By SONIA FARID
A view of Cairo University. (File photo)
One of the miscalculations—and I dare say they’re pretty few—made by Egypt’s January 25 Revolution, was the assumption that by toppling the regime, the entire Egyptian people have made it to Everest, planted their flag, and stayed basking in the eternal glory of their newly-acquired freedom. Except that now they are finding out that they are still at the foot of the mountain looking up in awe at the miles they need to climb.
The miraculous way in which 30 years were uprooted in 18 months gave the impression that Egyptians possessed some kind of wand that turns stone into gold and that the utopia created in Tahrir Square was a rehearsal for the Garden of Eden Egypt was to become as soon as the revolution bore fruit.
They were in for another huge surprise: Old habits die hard and new ones emerge fast.
While ousting a president, taking corrupt officials to court, writing a new constitution, and holding fair elections seem like grueling processes—and indeed they are—replacing the deeply-rooted culture of mistrust the former suppressive regime managed to instill in the psyche of Egyptians throughout the years is like expecting scars of decades-long wounds to heal in a matter of days. Not going to happen that way.
For 30 whole years—maybe even more than half a century if we calculate as of the 1952 revolution by Gamal Abdel Nasser that toppled the monarchy and established the Arab Republic of Egypt—the regime had been giving the people all the reasons not only to doubt that it would ever act in their benefit, but also that it would deliberately inflict damage upon them the moment they posed the slightest threat to its hegemony.
I always recall a story that poignantly, and very painfully, underscores this lack of trust between the government and the people. A few years ago, a microbus, one of the most popular means of semi-public transportation in Egypt, was crossing a train track in Cairo when the alert signal—one that flashes a red light and lets out a shrilling whistle to warn cars that it is unsafe to proceed because the train is approaching—was out of service.
Until the problem got fixed, a policeman was placed at the crossing to signal to cars whether the road is clear or not. When the microbus was about to cross, the policeman warned the driver that the train was coming in a few seconds. Seeing that other cars had already crossed, and in light of the sour history that characterizes relations between the police and the working class in particular, the driver was certain that the policeman was abusing his power to humiliate him and prove who the boss was. He went ahead and crossed—and there goes the microbus, the driver, and the passengers.
That deadly mistrust is, of course, not without a justification and records of policeman-citizen relations give a bone-chilling account of the damage Egyptians have sustained at the hands of this much-hated institution and explain why it was impossible to trust any figure of “authority” even at times when this mistrust could cost you your life.
Now that a revolution took place and the corrupt regime is supposedly gone without a trace, it is naïve, even stupid, to think that those sentiments have undergone any substantial change and that Egyptians and power wielders, regardless of what kind of “power” they posses, will live happily ever after.
The only change that has so far been seen was a shift in the dynamics of hatred and a redirection of the long-harbored bitterness so that while the “powerful” suppressed the people before the revolution, the people are now getting back at the “powerful” and as indiscriminately as was the case with the microbus driver.
This brings to my mind another story that took place last week during a demonstration staged in front of the Syrian embassy in Cairo to condemn the killing of civilians by Bashar al-Assad’s regime, when one of the protesters saw a high-ranking policeman standing by and started yelling at him, “You are here to beat us, aren’t you?” even though neither this cop nor the other policeman with him had shown any signs of doing so.
The policeman looked at her and said calmly, “Why should we? It’s a peaceful protest.”
While the police were the most hateful entity before the revolution and apparently still are, the symptoms of the anti-authority syndrome have started to spread like a plague, but this time the target is altogether different, and I have to say unexpected—simply because it was never thought of as a symbol of repression that needed to be ousted with the regime: university professors.
For the first time in my 15-year teaching experience at Cairo University, I am gaining insight into how my colleagues and I are looked upon by students as the main perpetrators of their misery and the cause of any failure they are facing or are likely to face in the future.
To wit: When the English Department exam results for the first semester came out and the grades did not satisfy the students, they staged massive protests, talked to the press, and created Facebook groups not only to demand that the results be changed, but also to finally be able to express how monstrous their professors have always been and how—now that the country is free—so they should be from the grip of the “injustice” done them by a group of nerdy nutcases whose main goal is to mess up their lives and ruin their career through failing them in the exams.
Regardless of the fact that their demands are illegitimate by university standards and that asking for more grades across the board is not acceptable in any academic institution and despite the fact that the results were not really different from those of previous years, the students found this an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the protest culture that swept the country since January 25. They decided to create of professors a mini-regime that requires instant removal for the welfare of their mini-Egypt.
To reach this end, they have followed a revolution manual that gives all the wrong definitions of freedom of expression and the right to protest as they staged a fierce slander campaign against the “officials” of their “regime” who they started charging with financial and academic corruption, nepotism, and moral decadence in order to make their cause all the more worth fighting for. Adding a little bit of spice like accusing members of staff of affiliation to the notorious formerly ruling, now disbanded National Democratic Party and making statements about an alleged friendship between the head of department and the former First Lady and prime minister made their revolution even more mouth-watering.
Next thing, they will demand the enemies’ heads and the entrance to the department will be adorned with a couple of pretty guillotines!
I am not sure I can blame a group of gullible teenagers who grew up in an atmosphere that condemns any entity which applies the law because they have never been able to trust this law… why would they?
I can’t blame them if since the day they were born, they have been the loyal subjects of a regime that regarded freedom as the vilest of vices.
And I cannot blame them if as soon as they saw the chains breaking, they have decided to practice this “freedom” the way they see it. Thank God they know this word exists in the dictionary in the first place.
Now, as the old animosities persist and new ones are seeing the light, are we still going to the hold on to the belief that we are done liberating Egypt?
To those who answer “yes,” you’d better pack and immigrate to Antarctica… and for those who realize it’s a NO, better roll up your sleeves for the real revolution has just begun!
(Dr. Sonia Farid of Al Arabiya can be reached at: sonia.farid@mbc.net)
source : alarabiya
Loading ...
0 comments:
Post a Comment