It’s the first time to write about
the character of president Sisi… I have already written before about Gamal
Abdel-Nasser after he left our world… may be because I haven’t started writing
yet while he was alive… I also wrote about Sadat in his life and after he died
as I was a very stubborn dissident of his policies… and he paid me back!! So I
was jailed for long months pending investigations over the January, 1977 case
which I was one of the accused… I also wrote about Mubarak while he was in
presidency and I was a dissident to his rule too… after he had left, I wrote criticizing
his policies and regime; meaning I didn’t write about him personally… As to
Morsi and muslim brotherhood regime, I consider what I wrote about them,
before, during and after they left power, a legacy I do cherish as a dissident
to their rule.
Now, I ask myself… do all writers
pretend to be loyal and obedient to presidents? ... I also wonder if this was
and will be the traditional entry paving the way for the dictator or the
“autocrator” to be born? Can man – while he is old, mature and well-off enough
– be deceived into falling in that ambush of paving the way for tyranny and
reproducing it once again? … We all witnessed that tyranny that led to
corruption and later that corruption made an alliance with profiteering, lack
of imagination and greed for power and money… of course, we all saw and
witnessed the consequences that were more than catastrophic!
Simply, the answer is … Yes… if
those pretenders of loyalty and obedience met with power greed… then the
dictator is born no way!!
Again, the answer could simply be…
No… if that greed for power and rule was replaced by the desire, will, work for
reform, renaissance and progress… and if the ruler knew he was brought to his
place by the people… and that he works with them and for them… if he knew he is
one of them and no better than anyone else just because he is the president… If
he took moral from those tyrants who preceded him and who were thrown away… and
above all this, if he proved through his public speeches and his publicly
declared practical behavior that he has only one face featured by modesty,
caring about the weak, looking after people interests and finding solutions for
the country problems… also, he shall have faith in God… to believe that
everything has a beginning and an ending and that the distance between them has
to be filled with what makes this ending a new beginning to stay eternal in the
conscience of the nation!
I believe Abdel-Fattah es-Sisi is
that human being that is fully aware of that story of the beginning and ending
and what lies in between!
He was brought up in the
neighborhood of al-Gamaliya which lies next to ad-Darb al-Ahmar and
al-Hussainiya neighborhoods… they all represent a vicinity that is full of
beginnings and endings. As our Master, Imam al-Hussain is an essential part of
the role model study depicting beginnings and endings and what lies in between…
he was grandson of prophet Muhammed… his mother is Fatema az-Zahraa and his
father was the knight that we all know… his course was distributed among
gaining knowledge, worship, renounce and knighthood… and the end was a stance
he adopted and paid his life as a price…
Also, there in that vicinity, you
can find al-Azhar… an Ismaili Shiite Fatimid beginning and a zigzag course that
fluctuated between prosperity and negligence… and then it became an Ashaa’ri
Sunni castle encompassing halls and columns for those believing in and adopting
the four major schools of Fiqh in Sunni Islam; Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanafi and
Hanbali… also, the vicinity is considered an ammunition store fueling revolution against oppression, injustice, depotism, aggression and occupation… There,
you can find the Minbar or platform where Archpriest Sergious once ascended to
give his speech calling for the unity of crescent and cross… also, there stood
once Gamal Abdel-Nasser declaring that “we will fight”…”we will fight”…”we will
fight”…”we will not surrender”!
And next to the mosques of al-Hussain and
al-Azhar, you can find those mausoleums of prophet Muhammed predecessors and
those of poles of Sufism… spreading like pearls in the vicinity… including for
example, al-Ga’afari… the unique in character and way!
In ad-Darb al-Ahmar and
al-Hussainiya neighborhoods, you can feel the nobility of our Egyptian folks…
the well where Naguib Mahfouz grasped his innovation!!
This is simply the geography of the
place where Abdel-Fattah as-Sisi was brought up… where merchants are committed
to their word that is more powerful and credible than any cheques or receipts…
their honesty and keeping secrets are their real capital… there, you can find
young men distinguishing between right and wrong!
And during the course of his life,
we meet that school producing real strong men who excel in this school whenever
they have a strong well-established beginning like that of Sisi… it’s the
school of armed forces or the great Egyptian army… through high school and
later in the Egyptian Military Academy, he was educated… brought up… and
absorbed his morals and attitude. Afterwards, he was appointed as a young
officer rising in ranks until he became Commander in Chief and here he is a Top
Commander… meaning; there was no tiny gap where anything may go to damage the
foundations of the beginning… not even affecting his course of growing up and
reaching maturity!
We see the Sunni Muslim president going to the
Coptic Orthodox Christian church many times… and not only once… inside, he
gives his apologies for the crimes committed against churches… it’s the second
time in the history of the Egyptian Republic since it was first declared that a
president goes to the church and exchange hugs with the Pope… only Gamal
Abdel-Nasser did it before with Pope St. Cyril VI and now
Abdel-Fattah es-Sisi with Pope Tawadros II!!
Was it a coincidence that Nasser
also lived in al-Gamaliya neighborhood when he was a student in an-Nahasseen
school and was residing in the alley of Khamis el-Ads… was it a coincidence
that both beginnings of Nasser and Sisi have the same geography?!
I read what others write mocking
Sisi when he kisses a disabled old woman, mother or wife of a martyr on her
forehead… when he kisses mentally-disabled kids or cancer patients… they mock
his way and the wording he uses in his speeches like “Egypt will be as large as
this world”…”you are in my eyes”… to the rest… they mock him and call this
pullshit. Some of them think that to be a president means you must frown and
look arrogant… and that you should use that tough scientific wording when you
talk. The more I read
and see how trivial those people are… and when the president continue on his
way the same as he always is… without décor... without makeup… without
pretending… I realize he is still the same human being who is aware of the
beginning, ending and the course in between… and that there is no space in his
upbringing to let him forget who he is… because I’m sure he learnt that the one
who forgets himself has already forgotten God… “those
who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves”.
From al-Gamaliy, ed-Darb al-Ahmar
and al-Hussainiya…from al-Hussain, al-Azhar, Um-el-Gholam and al-Ga’afari… to
the military high school… then Egyptian Military Academy…to working as a young
army officer… to specializing in the most elite international military
institutes… and promotion to Commander in Chief… that was the human alloy that
made him combine all this and “gear” with people… and I don’t think he will
stop until our homeland ship is safely landed over its target!
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article
was published in al-Mosawar magazine on July 13, 2016… item no. 4788.
To see the
original article, go to:
#almosawwar
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #sisi
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