Challenges to Democracy in Egypt

Many of the internal and external observers of the Egyptian current political situation, as well as almost all average Egyptians, would argue that the only solution to all existing problems in Egypt lies in bringing new democratic government to the scene. Yet, I do not believe so! Moving towards democracy in Egypt is not a matter of throwing the government away, I believe. Rather, it is a matter of changing the culture of the people themselves, and creating the awareness of what democracy means and how to be democratic.
This may sound weird, for almost everybody inside and outside Egypt believe that the problem lies in the authoritarian autocratic regimes that used to govern Egypt since the revolution in 1952, and arguably since the Pharaohs! It seems to be the habit of whoever governs Egypt to think of himself as a kind of god. It is mentioned even in the Qur’an when Mousses’ Pharaoh wonders how ever couldn’t he be ‘the’ God while he owns Egypt! Governing Egypt seems to give the governor the illusion that they have became gods only because they govern Egypt! Yet, I would say that I am one of those who argue that it has always (at least most of the time) been the kind of autocratic governance since the Pharaohs. The Egyptian people developed the habit of believing that the governor of the country is a kind of god that has the ability to offer them all what they need (and in fact he ought to do so, so they shouldn’t participate in anything), and at the same time his decisions and behaviors are unquestionable since he is the symbol of God on earth. It, then, turns to be that everyone in authority is becoming a kind of god that have the right to punish, give grace, praise or oppress anyone as he likes. It is inherited in the Egyptian culture that people should not oppose to the person in authority, and the culture itself fosters this!
This may sound odd, and many of the Egyptians who are alive now would say that this is not true; yet, if you analyze the Egyptian culture, you will find what I am talking about clear and alive inside the society itself and turning everybody with authority to be a kind of god. Let’s start from the family which is the basic unit of the society. The father and/or the mother normally have a very autocratic authority that allows them to choose (or at least object to) the kind of education, job, spouse and many other crucial and trivial things in their children’s life. This kind of authority used to be un-discussable. And, although the society is changing now in terms of this kind of authoritarian relationship inside the family, it is to a great extent still the dominant kind of relationship inside the average Egyptian family. Moreover, the change the society is witnessing nowadays in the nature of this relationship is usually seen as a rebellion and as a curse of God on our society rather than being seen as a natural struggle for more freedom and more control of one’s own life.
Let’s move up one level and go to the school. The education system is a ‘teacher-centered’ kind of education instead of being a ‘students-centered’ one. For more than many teachers, any discussion of what they mention as a ‘matter of fact’ during the class would be seen as a sign of disrespect from the student’s side. This is because the teacher knows more than the student ‘of course’ and there is no need to discuss things that must be taken for granted. And again, although this is greatly changing as the students are shacking and challenging this stable rule more and more everyday, this is seen in the society as a sign of a curse sent by God to punish the people who are disobedient to God, and therefore He makes their children disobedient to them so they can know what it means to be disobedient!
The university, however, is more interesting case of the ‘absolute’ authority that the teacher has over his/her students. As a university faculty, I have the right to fail any student whom I dislike, and it is more than easy to create a reason to fail that student. So, it ends up that no university student would be able to question his/her lecturer for what they do or challenge their ideas, for if the student does so, no one can stop the lecturer from failing that student for ever; which leave the student with only one choice: to shut up!
Even after graduation, when you go to work, your boss is your god, since s/he can literally make your life like a hell, and can stop your promotion, and might be able to fire you in many cases. Again and again, this is the prevailing culture in the work place in Egypt, and this time, there is no growing tendency towards challenging this condition since it is very difficult to risk your future to get any kind of freedom since ‘bread’ is definitely more important than freedom, and since it is more than difficult to get a job if you have a record of being fired from a previous one. This gets more complicated, of course, if you have a family, since you are responsible for feeding them, and any seeking of freedom may leave you with the ghost of hunger and crushing poverty.
In many villages and small towns of Upper Egypt, the head of the most honorable family in the village or town is more likely to play this role of god. The rule is well-known in such places: an opposition or even a discussion of that person’s decision will be confronted with only one reaction: the opponent must be killed (or at the very least dishonored) because he seems to dislike “god’s” decision! This is very much like the role of “Shykh” in tribes, where that “Shykh” used to be wise and powerful enough to decide for everybody with a kind of absolute authority that only God can have.
It is not strange now that no one can say NO to the government! In the light of the above mentioned culture of authoritarian autocracy, the government dictatorship comes very natural and spontaneous. End of the day, you are used to this kind of oppression anyway, aren’t you? If you even dream of opposing the government, they, as gods, will send their curse on you! And they are not blamed! Anyway, if you done so, it seems that you are the black sheep of the family who used to oppose your parents and your teachers and your boss, and it’s time for God’s punishment now with your disobedience to your government too!
The solution is not in throwing the government away, for a new government will not be any different or more democratic. Why? Because the autocracy is a culture in the Egyptian society and not something imposed on it by the government. So, even if the current government is thrown away, the people will celebrate the new government as their new god without even being aware of it because they used to do so! And, the new government will practice its authority as the new god without even feeling that that they are doing the exact same thing for which the previous government was thrown! No wonder thus that any kind of extremist thinking may grow up naturally in Egypt since it finds a fertile soil of ‘not being allowed to think’, and of ‘you must obey your god (whoever he is) without dare to oppose to him or to raise questions’!
Someone, however, may argue that this culture has grown over thousands of year because of the type of governance that used to prevail in Egypt, so it was the government who created this culture not vice versa. This could be true; yet, this might seem to be the chicken and egg kind of dilemma: what created the other; the type of authoritarian governance created this authoritarian culture or vice versa? I would claim that this it is not important to decide upon this issue. The most important, however, is to change such a culture anyway. But how?
From my point of view, the first key to solve this dilemma is to start with the education system especially at the elementary school. The type of education that exists at the moment kills any hope for raising people who are able to think critically and challenge their existing situation or at least try to change it. To move towards democracy, the prevailing culture itself ought to be democratic. One should be able to think democratically in the first place, and what this means is that one should be able to “think”, to discuss, and to evaluate any idea, and to express their own opinion openly and without any fear of oppression. To build up such a personality that is able to “think” critically and freely, and therefore is able to be democratic, starts at a very early age when the child grow up to learn that they MUST “think” and question everything. This will not lead only to build a democratic personality, but it is more radically able to build a personality that intrinsically “demands” democracy, for such a personality cannot live without breathing critical thinking and freedom of expression which are very essential concepts and practices to any democratic system. Then, and only then, such a generation of young people will be not only able to change their society, but more fundamentally not able to live with such a society as it is. Education is the key to any success or failure in any society as well as to any change or mobilization. It is the key to create a personality that is able to question things and develop them in the same way it is able to create a personality that used to ‘shut up’ in order to live peacefully, or even to live at all!