies and coherent views and beliefs. The most important thing is that it must be supported by people's awareness, understandings and knowledge not their mere feelings which may be invoked using any word of honour.

4 comments:

Kareem Alkaseer said...

Thanks for your comment.

This change in mentalities cannot be done unless there is a very powerful political reform - and I don't think this one(s) is available now. This is so because the current regime cannot afford change really. These mentalities that need to change is the regime's best defenders. It will never allow these mentalities to change. We will never change as long as this regime exists. So, there must be a replacement. By the regime I don't mean the state, rather I mean the state and the people together. And to change this regime we have to change ourselves as well as the "regime"...simultaneously.
It may be hazy what I am saying..but in fact it is not. Any "good" replacement to the current state will have to work, with people, to change people themselves. This must be done by every realistic means, any new regime has to change the society from inside.
I am not contradicting myself. We will not bring about the finest or the most appropriate replacement I believe in this. But even a minor change in our case in Egypt, is really a very important one. As we won't bring the finest replacement in power, the new regime will not be so much different from the past ones. And it will not serve the people as they/we expected. Anyway, most of us will "love" the replacement really because they will consider it to be their choice. In fact our bad choice. And it will carry on until we are through. But I have another thing to say...time is the measurement of how many actions take place, so it may be not too far for us to reach what we want - yet what we want is unknown for now!

The second point is that there is no educational reform without governmental reform. Think about it, will we the people decide what to be taught in schools for example or even will we decide how it is to be taught. I disagree with you about this.

Thank you again.

El3en Elsehrya said...

How do you think Boring Lips we can create our figures.
Figures are made as a result of the current political dynamics.
There is no ligitimate pathway of creating a leader in Egypt now and this is in-fact one of the policies of the current regime, to dry all the resources that might create a leader other than those chosen by them.
This leaves us with figures created despite the regime's acceptance, but who is capable of arm-twisting the regime other than the US...???????
Hence, we conclude that we are left to luck, or left to a random change that might create a leader out of the blues.
It is a dark tunnel that I can not see light through, despite all the signs that change is impending, but I am not sure it would be for the better....!!!!!!!!!

Kareem Alkaseer said...

El3en Elsehrya:

I think figures are made, not inherited. And when the past figures continue to be also the figures of the future they are re-made. This is so becuase they become figures because we the people accept - and some time approve - them as our figures. Our acceprtence is because we think that they will be able to do what we need....this acceptence is out of our awareness and so of our livings. Is Aymn Nour a figure? For some yes, for me not. This some think he represents them, but I don't think so. Was Noaman Gomaha a figure? During the election he was for many, but where is he now and how these many think about him? Is Mubarak a figure? Yes he is with no hesitation. Why? because we the people due our awareness, our livings and the regime accepted/forced to stand silent when it we had the chance once so he became one of the real pains now. He is a figure because of us...because we made it.
In the post I meant that we have to carefully push our "chosen" or "forced-by-livings" figures. I meant that we really have to criticise everyone who claims to be a figure so that we are not taken by his/her loud shouts. His/her shouts simply may represent ideas other than ours or he/she may be weaker than that who may be our figure.
I agree with you that figures are "made as a result of the current political dynamics" as you said. But this time we joined the game so we can control who to be our figure - in the past we joined in also but very passively.
Another point is that I really think that those figures that we will "choose" will not be good enough...becuase simply we are not good enough. But I believe that we can learn through this opposition wave..yes we will learn a lot, bad things mixed with good things, but it takes time. But again what we will learn will not be complete, we will still have to learn under a new regime. It is only when we can know ourselves, fix ourselves we will be able to bring about the right regime.

Raghood:

He got half the truth I think - we are not good yet. You got the hope we all need and he is thinking hard - and for me he thinking in a really coherent way - to analyse the situation. He is doing what most of us lack, and we need this way to tackle things. I think this combination is really what we always needed.

This what I think, I'd love to know how you both think about it.

Oh by the way they say that who sees a light coming from the end of the tunnel...dies!! So why do we bother. Kidding :D

Thank you.

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