The Challenge of Establishing Democracy in Egypt

 The Challenge of Establishing Democracy in Egypt
A Conversation with My Daughter
By: Dr. Adly Mohamed Hassanein
International Expert on Democracy and Governance

 This paper reflects my keen interest in establishing a new government in Egypt that is open and secure for the various religious, ethnic, and cultural groupings that exist in the country. It also reflects a simple dialogue I had with my daughter a few weeks ago, when she asked the following question: “Father some of my friends think that Hosni Mubarak was great leader and it is too bad that he was overthrown and other of my friends tell me he was a very bad leader and the Egyptian people should be grateful that he is gone. Father what do you think?” It appears to me that my daughter’s question is both simplistic and yet surprisingly profound and thus this paper has been written to help an eighteen years old consider some ways by which she might seek to answer her own question.

I have been a world citizen, an international development professional and Middle Eastern history expert for over thirty years and it seems to me that the lessons of history have a lot to tell us about what kind of government Egypt should have. I began my discussion with my daughter by presenting a list of qualities that would make a good leader and a list of qualities that would make for a bad leader in terms of the Egyptian people.
First the qualities of a good leader:

1. He/she would accept the basic tenants of Islam that teaches that in the eyes of Allah all men and women were created equal and born free. This profound notion of human equality and freedom was a revolutionary concept introduced by the Prophet Muhammad and suggested that in God’s mind, the different ways that we might, judge and evaluate people (be they white, brown or black; rich or poor; free or slave; or Arab, Indian, or Chinese) was of no consequence to Allah. A good leader would accept this idea and would seek to ensure that all people in his/her society would be treated fairly. He/she would be tolerant toward all people in society who are different from him/her, he/she would seek to ensure minority groups (people who had different religious beliefs, different racial and ethnic backgrounds) would be protected from injustice or unfair treatment.
2. He/she would be deeply concerned both with the problems facing his/her society (poverty, illiteracy, sickness, lawlessness), but also with the achievement of important goals that would make society better (better systems of education for both children and adults; better systems of health care; the strengthening of the economy, ensuring that each person would be able to earn enough money to take care of his/her family; the enhancement of justice, equity and fairness; the establishment of opportunities for personal growth and development (arts, music, sports, leisure); and the freedom to worship God as his/her conscience might dictate (no secret police or military courts).
3. His/her personal and private life, as well as his/her public and political life, would reflect the same basic values of love, freedom and justice, honesty, courage, compassion, fairness, nonviolence, and generosity. He/she would seek to be submissive to God’s teachings and commandments in a genuine and consistent Islamic way. People would come to trust him/her knowing that he/she was truly a kind, wise, honest, just, and compassionate leader both privately and publicly.
4. He/she would seek to surround him/herself with the brightest, most competent, and experienced people he could find. He would seek people who understood what it takes to solve society’s pressing problems and achieve society’s important goals. It would not matter what religion they might believe in, or to what ethnic community or racial or tribal group they belonged. What would be most important would be their abilities, competencies and their commitment to the values of honesty, fairness, justice and good effort in their work.
5. He/she would seek to council with others, listening and considering the opinions and ideas of a variety of other people, not just his/her family, friends or close associates. He/she would be willing to listen to others, able to learn from others, being humble enough to know when he/she might not know everything. This ability to listen to all the people would be a fundamental attribute of a good leader.
6. Finally, he/she would be committed to work within the constraints of the law. He/she would insist that people cannot be imprisoned or punished without due process of the law (through an independent court system), that a person’s property land, house, tools, furniture, or business) could not arbitrarily be taken away or confiscated by the government, a political party, or powerful individuals. He/she would be committed to making certain that all people would be treated fairly, that no person, group or organization would receive special favors or be granted preferential treatment.

