resign to avoid having to deal with Lord Milner. The lord is said to have lost his way in the streets of Cairo one day and when his driver asked a passerby for directions, the man replied, “Tell your Englishman to ask Saad Zaghloul Pasha in Paris.” As a result of this national consensus, the Milner Commission failed in its task and the British government had to bow to the will of Egyptians and negotiate directly with Saad Zaghloul.
You will find this intense political consciousness among the Egyptian people on every page of Egypt’s history, without exception. The intellectuals and politicians analyze everything based on theories and preconceived ideas, talk much, and take part in complex debates in which they always disagree, whereas ordinary people, even if they are less well educated, often have a sound political instinct that gives them shrewd insight into everything that happens, and they adopt the correct position with amazing ease. Forty years after the death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, we are still debating his mistakes and his achievements, whereas the Egyptian people gave their opinion when Abdel Nasser died and millions of Egyptians came out to attend his funeral. These simple people who sobbed like children in mourning for Abdel Nasser were well aware of all his mistakes and knew that he was responsible for a cruel defeat for Egypt and the Arab nation, but they also understood that he was a great leader with a rare commitment to his principles and that he had done his best and devoted his life to his country. When we intellectuals face a confusion of choices we must always listen to the people. Ordinary Egyptians are by no means rabble or riffraff who do not know their own best interests, as Egyptian officials say. On the contrary, they usually have an infallible compass by which they determine the correct political position. Many intellectuals may stray from the nationalist path and become accessories and propagandists for the despotic regime, and we should bear in mind that intellectuals who lose their way always start by despising the people. We can understand our country only if we understand the people, and we cannot understand the people unless we respect their abilities and their way of thinking, listen to their opinions and experiences, and deal with them not as creatures of deficient intelligence and competence who need us as mentors but as people who have experience of life and from whom we should learn.
In a few weeks parliamentary elections will begin and the regime has refused to provide any guarantees that the elections will be fair. It has refused to repeal the emergency law or to purge the electoral registers of the names of dead people (who always vote for the ruling party), and it has rejected judicial supervision and even international monitoring. All the indications confirm that the next elections will be rigged, like all previous elections. In such circumstances Egyptians decide to boycott elections and despite the regime’s desperate efforts the turnout is never more than 10 percent of the electorate. The question here is: Why don’t Egyptians go to the polls? In fact, when Egyptians boycott elections, it is not at all a sign of passivity, as the regime’s propagandists repeatedly say. It is a conscious decision, effective and sound. If the elections are rigged and it is impossible to prevent electoral fraud, then boycotting them is the right choice, because it prevents the regime from claiming that it represents the people it rules. That’s why the regime is so vociferous in urging Egyptians to take part in the coming elections. The scenario has been written and produced and all the roles have been assigned. All they need is a cast of extras for the show to begin. The Egyptian people are not at all passive; they have grown wise from experience accumulated over many centuries.
The evidence for this is that Egyptians are keen to take part in any credible elections. Last year I
You will find this intense political consciousness among the Egyptian people on every page of Egypt’s history, without exception. The intellectuals and politicians analyze everything based on theories and preconceived ideas, talk much, and take part in complex debates in which they always disagree, whereas ordinary people, even if they are less well educated, often have a sound political instinct that gives them shrewd insight into everything that happens, and they adopt the correct position with amazing ease. Forty years after the death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, we are still debating his mistakes and his achievements, whereas the Egyptian people gave their opinion when Abdel Nasser died and millions of Egyptians came out to attend his funeral. These simple people who sobbed like children in mourning for Abdel Nasser were well aware of all his mistakes and knew that he was responsible for a cruel defeat for Egypt and the Arab nation, but they also understood that he was a great leader with a rare commitment to his principles and that he had done his best and devoted his life to his country. When we intellectuals face a confusion of choices we must always listen to the people. Ordinary Egyptians are by no means rabble or riffraff who do not know their own best interests, as Egyptian officials say. On the contrary, they usually have an infallible compass by which they determine the correct political position. Many intellectuals may stray from the nationalist path and become accessories and propagandists for the despotic regime, and we should bear in mind that intellectuals who lose their way always start by despising the people. We can understand our country only if we understand the people, and we cannot understand the people unless we respect their abilities and their way of thinking, listen to their opinions and experiences, and deal with them not as creatures of deficient intelligence and competence who need us as mentors but as people who have experience of life and from whom we should learn.
In a few weeks parliamentary elections will begin and the regime has refused to provide any guarantees that the elections will be fair. It has refused to repeal the emergency law or to purge the electoral registers of the names of dead people (who always vote for the ruling party), and it has rejected judicial supervision and even international monitoring. All the indications confirm that the next elections will be rigged, like all previous elections. In such circumstances Egyptians decide to boycott elections and despite the regime’s desperate efforts the turnout is never more than 10 percent of the electorate. The question here is: Why don’t Egyptians go to the polls? In fact, when Egyptians boycott elections, it is not at all a sign of passivity, as the regime’s propagandists repeatedly say. It is a conscious decision, effective and sound. If the elections are rigged and it is impossible to prevent electoral fraud, then boycotting them is the right choice, because it prevents the regime from claiming that it represents the people it rules. That’s why the regime is so vociferous in urging Egyptians to take part in the coming elections. The scenario has been written and produced and all the roles have been assigned. All they need is a cast of extras for the show to begin. The Egyptian people are not at all passive; they have grown wise from experience accumulated over many centuries.
The evidence for this is that Egyptians are keen to take part in any credible elections. Last year I
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