I belong to the generation that grew up saying Abdel Nasser, saying Sadat, saying Mubarak, saying Morsi, saying Sisi, and now I can’t say Sisi, I have to say His Excellency, Mr. President Sisi,
I always show great reverence for a prime minister who is not present in any way when he is needed, a prime minister is not allowed to speak in the constitution, national security, or foreign policy. He remains a prime minister. In the same way, so-and-so is a strong loser on the screen.
I want our media to be like Gaza or the West Bank. I’m not going to say it’s Israel, and I’m not going to go too far and say we want something like Turkey. Now, what is the constitution that you were talking about? You have been playing with the constitution, changing it, adding to it… You explain and tell us what happened in the matter of the Renaissance Dam.
No one says… The truth is that there is no parliament in Egypt and that this parliament was formed with the complicity of the people. I challenge anyone who knows anything to speak before a minister or prime minister for three terms….
I will not tell you before the President of the Republic. I think he will tell him to put himself in your place. You will understand that. I am silent… I want to know how many newspapers are distributed in Egypt….
You can’t know why he won’t tell you, because it’s a scandal….
You have never seen me. The world is a parliament against the people. Parliament is elected by the people to defend the people.
Speaker 1:
Parliament comes together to ratify taxes day and night. Four MPs go to beat the people in the engineering syndicate. Honorable Minister Kamel Al-Wazir and Honorable Minister of Irrigation go to the Captain of Engineers and tell him, „Come, let’s settle the matter and get these thugs out of the impasse.“ Strong media reflect strong power. Weak media reflect weak authority.
You can find those who are in custody piecemeal. Why is the one who committed a crime being prosecuted, finally we are talking about the extent of corruption. The families that rule Egypt in all places are not opening up at all. How can there be promising parties if they are run by security services? The biggest party in Egypt is the National Security, and the biggest party in Egypt is the National Security. I see all the officials standing in an inappropriate manner that is not appropriate. It is not even appropriate for the president. Issam Khalil comes to us with Naguib Sawiris‘ instructions, then he takes from us and we sit in a meeting for once. There is no need for that. Naguib Sawiris will tell you that’s what we want to do, so his words will go on…. in the days of Muhammad Morsi, we could fill out forms for the uprising and go to the streets, and I would look at the screens and speak, and I would write in Al-Jarnan so that I can say that Ahmed Tantawi was unfair in the last parliamentary elections. Mr. Abdel Sanad Yamama, I met him at the National Dialogue Party, he talks about what they say about the future of the homeland. I mean everything I submitted to the Presidency of the Republic. End of service If the authority is afraid that January twenty-fifth… there are reasons that lead to the twenty-fifth…. it will happen.
Speaker 2:
Welcome, listeners and viewers of That Egypt platforms, to an interview with the great writer Nasr Al-Aqfas. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:
Text welcome seventy welcome.
Speaker2:
First of all, how do you see the current situation of the Egyptian media?
Speaker1:
This is a very difficult question. I see that there is almost no media left in Egypt, and I can’t think of any names. I mean, I don’t want to name names, but there is no media. I mean there is no press, there is no radio, there is the broadcasting of songs, to be honest because it is television, I don’t know which channel.
We have a lot of channels, but who has an influence on public opinion in Egypt? There is no one who is influential in the Arab world. There is no evidence that Egypt is resorting to a Saudi platform that comes only from Egypt. I mean, the most powerful thing for him is Egypt…. a Saudi platform… so there’s almost no media, I mean.
Speaker2:
How do you interpret this regression?
Speaker1:
It is. Of course, it is intended that this has been happening since the last Mubarak period. I mean, in the days of Safwat Al-Sharif, Mr. Safwat Al-Sharif believed in a necessity called media sovereignty, open broadcasts, and the beautiful slogans that he used to say.
When the pressure came in the early 2000s, a kind of openness also set in. And private channels and private newspapers appeared, which meant almost a point of life for the Egyptian media, then there was the January twenty-fifth revolution and the media started to mean a strong opening, and after the thirtieth of June and after the thirtieth of June, the entire media was closed when the idea came that one side controls all the media in Egypt, this party took control of the media in Egypt. With capabilities, the idea of media was sincere.
Speaker2:
Well, do you think this decline is due to the lack of a strategy, the lack of an atmosphere of freedom, or the lack of pluralism?