Now let us contrast these with the attributes found in bad leaders:

1. First, he/she would reject the inherent equality of all people and thus would seek to pursue policies, and establish institutions, that would enhance and give special advantages to his/her family, clan and friends. He/she would take the resources of society from the many (the poor, the disadvantaged, and the weak) and distribute these resources to the few (those who would help him/her stay in power). Those who were his/her supporters would be given many special advantages and all the rest would be persecuted, ignored and impoverished.
2. He/she would be less interested in the true needs of the country. He/she would spend the scare resources of society on building a huge military organization to wage war with his neighbors and to glorify his own ego. Instead of spending these resources on schools, research centers, hospitals, work opportunities for new generations and other important social needs, he/she would purchase bombs, guns, tanks, airplanes and other instruments of war. The whole society would suffer because of his/her personal ambitions and his/her lack of concern for the needs of the people as a whole.
3. He/she would tend to present him/herself as a person of good character, a good leader. In public he/she would present him/herself as supportive of religion, as following in the footsteps of past leaders, while at the same time in private life, he/she would be hypocritical, using violence, torture and brutality toward those who would oppose him/her. This inconsistency and hypocrisy would breed cynicism, apathy, suspicion, dishonesty and disillusionment throughout the entire society.
4. He/she would tend to surround him/herself with people who would do exactly as he/she said. The officials would not be selected because they are the most competent, but because they are totally obedient to his/her will. Thus many officials would be given much power in government even though they lacked the needed education, experience, integrity and ability to meet the true needs of the people efficiently and effectively.
5. He/she would tend to ignore the advice and counsel of others. He/she would consider him/herself much smarter than those around him/her. He/she would never be able to admit that he/she had made a mistake and would often blame others for the problems that exist in society. Because of his/her ego and unwillingness to listen to others, he/she tends to make many mistakes, cause much suffering in the society, and thus be oblivious to the many ways that his/her government could be more effective in solving the problems that society is facing.
6. He/she will tend to do whatever it takes to stay in power. He/she will tend to ignore the requirements of the law whenever necessary. In his/her obsession to stay in power, he/she will be willing to imprison and use torture, to brutalize and even kill all those that stand in his/her way.

As I outlined these contrasting characteristics of a good leader and a bad leader, my daughter said to me. “It is obvious which kind of leader most people would want for their country, but father, how does a country ensure that good men and women become leaders in their country?” I thought for a minute and then suggested that while there are hundreds of different kinds of government systems, there are essentially only three ways by which a person can become a political leader:

1. Selection by birth: This is commonly found in most monarchies and some dictatorships, where the son or daughter becomes the next leader simply because of their birth.

2. Selection by power: This is a very common way by which an individual becomes the leader. He/she simply forces him/herself on the people through military power or his/her political influence.

3. Selection by free election: This is always found in democratic systems, where competing candidates are free to debate and challenge each other in ways that allow the members of society freely to choose the leader that they want.

I explained to my daughter that it is important to remember that both good and bad leaders may emerge as a result of all three types of selection. There can be good and bad kings, there can be good and bad dictators, and there can be good and bad freely elected leaders. However, of the three types, the one that has historically had the greatest probability of empowering good leaders has been leadership selected through periodic free elections.
When a person becomes a king or a dictator there is no easy, nonviolent way to have him/her removed when he/she proves to be incompetent, unjust or cruel. The people simply must suffer until he/she dies or is forcibly removed. When a leader is forced to participate in an election every few years, the people have an opportunity to judge his/her strengths and weaknesses, to compare him/her with other candidates, and thus have the opportunity to re-elect or to remove the leader, depending on what kind of a leader he or she has been. The history of the world demonstrates conclusively that good leadership is much less apt to emerge in a given society when leadership is independent of the will of the people.
You see my good daughter, this is the key advantage of a free and democratic society. No society can always be free of bad leaders, but a free society, with free elections, with the rule of law, and the guarantees of basic human rights, will consistently tend to have a greater probability that good leaders will emerge.
“Thank you, Father!”
God Bless you and your Generation and God Bless Egypt and the free world.