Alaa Al-Aswani is one of Egypt's leading public intellectuals. I transcribe his weekly columns at Deutsche Welle for future reference. This column which is about Egypt it carries a warning for America as well. Our president and Sisi were cut from the same cloth.
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| Alaa Al-Aswani is one of Egypt's leading public intellectuals. I transcribe his weekly columns at Deutsche Welle for future reference |
Cameron was not angry and did not accuse the questioners of being traitors who financed their goal of bringing down the British state, but he said: "The taxpayer has the right to make sure that his money is spent in a proper way." He then published a copy of the invoice showing that he purchased the coffee machine with his own money.
Days ago, a court in New York sentenced President Donald Trump to return two million dollars to his charitable organization because he took from this amount and used it to fund his campaign in violation of the law. This strict control of public money exists in all democratic countries. The citizen there owns the public money and does not allow the president to spend it without supervision. Misuse of public money is a serious enough charge to dismiss the president. A citizen in a democratic state is the symbol and sole master of the state, and he chooses the president in fair elections, then he monitors him and may isolate him if he misuses his powers. Do we compare that with what is happening in Egypt?
Al-Sisi borrowed debt until Egypt's debts reached an unprecedented size in its history. Indeed, the Minister of Finance himself said in a television interview that the income of the Egyptian state has become barely enough to pay the debt installments and interest. Consequently, the state only has more debt to cover its expenses. More than half of the villages in Egypt without sanitation and government schools are in dire straits, and government hospitals suffer from severe neglect and a lack of capabilities. Millions of Egyptians lead a life unworthy of human beings. All of these tragedies did not prevent Sisi from spending billions in order to hold loud advertising conferences without benefit other than satisfying Sisi's dream of being a world leader and satisfying his love to talk in front of the cameras.
Even if this was achieved by hosting thousands of people from all over the world and spending lavishly on eating and drinking and flooding them with gifts in order to clap warmly whenever Sisi uttered a sentence even if it was naive or meaningless. Hypocrites in the Egyptian media say that the Sisi festivals are not spent on from the state budget, but rather that they are funded by businessmen. Even if that were true, wasn't it the first time that businessmen spent on hospitals and schools instead of this clowning? Surprisingly, Sisi refuses to hold him accountable for his spending of public money and considers this to be ingratitude and lack of manners from the people, and he stated before that in defiance of: "Yes, I am building new presidential palaces and I will continue to build them." [Does this seem familiar?]
What is the difference between the English citizen who revolted against the Prime Minister for a coffee machine and the Egyptian citizen who sees his president owes his name and then drains billions of presidential palaces and propaganda conferences. The difference is that the democratic countries have no repression, but in Egypt, a comment you write on Facebook will send you to prison .. In addition, the citizen in democratic countries grew up as the owner of the real country, but we in our country are treated as guests of the ruler.
Since the military assumed power in Egypt in 1952, the Egyptians have become helpless. The decision is always made by the president, and the Egyptians have no choice but to obey. How much have we paid for the presidents' ignorance, vanity, and love for appearing. Did Abdel Nasser consult the Egyptians in the decision to unite with Syria, in the nationalization of private companies, in the war in Yemen, or in the expulsion of international forces in 1967, which resulted in a war that resulted in the greatest defeat for Egypt in its history? Did Sadat consult the Egyptians in concluding a peace agreement with Israel? Did Mubarak consult them in any decision he made, and did Al-Sisi consult them before he drowned them in trillions of debts? Did he consult them on his projects, which he admitted to most of them, that they are done without feasibility studies? The Egyptian citizen starves as a result of policies he did not participate in making and dies in wars he has not decided to fight, and he and his children will remain indebted as a result of loans that no one has consulted about. Don't the Egyptians understand all of this?
There is a special nature for Egyptians that will be discovered by those who read Egyptian history. They understand everything that is happening in their country and realize the enormity of the injustice they are subjected to, but they seem to be completely surrendered and submissive until the dictator continues in his injustice and reassures that his rule has settled forever. Then the greatest surprise will occur and the people will rise up to uproot tyranny from its roots. The people seemed to surrender to injustice and corruption during the Mubarak era to the point that they mocked the opposition more than once and when social media circulated the call to demonstrate on January 25, mercenary regime mockers mocked them, then the surprise occurred, the Egyptians rose up and forced Mubarak to step down and then forced the military council to arrest Mubarak And try him.
Sisi now appears completely reassured after he messed with the constitution to remain in power to what God wills and threw tens of thousands of his opponents in prisons. There is no doubt that Sisi believes that he can make the country and the people whatever he wants and there is no doubt that the people have prepared for Sisi the biggest surprise and he will announce it soon.
Democracy is the solution
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