Every media in this world is the same, for example, in the old political system in the days of communism, in the spirit of its ruler, in the methodology of the Hitler era, for example, in Nazism, in the spirit and methodology of the West. The media in America and Europe have a spirit and methodology. Here, there is no spirit and methodology. In Egypt, for example, in the sixties, there was a spirit that had a methodology.
After that, in the early seventies, there was a spirit and a methodology. Now the media has a spirit that has no methodology. There are no Egyptian media… I mean, I wish I knew who was in charge of the Egyptian media until an attempt to reinstate the Minister of Information failed completely.
There are the nice things they say about the National Council, which I don’t know what it is, and the National Authority, which I don’t know what it is, and all these nice and sweet things, but is there anybody, I mean, in the Emirate who can be able to create a curriculum or they can create it.
Honestly, I see them in a plaid suit, very nice, they sit in the second or third row at all the President’s meetings, and drive in luxurious cars and his needs are delicious, I mean there’s nothing else at all.
Speaker2:
Well, you had a vision of the development of the media, and maybe you presented a vision or a vision of the authority. I mean, can you explain what the key features of that vision are?
Speaker1:
That’s what happened, and I don’t know where you got that from. I mean, I did that. I mean, I may have even hinted at why, and you did a good job of reading on so I knew how to get it. Mohsen Abd al-Nabi, who told me that your perception is required, so my perception was that it is not a question of restructuring the media as they say, no, I said that the world has evolved so that large institutions must prefer to exist, but evolve and that it remains a methodology for the media so that the pyramids remain, for example If we assume that it has the main axes that remain as it was traditionally, which is the regional situation, the international and regional situation remains responsible for it, but Al-Ahram also extends that it works because of its origin, that it will remain Al-Ahram newspaper in Alexandria and Alexandria, of which Alexandria, Beheira and Marsa Matrouh will remain, which is the region And the sheikh disbelieved, so I said that a tabloid with a second name followed by Al-Ahram would run this. And the tabloid is added to the channel that comes from Alexandria, in addition to the radio that comes from Alexandria, and it remains on the website until this moment, followed by Al-Ahram in response, and there is a kind of dumping here from the mother. And Al-Ahram remains interested or focused mainly on the big issues, and this produces a regional magazine, a regional channel and a regional radio, and it is allowed the freedom to move freely and its staff.
I said that the visualization will take over the news and the cities of the station in parallel, and I said that Al-Jumhuriya will remain Greater Cairo because it is a magazine based in or near Greater Cairo, so it will remain with the third channel. North and South Upper Egypt and every region of the country has a television station, a radio station, and a website, and it’s starting to develop and create a climate, but it requires freedom first and foremost.
I mean the media is moving freely and we are working for every station or for every newspaper or for every media group from the countries we are working for as an approach. Their interest in this environment is the same. If there is a national need, it is looking for the main program. If there’s a national need, it’s looking for the main program because that’s what it is, for example. Or we assume the first channel, the second, and so on. The visualization is described in its details.
I also said that it should be run economically. The tabloid Al-Ahram, what is its name? That’s not a problem. I said it can happen to her. It is even called Al-Ahram, but it has taken a different form.
Spokesman1:
Al-Ahram advertising will be much, much less, and I said it is necessary for highly qualified elements, but on condition that it has a higher mind that knows what is happening in all countries, that is, we determine the rest of the news, for example, it will speak in regional affairs, Al-Ahram in international affairs, and the Republic in local affairs .
I imagined that there will be a parliament in which there will be localities, in which there will be parties talking about each other, this is not necessary at all.
Speaker2:
Were you discussed in your perception and were there any criticisms for you?
Speaker1:
No, we didn’t discuss it. I mean, he asked me to visualize it. I submitted it in a very long time. I mean, I submitted it in full, and he was silent.
Speaker2:
Mr. Nasr, do you think it is possible for the media to play its role freely without harshly criticizing the authorities? Maybe the authorities are afraid of creating an atmosphere of freedom, and all attacks will be directed against them.
Speaker1:
There is no such thing. We are alone, I mean Egypt is unique now because it is a country that has only one voice, but there is more than one voice. It’s impossible. I mean, I want somebody to tell me that of course many people will come out. What are they going to say? What are they going to say? I don’t understand it. The most important thing is that there are no other voices at all.
