The late Dr. Hazem Hosni: The one who proposes the national project is the conscious and inspiring political leadership (social media)
Cairo -
The prominent Egyptian academic and politician, Dr. Hazem Hosni, has died at the age of 73. He was a professor of pure mathematics and statistics at Cairo University and spokesman for Lieutenant General Sami Anan’s electoral campaign during his bid to run in the 2018 Egyptian presidential elections.
This interview - which was not published - was conducted with him in his office at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University before his arrest (September 2019). We are publishing some of it.
The following is the text of the interview:
The late Dr. Hazem Hosni: Economic and political pressures brought out the worst in Egyptians (Al Jazeera)
In the social developments that took place in the last ten years, there has been something similar to a revolution in society’s values. What is your analysis of these phenomena? Is it constant or is it temporary and ends?
I am not saying that there is something always constant, but rather that everything changes according to social developments. Morals and values are not something abstract that results from a vacuum, but rather they are affected by social, economic, political, and cultural changes.
During the past ten years, we have had the wave of the Internet and openness to the world, and the internal and external changes that have cast their shadows on us, as everyone interacts with each other, regardless of their culture.
Economic and political pressures, during the last period, brought out the worst in Egyptians, just as the days of the revolution brought out the best in them. The terrible economic transformations to which society was exposed changed - a lot - values, and the shark became the standard of sovereignty in society, and then the dollar became the master.
These economic transformations gave sovereignty to the language of the market and the interests that came to control society, in addition to the laxity of authority in protecting rights, so there became a force parallel to the authority of the state, through which a group can recover stolen rights, or hijack the rights of others without any deterrent from the authority. There is no objection to the law.
All of this resulted in the emergence of a new language in dealing between people, which was previously frowned upon, but which imposed its presence by force, or we can say by force, “bullying,” and large segments of society became silent about it when they heard it, even if they actually rejected it.
The low level of education had a frightening impact on the values of our society. With this low level, many ideals and values were lost, such as the values of role models, knowledge, fault, and diligence, and were replaced by other values that society had never known before.
The effects that followed the January 2011 revolution were great and dangerous, and a number of mistakes were committed from the beginning as a youth revolution. I believe that the way in which the transitional phase was managed was very bad and the idea of people beating each other was used, and the help of hired groups that entered the scene with a low culture. It is extremely important to deal with young people, and unfortunately this has led to a kind of moral imbalance in the Egyptian street.
Hazem Hosni: Egyptian youth will regain some confidence by accumulating experience to correct the course (Communication)
But is there hope for the youth to regain their health and assume leadership again?
I believe that with the passage of time, some confidence will return to these young people through the accumulation of experiences that will enable them to correct the course, and society will gradually regain its health, but unfortunately, the general climate is not conducive to this and is guided by the idea of placing obstacles so that society does not recover naturally.
There are those who try to impose certain patterns of thinking that are rejected by the vast majority of young people and people due to lack of confidence, and thus there is a state of general aversion among everyone.
Young people represent the largest segment, with great positives and frustrations as well. Due to the lack of confidence in the religious institution, political institutions, and the civilizational and cultural heritage of the Egyptian state, all of this unfortunately hinders its progress, and the youth are trying to balance themselves, and we hope that they will find their compass towards the future as soon as possible.
How do you see the future for Egypt in the next stage?
Our vision for the future varies according to our view of it, and I am very optimistic about the future of Egypt because all the negatives that we are experiencing cannot continue by nature, and no matter how long these negatives last, a state of self-reform will occur, and many elements will put pressure on this society and force it to reform itself. There are huge technological changes that are working. To sort out what is subjective, bring in the positive knowledge, and expel everything that is malicious.
There are also enormous economic pressures that force society to face the truth and deal with it properly, not only through harsh measures, but through changing policies and trends, and there are international pressures that will be exerted on this society. The weaker it becomes, the more these pressures will force it to confront itself in order to become stronger. .
The issue is not a matter of “temptation.” Either you are really strong and can deter others, or you are really weak and the pressures on you will increase. I am optimistic in the long term, but in the short term we may face some problems. I quote the poet’s saying: “It was narrowed, but when its rings became tight, it was released.” "I thought it would not be released."
Egypt now needs a dream and a national project. Where are we with this project? Who is pushing the state to advance? Is he the ruler? Or did intellectuals have a role in it that they ceded to the authorities?
The one who proposes the national project - usually - is the conscious, inspiring political leadership, not the inspired one, and every member of the people finds himself in this national project, not required to work for it, but rather within it.
But if there is no political leadership capable of formulating this national project and inspiring Egyptians to actually find themselves within this project, it will remain very difficult to ask others to carry out this task.
We have a crisis of the intellectual who is unable to create this leadership capable of formulating a civilizational project that serves the entire people, and not a project that serves a certain group in order to wait for the fruits that fall, but rather a project in which the rich and the poor have a role, because the theory of falling fruits has already been proven to fail.
Every intellectual must have his own cultural project, and intellectuals must come down from their ivory towers to work on formulating the desired national project.
Some analysts confirm that the new international arrangements in the region are attempts to reunite and reassemble the region. Is this true from your point of view? Or do we still believe in conspiracy?
It is not the idea of a conspiracy. These countries are trying to implement their interests, even over the corpse of the other. The matter depends on the strength and fragility of the other, and the idea that international relations are based on morality is a very childish idea.
What happened is that the world - one hundred years after the Sykes-Picot Agreement - saw that this geopolitical structure no longer suited the times, and that considering that Syria, Iraq, and Libya were entities that were formed in a certain political circumstance after the victors emerged from World War II, and that these geopolitical entities, became... It is not consistent with the world order they established after this war.
Egypt was not part of the Sykes-Picot agreement, which was only concerned with the Fertile Crescent region, and it did not concern us with anything, and I do not believe that there is a sane country in the world that wants to divide Egypt because it is a geopolitical formation that defined itself for thousands of years, while Syria and Iraq did not exist before. Sykes-Picot, who created them.
Some may say that Sykes-Picot fragmented the Arab world. This is not true. In the Arab world, there was no political entity called Iraq, but rather political entities called Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra, all of which belonged to the Ottoman authority. The victors in the war came and united these three regions into a new political entity. His Highness Iraq.
I do not say that they are angels or virtuous people. They were achieving their interests. Today, they want to reconfigure and reshape some of the regions that were formed by their colonial will. The question directed to us as Arabs is: What have we done to preserve our political entities?
I say it with all regret that we are failed countries or on the way to failure, or have shown signs of failure that have caused others to attack us and change our entities as they want. We exist by the will of the victors in the world war, and I exclude Egypt because it, as a geopolitical entity, is much older than any country in the world.
Source: Al Jazeera