“History repeated”, “history revised”, “history created”— these are some of the clichés that we find used, often with exaggeration. But what is happening in Egypt at present is nothing short of the creation of history. Dr. Mohamed Morsi has been doing just that. In a mere ten days after taking over presidency, Dr. Morsi set out on a historic journey, trying to undo the wrongs committed by the Mubarak regime, bringing about healthy reforms at home and in the Arab, Mid-East, and international relations. As Sayyid Abu Dawud put it in the Islam Today channel, this is the inauguration of a new epoch in Egypt.
Comparing Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year repressive rule and Morsi’s 30-day democratic rule, the reputed Canadian journalist and editorial staff member of the largest Canadian daily Toronto Star Haroon Siddiqui commented with wry humour:
Thinking about this column prompted a childhood memory of the day in India when His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad visited a family to convey condolences on the death of a nobleman. We lined up at the gate where the king’s car pulled up, he rolled down the window from his back seat, said a few words and left.
That was a rare royal favour. But what we appreciated most was that our main road had been paved for his brief visit.
That was a different era a long time ago. But it lingered on in Egypt until last year’s Arab Spring, prior to which roads were spiffed up not only wherever Hosni Mubarak went but also his wife Suzanne.
The Mubaraks lived in style, as had Anwar and Jehan Sadat before them, while most Egyptians toiled in abject poverty – as they have since the time of the pharaohs and the queens Cleopatra and Nefertiti.
Now Egypt has a first lady who wants to be called “the first servant of the people” instead.
Naglaa Ali Mahmoud – who, in keeping with Islamic tradition, does not take on her husband’s name – “does not wear makeup or paint her nails,” reports the Associated Press. “The way she wears her headscarf has been deemed by the elites as the antithesis of elegance.”
During husband Mohammed Morsi’s presidential campaign rallies, “she would sit among the crowd, unnoticed and refusing special seating.”
Fawaz A. Gerges, Professor of Middle East Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science notes how, should he play his cards well, Morsi’s presidency could be the first definitive nail on the Egyptian military rule’s coffin.
Forty-six years ago, in the wake of Sayyid Qutb’s execution by Gamal Abdel Nasser, this writer had written, “Beware you profane (taaghuti) forces! The day is not far when Islamic power will assert itself.” And now in Egypt and Tunisia we are witnessing the fulfilment of the dream cherished by thousands, both living and dead – the dream of a New World based on divine justice. Morsi, Ghannouchi and Qaradawi walk in the forefront holding aloft the banner of this New World.
Morsi, who rose to power with the support of the Muslim Brotherhood, has since been taking very astute and progressive steps to overcome the prejudices against that movement. The Brotherhood has been the victim of vicious propaganda and as such is being looked upon with concern and aversion among the official circles and top authorities in the Gulf nations; indeed, it has been banned in several places. So it was necessary for Morsi to correct such perceptions, and to surmount his limits as a Brotherhood man. Domestically, he succeeded in establishing his image as the President of all Egyptians irrespective of faith or party. And the same image had to be built abroad as well. It was for this that he chose Saudi Arabia, the country generally held in high regard as the unquestionable power in the Gulf and in the entire Middle East, as the very first stop in his foreign tour.
That worked. His Saudi visit was a huge success. His first world conquest. One conspicuous if unexpected outcome of the tour was King Abdullah’s decision to make billions of dollars’ investments in the industrial and agricultural spheres of Egypt, and to give Egyptian companies substantial participation in Saudi developmental projects. The Saudi press applauded this new Egypt-Saudi friendship and showered praises on Morsi. Papers noted that if Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the two greatest powers in the Arab world, join hands they can work wonders. The two nations had strained relations in the Mubarak era; the situation is now changing. A new chapter has opened – one of deep mutual bond.
During Mubarak’s rule Egypt’s relationship with African countries had been nearly lost. In fact other countries even set up a common platform of Nile Basin countries as a gesture of their animosity. Egypt faced the tremendous risk of losing its share of Nile water. Now Morsi, as his plane took off to Africa a few hours after the conclusion of the Saudi trip, was set to create history there too. After the blighted Mubarak days Morsi is offering all Africans a bright and promising future. Addressing the African Union Summit he declared that Egypt would back all Africans to its utmost capacity and potential.
Morsi’s visit paid immediate dividends. Through the brief trip he reaped a number of achievements – notably, greater closeness between Sudan and South Sudan, establishment of the African Common Market, mutual capital investments with Ethiopia and Sudan, and ensuring, to this end, huge inflow of Arab-Egyptian investment.
During the Mubarak regime, Sudanese-Egyptian relationship also had flagged. Morsi’s visit has injected new life into the ties between the two. This was of course facilitated by the fact that Morsi and the Sudanese President Umar al Basheer have been friends in the Movement.
As a concomitant result of the new Egypt-Sudan friendship, Morsi was able to get the Egyptian journalist Seema Adil released from the jail in Khartoum; she accompanied him back to Egypt in his presidential plane. That too suggested a fresh dawn – the dawn of a new world order. In brief, in a matter of days Morsi was able to win over the African continent, indeed the African hearts. A conquest far greater than world conquest.
[IBRAHIM H. MALABARI is President Messenger of Mercy Foundation International]