Egypt has a great potential. It has a unique geographic location, gorgeous weather, great History of invention and progress and a culture second to none. Ancient Egypt was the cradle of civilization and modern Egypt set the standards for the whole region into how to function, respect the supremacy of law, deliver the best education, govern, produce second to none art and science as well as people. Most importantly, she had four Nobel laureates (Dr. Mohammed El-Baradei, Dr. Ahmed Zweil, Naguib Mahfouz the writer and Anwar El-Sadat), and more than half of its citizens are younger than 25.
The best Cardiac Surgeon in the World (Sir Magdi Yacoub) is Egyptian as well as many leaders living outside and several scholars living within the Country. Anyone who witnessed or saw the peaceful march of the millions of the Egyptian Youth on January 25 more than two years ago was filled with awe, hope and optimism. The youth demanded Justice, Equality, Freedom, Dignity and Jobs.
Now Egypt is ruled by the Muslim Brothers. They were the only organized group (jailed by the previous administration) who could catch the hanging fruit caused by the Youth uprising. Many Egyptians considered them to be truthful, trustworthy and even-handed. They proved to be incompetent, ideology driven, unreliable, unpredictable, indecisive, irrational and unable to stick to their decisions. Muslims who do not subscribe to extremism and violence as well as dare to voice their thoughts were labeled traitors. Women were treated as inferior to men or as mere sex objects. Christians were asked to leave or be punished. Dr. Morsi who swore to obey the law appointed himself to become above the law and rushed a flawed Constitution through, with a rigged vote from the Egyptians who cared to cast their vote. No wonder, therefore, that the popularity of Dr. Morsi, according to the Baseera’s opinion poll (which is sympathetic to the Muslim Brothers), plunged from almost 80% favorable in last October to less than 50% last month. The Western world sees Egypt, at present, as a dysfunctional, chaotic broken State.
The recent undertaking by punishing members of the Sawiris family, preventing them from leaving Egypt and assessing back taxes on them, added insult to injury. The Sawiris family contributed mightily to the economy of Egypt over the past fifty years. Transparency, honesty and playing by the existing rules have been their mantra over the years. No wonder therefore, that the Egyptian stock market fell on the same day by 2.3% and is declining steadily since then. Recently, the Egyptian pound was devalued again so that we have become, in many ways, at par with Pakistan and Cuba. Egypt is heading quickly to financial ruins. Orascom (owned by the Sawiris family) employees, regardless of their religion, unanimously showed their opposition to the Government’s decision.
I must remind Dr. Morsi that the great men of history such as Marcus Aurelius, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela sacrificed themselves for the benefit of their country. They were not driven by revenge or for the benefit of a certain group or an individual as is taking place in Egypt nowadays. It is amazing that Dr. Morsi continues to send emissaries hoping to lure companies to invest in Egypt, which is a reflection of ignorance or naiveté. Investors require stability, security and certainty about the future. Now, Egypt lacks these essentials. Instead, Egypt is plagued by more corruption, inefficiency and bureaucracy and is becoming more impoverished by the day.
Recently we celebrated the visit of Sir Magdi Yacoub to our area. He was accompanied by his main assistants Drs Alwaleed, Ahmed Afifi and Ahmed El-Guindy. He told about the Aswan Heart Hospital that he founded and how the Hospital grew by Egyptian private money and talent. He also told us that the Hospital treats those with no recognizable name equal to those individuals of fame emphasizing that both are God’s handy work and, therefore, have equal human worth. I was reminded of the potential of the good people of Egypt. I want our country to live to its God-Given potential and to enjoy justice, equality, freedom and dignity; this would make me proud to say that I am Egyptian. What is taking place in my native country makes me ashamed to say I belong to a society marred by bigotry, intolerance, fanaticism, discrimination and incompetence. I dream that cool rational methodic planning by scholar technocrats trumps this cancer of hot slogans full of lies and vacuous meaningless statements from the ignorant profiteers.
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Professor Lotfy Basta (MD, FRCP, FRCPE, FACP, FACC, FCCP, FAHA…..) is member of Coptic Solidarity Advisory Council.