I mean, even if somebody wants to say something, you will find that they will tell you, Mr. Secretary, we are saying the opinion of Mr. Honorable Professor, His Excellency, the Honorable President of the Republic. He has to say a lot. You think so, when I went to Saudi Arabia from For forty years I had a problem not knowing who His Royal Highness was, who His Highness was, and who His Highness was. I didn’t know, so they wrote my family on a piece of paper, and now we have Your Excellency the President, Your Excellency the Minister.
I belong to the generation that grew up with Abdel Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak, Morsi and Sisi. Now I can’t say Sisi, I have to say, His Excellency, President Sisi, has come and stayed, I mean, I show great reverence, I mean, although respect is there, I mean, even when we come, but our language in the media we say so and so. Even in writing, His Excellency Mr. Chairman, who said that? I mean, there is no such thing. I don’t even think I see much of that in the Saudi newspapers. But I don’t think it is even in the Saudi newspapers. And in the Gulf region, even if there was such a thing, we are way ahead of it. We have far surpassed it. We are unique in the Arab world because we are one voice, and I think that because of my contacts, I am dwarfed by people when they talk to me about the Egyptian media, although of course that means giving people their rights. Outstanding journalists of all generations, including the younger generation, are forgiving and creative, and they have exceptional skills and potential. Besides education, it gets much better, because they are successful in every moment, except in Egypt. I mean, there’s nothing like failure on the front lines. I mean, so-and-so is a big loser, so he remains the editor-in-chief of so-and-so. Oh, I mean, not just a loser, I mean, if half of a loser doesn’t come out, he still has to be a big loser, I mean.
Make weaker.Media Murat.
Speaker1:
Of course, it’s wanted, of course, but you want to exercise power according to your point of view, but you exercise power and impose everything on the world. Well, not through dialogue until someone tells me that the workers of the national dialogue have such parties. They have been having nice parties for more than a year. I mean, I like that. I mean, there is no dialogue. I mean, I mention something about people making an effort and talking about the fact that the national dialogue used to take place during the days of Mubarak. The dialogue took place during the days of Sadat. The dialogue took place during the days of Abdel Nasser. I will stop at the national dialogue that took place in the days of Gamal Abdel Nasser. What happened in the days of Gamal Abdel Nasser started with a discussion about something called the crisis of intellectuals in Egypt, and it lasted nine months and ended with a conference at Cairo University where the charter was announced, which many made fun of and did not read. Now we have been working on a dialogue session to discuss it. We will pray to God that we can come back and implement it. I wish it would only be a quarter of it. The most important thing is that there is a need for this conference, which can be found in the newspapers and in the books of Mr. Khaled Mohamed Khaled. He stopped discussing Gamal Abdel Nasser and intervened.
But he loved Khaled Mohamed Khaled.
But he stops discussing and makes a twenty-minute intervention and says we want freedom and we want democracy from Abdel Nasser. He answers him with seven minutes, so Khaled Muhammad Khaled speaks for twenty minutes.
He answers him with a victory in seven minutes. After that, the dialogue continues. And Khaled Mohamed Khaled writes a lot. The most important thing is to stay now. I challenge anyone who knows they have to stop. Speak in front of a minister or prime minister for three minutes. I will not say in front of the President of the Republic. The President of the Republic. I think as long as he says that I will stand in your place. Do you understand that? I sit still and keep my mouth shut. I mean, what’s going on? Is this a climate?
Are you saying that there is going to be a national dialogue, that is, a national dialogue?
I can’t talk to the President to discuss this. I mean, how can I write an article? I mean, when you write an article, I’m writing now, you just write on Facebook. And I happened to get the pension, I mean, and the President of the Republic knows that too. I mean, I’m telling you this, and the President of the Republic knows personally what I’m telling you.
Why was it banned? It seems that I have a mistake. I don’t know, for example, if I am a somewhat weak journalist if my blood is leaking, and if it is necessary to clarify. I believe that the twenty-fifth of January is a revolution. I believe that the thirtieth of June is a revolution, and I will not change my beliefs. ?
I respect the Constitution, value it and know its importance. I see that people do not respect the Constitution, and I will not say much about it, including the parties of the national dialogue. Nobody says that the Constitution requires you to hold local elections. They did not hold them. Then the Constitution was sworn by the President of the Republic that he swears by God and respects the Constitution and elected for four years.
He elected the president for four years, the six-year term was extended, I elected the president for four years, I was surprised that the president sits for six years, the constitution says two terms, so I was surprised that the constitutional amendments replace him with three terms left and maybe four or something, he and all the people I’m not talking about anything because that’s the picture, I mean the situation, and then the problem is that the whole world understands. The whole world is discussing it.
Speaker2:
But strong media means promoting the authority’s view of their goals and defending them. I mean, how do you weaken the power? The media is their mouthpiece.
Speaker1:
I mean, at one of the conferences that the president held, these are youth conferences. The conference was held in New Cairo, and it was held just before the president left. I was present at that conference, and there was a presentation made to the President about a study that was done within the Presidency of the Republic in the kitchens of the Presidency of the Republic. They said that people follow social communication, how much the radio, how much the press What is that, the media must discuss what they said before the President conducting a study, I mean there is no follow-up rate, social communication is very tyrannical, the TV follow-up rate is very low, and I said more follow-up to the radio is less, and I said more, it’s the idea, I’m telling you, the state despises the media and despises the leaders contempt for the media profession, and this is not something new to say. I have said it before in an article called „Listen to me, O President of the Republic.“ I am sure that the President has read that article. I said that he despises the media, he despises culture, and he despises it very much. In recent years, you don’t say why Egyptian artists stay.
They run in a very humiliating way, even if they go to the Emirates to Saudi Arabia and go everywhere. I’m not against it. I mean, we thank Saudi Arabia, we thank the Emirates, and we thank everybody who appreciates Egyptian art, but they don’t go in this humiliating way. I know his name is Becca. And things I don’t know, I mean, those things I honestly don’t know. I mean, I look at them when I find people who are very involved with them. When they meet us, we offer that. They take it and offer to work for it, and then I look. Sheikh Turki, Sheikh, all the people, I mean, sir, I respect him. I say you don’t respect him, I mean his capabilities. I have worked and I know the Saudis very well, and I know the Emiratis and I know the Qataris and the Arabs we respect and appreciate. That does not mean that I have not said that I am respected. That’s what they say about the countries of the Egyptian artists, and they are called the elites.
Has the sport now become the medium of golf, whether in the news or even in the theater?
There are attempts, of course, and the biggest force now remains in the Gulf, of course, but it is not always difficult, I mean, it remains permanent, because the leadership in the fields of art and culture gathers over the years. I haven’t dealt with Al-Jazeera at all, but Qatar has a media experience, if we’re just talking about media.
Speaker1:
It’s a very remarkable media experience, from the first time they started pretending to work on Al-Thaar magazine in the field of sports, and then they worked on Doha magazine in the field of culture, and the subject expanded to the point that they did Al-Jazeera. And then the extensions of Al-Jazeera and my father’s country that we did are wonderful, and I’m addicted to watching them.
I mean, regardless of anything that countries have built a long time ago or laid a foundation and been around a lot in this area. You will not find that in Saudi Arabia, although Saudi Arabia has a lot of capabilities. Saudi Arabia had ART, I mean. Now, to come to the sport: Qatar has taken it over and made a very big deal out of it. It’s an outstanding experience, and I don’t feel sorry for them.
I mean, I am saying that they have dealt with the Egyptian experience in the media in the 1950s and 1960s. Egypt has had an experience, Mr. Nasr. I mean, in the Middle East News Agency, Egypt made it and dominated it. In the news business, but where is it?
I mean, why haven’t the two parties come up with the idea of going beyond the time in the pyramids… in the news, in the republic. Where is Rosa Youssef?
You will tell me that there are luxurious buildings and buildings that belong to it, oh, right?
But where are you writing because they rely on a myth that tells you the origin of this era of electronic media.
Where are our websites? Unless it has special experiences and struggles. I mean, I see that many websites are closed in Egypt, by the way, and there are websites that have those who have a special judgment, I mean, but the websites that follow the state tell me what is their value, good, and what is the weight of newspapers abroad.
Post about El Pais in Spain, Alamud about the liberals, about all the newspapers in the world. I mean, if the media continues to be based on the press, but the transistor has turned away from the press, on the contrary, the power of the press, if television is a little strong on Mondays, but now social communication is so imposed, but we have the press, no one writes. One answers one, two, or three. A frame that can’t write.
Speaker1:
I mean, there are people whose opinion I hear. When I come back with them, I see them as very mature, very wonderful, very clear, but what comes to write is written in the frame that is needed. And from now on, everyone writes in Al-Ahram, La Waraq and Jumhuriya, and the same day their article is published in social media.
The ABC of work is that you don’t do that. The ABC of work is that the article written for Al-Ahram is not published anywhere unless Al-Ahram published it, but he takes the article as soon as he does not know that the magazine will be printed, and publishes it in social media in a Read. More social than magazine.
I want to know the circulation figures of newspapers in Egypt. You may know that he will not tell you because it is a scandal. Nafeh, and I know Samir Ragab, who was, I mean, even the smallest, I mean, Ibrahim Saada knew him. Makram Mohamed Ahmed, Salah Muntaser knew him all over the world, and before them, and before them, and before them. So who do you not see? And who asks a question, Mr. President, I mean, with your permission, Excellency, then he stands up and says, „I mean, a great decent life project, regret.“ This is a question, for example. On behalf of all present, I thank you for a decent life. This is a question.
You are the Chairman of the Board of Directors of an institution that operates in the field of journalism, and you appear before the President of the Republic, and public opinion looks at you. But a member of the municipal council says he speaks elected. You have never seen a parliament against the people. Parliament is elected by the people to defend the people.
The parliament ratified the taxes day and night, it ratified everything. It is not a parliament, because during the time that these elections were taking place, I wrote a series of articles called „The End of the Swamp of a Nation,“ and I said that what happens in the formation of the parliament, which is the House of Representatives. By even referring to someone, saving the Sheikhs, O Member, together, so I wrote about the idea of an agreement of criminal intent.
If you look, you will find four Congressmen hitting people in the engineering syndicate. The Congressman who is a Senator, I mean, the one who didn’t come to us. The American congressman, so-and-so, is received by the president in a state of joy and happiness.
The Republic, but that’s the same as him or the Congressman in the French Parliament or the Congressman in the British House of Commons. The deputies there have heard of a deputy there beating up people and breaking down black. That’s a disaster in the twenty-first century.
Speaker1:
So-and-so says to you, and so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so. Speaker1: By name, you come to see the four so-and-so, the names are not necessary for them to do this, who entered them, then you extend the line straight, and you find that His Excellency, His Excellency, Minister Kamel Al-Wazir, and His Excellency, Minister of Irrigation, go to the Captain of Engineers.
They say to him, „On behalf of the President, we convey to you the President’s greetings. I mean, he says to the engineers, come, I mean, let’s tackle the problem and get these thugs out of the predicament, the thugs who are deputies of deputies and whose pictures were published, which means something terrible, and this was the last article that could be written, which is stupid media. It broadcasts all the time, I mean, there is no more news about the incident of Mohamed Salah, and all broadcast around the world, Arab, English, French, Arab channels, and we all, nothing happened, we had none, as if there was none, and they came to our brothers you say about the media, I mean, the power and the things that did not happen, I mean, like.
Are strong media and strong state institutions a threat to the executive branch?
On the contrary, the strong media used to be a threat to power in America. This media is very big. Come on, follow the Russian media. I mean, I’m an RT addict. The Russian president is criticizing himself today. He said in a press conference, we made a mistake, we failed, we did this and we lost, and he sat down with him.
War correspondents ask him questions, one says I have four questions, and he says the question as he sees fit, and the Russian President listens to them as he sits with them for more than two hours. This is media that strengthens Russia, not weakens it, even in China there is no such thing. In China, there is criticism of Chinese thought, which was broadcast on television The incident of the dismissal of the former party leader, and they say, „Please allow Bara‘ to appear on television, and we have seen and watched him. We have not at all. Doesn’t he exist, for example, with the second great Democratic president, Qais Saeed?“ Of course, this is also a professor of constitutional law, they will say about him, and then they will tell me that it is a civilian and military story. Ah, a beautiful civilian, uh, an elected university professor practicing.
I mean, I am amazed at his audacity to do what he is doing in Tunisia. The weak reflect a weak authority, and there is an incident that Sayed Merhi mentioned in the Political Papers, published in three parts, about what he did with Ahmed Saeed in the U.K. in a parliamentary delegation, and he recalled the circumstances, and I published it. