The Lessons of Revolutions and the Harvest of Times

In a few days, on the fifth of July, the Algerian people celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their independence, marking the victory of their revolution against French occupation. A few weeks later, in the same month, falls the sixtieth anniversary of the 23 July Revolution in Egypt.

In their time both revolutions were nationalistic and progressive, arousing nationalist sentiments and rallying other Arab and world revolutions for national liberation and state building.

The world today is witnessing a new wave of Arab revolutions in which Arab citizens rise up against their countries’ regimes. Conflict is no longer against foreign powers who exploit countries’ wealth and resources, but against corrupt regimes which drain such wealth and resources for the sake of a small group who sit on the top of the pyramid, leaving whatever few is left to other groups. What is the harvest of those years? What are the lessons to learn from these revolutions?

The result of the 1948 Palestine war, which the Arabs lost, prompted the rise of the Free Officers movement in Egypt. Enraged by the king’s conspiracy against the army in the defective weapons case, the officers launched a coup–later called “the 1952 Revolution” – forcing the king to abdicate in favour of Crown Prince Ahmad Fuad and leave the country on 26 July 1952.The monarchy was abolished and the country became a republic on 18 June 1953.

The Egyptian revolution’s objectives were: the abolition of feudalism, ending colonialism, removal of capital’s control over rule, building a sound democratic life, building up a powerful national army and social justice.

In Algeria, after more than seven and a half years of fierce struggle against French colonialism, which began in 1830, and in which a million martyrs died, Algeria was declared independent on 5 July 1962, the same day Algeria was occupied more than 130 years earlier, as General de Gaulle declared on French television the result of a referendum on Algeria’ self-determination and independence.

The objectives of the Algerian liberation revolution can be outlined as follows: building a social, democratic sovereign state within the framework of Islamic principles, securing all basic freedoms with no ethnic or religious discrimination, political cleansing by putting the national movement back on track and elimination of all forms of corruption and all key causes of backwardness, mobilizing the Algerians’ resources and potentialities for the sake of decolonization and internationalisation of the Algerian cause, realizing the unity of North Africa within its natural Arab and Islamic framework.

As a matter of fact, an analysis of the broad lines of the objectives of both revolutions shows that they agree with the objectives of all previous and subsequent revolutions which rise up against social injustice, economic monopoly, class discrimination, exploitation, and fight backwardness, ignorance and poverty.

A pertinent question here is : Why has the earlier revolution in Egypt failed in achieving its objectives after 60 years of its rise to power, when it inspired change in the region before it waned, which led to the outbreak of the 25 January 2011 Revolution? There are many questions about the failure of other governments in Tunisia, Yemen and Syria to maintain the state project after independence. These questions return us back to square one in discussing the scale of change in the demographic scene, as society’s structure and culture have changed, different players have risen, particularly in the states in which Islamist governments and parliaments have been established in the last two years. This means that there are new objectives which do not fulfil the reproduction of state, now that religious discourse has dominated the Arab street through the poll box democracy.

Observers of the scene should not ignore the strengths of these new revolutions, the growing public awareness which made millions of revolutionaries take to the streets and go to ballot boxes, believing in the value of their votes in the democratic process.

Revolutions to restore lost rights

The millions who supported the revolution in the square or ballot boxes helped restore the earlier revolutions’ lost rights. Historians say that Egypt’s July Revolution ushered the golden age of the deprived working class who suffered social injustice.

This was clear when the revolution issued an agrarian reform law on 9 September 1952 to abolish feudalism and liberate peasnts, nationalized commerce and industry, formerly a foreign monopoly, creating a classless society, allowing the poor to become judges, professors, ambassadors, ministers, doctors, lawyers, etc., thus changing the structure of Egyptian society. Moreover, the capitalist domination of agricultural and industrial production was cancelled, along with the nationalization of Suez Canal Co., building the High Dam and developing national industries.

The cultural dimension was not absent from the first Arab revolutions. Culture ministries and institutions were established, ensuring a democratic distribution of culture to make up for the long deprivation of creative works which some areas suffered from, and which Cairo had monopolized, in addition to opening an academy consisting of higher institutes of theatre, cinema, criticism, ballet, opera and folkloric arts.

The influence of the July Revolution went beyond the borders of Egypt and mustered Arab potentialities for the sake of national liberation movements through unity experiments supporting the restoration of the independence of Arab countries and peoples against occupation forces.

But the objectives of the first Arab revolutions began to wane under the forces of globalization and even be almost completely shattered due to the domination of multinationals’ world economy over local markets and the adoption by some new businessmen of a revenue, rather than a productive economy. Imports have thus been boosted at the expense of exports, and class discrimination in education and job opportunities reappeared.

