Mohamed Naguib, the first president of Egypt .. called for democracy and was crushed by the military dictatorship

Day after day, the military rule in Egypt proves its failure to manage many important files, on top of which is the Renaissance Dam crisis, the neglect of Egypt's rights and lands and the involvement of the army in politics and economic activity. Governance and politics, and his fate was isolation, distortion and restriction of his freedom.

The story of Naguib, who commemorates his death today, August 28, is the story of an Egyptian dream of freedom and democracy that ended quickly after the military killed him in its cradle, so that Egypt fell into the clutches of military dictatorship.

Naguib's fears, which he mentioned in his memoirs, were realized, so that military rule became a turning point in the history of Egyptian rule, after which it could not return to normal civilian rule.

Muhammad Naguib was born in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on February 19, 1901, according to military records. His father, Youssef Naguib, was an officer in the Egyptian army in Sudan with the rank of Bakbashi (lieutenant colonel), and his grandfather was the Egyptian admiral (brigadier) Muhammad Bey Othman, who was killed in one of the Egyptian army battles. Against the Mahdist Revolution.

Naguib the son lived in Sudan until he completed his high school, then proceeded to realize his dream and follow in the footsteps of his father and uncle Abd al-Wahhab Othman, to return to Egypt and join the Military School in 1917, and he graduated from it after a few months in which he showed clear superiority, to return to Sudan again, but as an officer in the Egyptian army over there.

In 1923 Naguib moved to the Royal Guard in Cairo, and he did not last long because of his relations with the Sudanese militants and his support for them, and in 1934 he was transferred to the Border Guard Corps in El-Arish, and after the 1936 treaty he was part of the committee that oversaw the organization of the Egyptian army in Khartoum.

He was passionate about scientific research and study in addition to his military work, so he obtained a baccalaureate degree in 1923 and enrolled in the Faculty of Law, and in 1927 he became the first officer in the Egyptian army to obtain a Bachelor of Laws.

Naguib continued his education and obtained a postgraduate diploma in political economy in 1929, a postgraduate diploma in private law in 1931, and he obtained a staff of war certificate in 1939, and before that he founded the Egyptian Army Magazine in 1937.

Naguib participated in the Palestine War in 1948 and showed great courage during which he was even injured several times, including three serious injuries, after which he obtained the "Fouad First Military Star" and the rank of "Al Bakwiya", and became the director of the Officers School after the end of the war.

In 1950, Muhammad Naguib was promoted to the rank of major general and was a candidate for the post of Minister of War in Najeeb al-Hilali's ministry, but Major General Najeeb's popularity and his dear personality among the officers prompted the royal palace to oppose his appointment as a minister.

The clash between the palace and Naguib escalated after his success in assuming the chairmanship of the board of directors of the Officers Club on January 1, 1952, with a majority of votes, despite the palace’s will, prompting King Farouk to dissolve the council.

Meanwhile, Naguib had a more important role that the king and his men do not know with certainty, even if doubts are surrounding him, which is the leadership of the Free Officers Organization, who saw Naguib’s joining them as a "great treasure," as Abdel Hakim Amer described to Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Naguib's popularity and reputation played a big role in the joining of many army officers to the organization and later in support of the military coup that took place on July 23, 1952 and overthrew King Farouk and was known as the Blessed Army Movement and later on as the July 1952 Revolution.

With Naguib’s sweeping popularity and his formation of the first ministry after the army’s movement, then assuming the presidency of the republic after its announcement in 1953, signs of disagreement with the officers of the Revolutionary Command Council began to float to the surface. While Najib saw the necessity of returning the army to its barracks and removing it from power and the return of civilian parliamentary life, the military had Another opinion ended with the removal of Najib and placing him under house arrest.

In his famous memoir "I Was President of Egypt," Mohamed Naguib reveals how the military dictatorship led by Gamal Abdel Nasser began penetrating the country and striking all his dreams and the Egyptians' dreams of freedom and democratic political life.

"The army left the barracks and spread to all civil interests and ministries, so the disaster that we are still suffering from in Egypt occurred. Every officer of the command wanted to be strong," as Naguib quotes in his memoirs.

The army began to tighten its control over political life in Egypt, with the help of jurists who did not find any embarrassment in adapting the laws to the whims of the council officers, so that the country ended up in the "abyss of lawlessness."

Power became concentrated in the hands of some officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, who were carrying out their decisions despite opposition from President Muhammad Naguib and a few members of the Council, which prompted Najib to resign in February 1954.

The Revolutionary Command Council accepted Najib's resignation and proceeded to distort his image, but mass popular demonstrations and the protest of weapons from the army, led by the cavalry, forced the council to retreat and restore Najib to power.

It was only a few days later that the famous "March crisis" began after the announcement of decisions to organize political work and prepare for the dissolution of the Revolution Council. Then the Council later retracted these decisions, and organized paid demonstrations chanting against freedom and democracy, before Nasser directed his new blow to Najib by disqualifying him. Prime Minister and reduce his powers as President of the Republic.

Within a few months, Abdel Nasser was able to control the Council and dismiss its opponents and dealt a fatal blow to Naguib and democracy together on November 14, 1954, when a decision was issued to isolate Naguib and place him under house arrest in Zeinab Al-Wakeel's palace in Al-Marj neighborhood in Cairo, until President Anwar Sadat issued a decision to end His house arrest in 1971.

Abdel Nasser abuse Naguib did not stop at the point of his dismissal and placing him under house arrest, but he worked to remove his name from history books, official documents and records, and prevent him from appearing in the media, or refer to him as the first president of the Egyptian Republic, and perhaps that is what prompted Naguib to choose the phrase "I was President of Egypt "is the title of his diary that he wrote while in prison.

Naguib describes in his memoirs what happened to Egypt after the military monopolized the ruling and the spread of detention centers, corruption and crises, saying, “I knew at that time how ugly the crime of revolution against the Egyptian human being was, and at that time I knew which quagmire we threw into the Egyptian people, for they lost their freedom, lost their dignity, lost their land and multiplied The sewers overflowed, the water ran short, the crises erupted, morals ceased, and the human being lost.

President Mohamed Naguib died on August 28, 1984, after suffering with illness and loneliness, and a military funeral was held for him to reappear and to name some facilities, the most famous of which was a metro station in central Cairo, the last of which was a military base established by the Egyptian army in the city of Hammam, in the north of the country, and it was opened in 2017. .

And the history of the first president of Egypt after the monarchy becomes a witness to the dictatorship of the military and their oppression of their opponents, even if they were sitting at the same table yesterday, and his famous saying, "If the army leaves its barracks, it will inevitably topple all the civilian political forces, to become the only force in the country" is valid until present day.