Hassan Osman Dahab (Copenhagen, Denmark), 16 June 2006

A confused Egyptian

Abd El-hak is a taxi driver in Cairo. I met him by accident, that is, as most Egyptians meet each other, and we spoke as if we knew each other for many years. He introduced himself as a building engineer working in one of the meaningless jobs in the governmental administration. He explained that his salary is not enough for his family and he had to work an extra job. I told him most people in the developing countries were doing the same, he agreed and we looked at what we called gloomy future.

I asked him why he was not an optimist then he turned his head and looked at me as I was sitting the left corner in the back seat of the car and asked whether I was maybe not from Egypt but from outer space. I felt worried as the man was not looking at the road in front of him but kept looking at me to convince me of his point of view.

I told him that the country was in the middle of a democratization process and that it was the first time to experience such a thing, but suddenly he stopped the car in the middle of the street and exclaimed, astonished: "You call it democracy!" I contorted myself and tried to let him talk; I wanted to give him the chance to let out the anger and aggression inside him; therefore I decided to listen to him.

Abd El-hak said that a civil war would break out if the Muslim Brotherhood took over political power in Egypt. They have no plans for the 8% Egyptian Christians. Islam is the solution, they say, and what about Christianity? Is it not a solution also? The Muslim Brothers do not have a solution for a great deal of people in Egypt. What is the Muslims Brotherhood anyhow? Is it a political movement or a religious one?

I must confess that my new friend had raised a set of important questions which hadn't occurred to me before. I smiled to indicate my consent, but my positive attitude toward him encouraged him to go on. "Look," he continued as most of Egyptians would, presupposing you understood their point of view, "the oldest political power in Egypt, Yes – the Wafid party". "What about Wafid," I replied. He asked me if knew the party's political program. As matter of fact I didn't.

In a very ironic way he said, "Can you imagine they want us to be fishermen, to hunt fish. Seventy-two million people, and they be want us all to be fishermen." I was not at all ready to believe this depressed man. He wanted to confuse me during my little trip to the heart of Cairo downtown.

I told him they might have a plan but that they were maybe short of time. He denied my excuse and mentioned the previous Wafid party leader Professor Numan Ashour and insisted that had it been for him all Egyptians would by now be hunting fish.

In order to relax him I said there were ten political parties in Egypt and that the rest are probably more reasonable and that they probably had solid plans to solve the economic crisis and lift the social burden.

At this, he was getting crazy. He stopped the car and asked me, looking at me sternly: "Are you sure you are Egyptian?"

I was about to tell him the truth but he would not let me. He was infuriated and spoke of "thieves" and "traitors".

He mentioned that one of them discovered the main problem of Egyptians laid in giving up their tradition.

I began to think about democracy in Egypt and came to the conclusion that it is true that we do not understand the real meaning of democracy in the political sense, or in our daily lives or, more precisely, within our own family. We need a great deal of time to understand and learn from other nations who have a priori knowledge of democracy and democratic processes – but such a learning process cannot happen unless we follow the basic steps.

We must work hard to eliminate illiteracy and learn to accept the opinion of the majority, even if the elite believe this might have negative consequences. Democracy is a learning process which has positive and negative aspects, but the most important is to learn to accept majority decisions.

Democracy cannot flourish unless we understand the principle of tolerance, and accept other traditions and ways of thinking.

Anyhow, I again turned to my new friend, smiled to him and told him that regarding the Egyptian ways I agreed with him and that my high-flying ideas have landed on the ground. I laughed and he finally laughed too and told me a joke as most Egyptians do to relax themselves.

A very sick man went to a doctor who suggested a surgery. The man told the doctor that he was afraid. "It is my first time to have a surgery," he said. But the doctor looked at him with a worried look on his face and said: "I know exactly how you feel – it is my first surgery as well."

This is the first time for Egyptians to have democracy and we should be happy as it is. And we should build it up according to the Egyptian way, not the Iraqi way.

Professor Hassan Osman Dahab
Monnet Group Copenhagen/Denmark