Following the first independence revolutions, Arab countries witnessed decades-long bloody civil wars in Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan, Algeria and Somalia, some of which are still going on, causing further fragmentation, undermining social peace and security and damaging the economy. The Arabs were incapacitated by these wars, and that led to their failure to catch up with the civilized world.

Revolutions of knowledge and reason

We have to bring about a new revolution not through guns and bombs but through knowledge, reason and the value of work. This is the real revolution which makes its peace through its peacefulness.

State rebuilding should be looked at in a wider perspective which underlines the following points:

– Giving priority to peoples’ rights in drafting constitutions, enacting laws, the distribution of wealth and formulation of the structures which regulate living affairs.

– Prohibition of religious and sectarian discrimination, as such uncivilized division undermines the foundation of progress based on equality among all members of society in rights and obligations.

– The institution’s voice with its values and fair laws should be above that of individuals with their dictatorship and injustice. Individuals are ephemeral; regimes worth staying are the ones which have legal foundations and equality of rights, without exception on grounds of racial discrimination.

– Giving priority to education in development plans. Early progress in Egypt, e.g., stemmed from the scholarships awarded by Muhammad Ali Pasha to forty students who were sent to Europe in 1818 and came back to Egypt carrying ideas of progress which entered the country into a new age. Modern schools were built and the well-known Boulaq Printing Press established in 1821, published Arabic, Turkish and Persian books, in addition to French and English translations. Cities were replanned and major industries developed.

– The economy is the other wing of development. Revolutions were staged against unemployment, monopoly, dumping, not providing a favourable environment for national industries, lack of support for small national investors in the face of the power of the culture of import and revenue investment. I am of the opinion that economic success lies in the application of capitalism and socialism in insurance schemes, workers’ share in the ownership and profit of the factories they are employed in and opening cooperatives to support low income groups.

Openness to the world

As the above matters address domestic affairs and national issues, another more important and inseperable matter is the ability of these new revolutions to be open to the world.

Insularity is the other side of the backwardness coin. No political, economic or social force can prevent its people from influencing or being influenced by what is taking place outside its geographic and political borders. The Arab Spring revolutions are tangible proof of the great ability which brought about change through the virtual world of the Internet which materialized in the real world.

Openness to the world does not mean just playing the role of consumer, but should rather consider the possibility of creating partnerships based on values which serve the purposes of both parties and bring about change in which citizens share in its profits and success. It further means considering the major experiments similar to our Arab environments which are conservative according to the majority of the new votes. To begin with, advanced educational experiments are worth considering first as this field is the one which raises us to the level of countries which listen to reason, develop intellectual abilities and esteem science highly and uses its tools for progress. Similarly, we should consider democratic experiments in good governance and how the complex relationships among its strands are governed. Today, in the third millennium it is rare to find a country with ethnic, linguistic or religious purity. Democracies have therefore adopted laws and regulations governing rights and obligations and securing equality.

But openness to the world is at its best when we tackle the issue of dialogue with others who are our partners in a global village.

“Others” in our Arab countries are tourists, travellers, expatriate experts, employees, teachers, engineers, doctors, etc. or investors. Similarly, we are ‘others” when we go to other countries to study at their universities and educational institutions, do business with their commercial companies or deal with their government or civil organizations.

This direct contact requires a constructive approach based on respect for others, without compromising national dignity, breach of heavenly beliefs or contempt for values, traditions and customs.

Our dialogue with others no longer requires physical or geographic presence, as technology through the Internet’s virtual world connects all countries of the world, allowing the flow of data every second carrying ongoing information and a multitude of dialogues. China and India are the world’s most populous states, but the Facebook state has a virtual population of over 900,000,000, who deal with it daily and have shared dreams. This modern revolution may have been triggered in this vast state, thanks to its mechanisms and technologies which make an idea put forward by someone in Brazil, receive a reply in Egypt, a comment in the USA or Europe, or a further comment, agreement or rejection in an Asian country.

The first revolutions, which were planned in secret, are now in the unknown or in the annals of history. Revolutions today are triggered through the Internet and their revolutionary pages are fed by instant videos of what is taking place moment by moment in such a way that arouses the virtual world and drives participants to take to the streets, as happened in the new revolutions.

In conclusion, the recent revolutions have been influenced by the change involving society, not only in terms of ideas but also of mechanisms. Any further change has to involve such mechanisms, deal with them seriously and make the optimum use of them in order to fulfil the wishes of the Arab peoples for a decent life, justice, equality and freedom, things realized by the civil state which is based on human rights pacts and justice and equality laws, inspired by the revealed religions which call for equality among all humans.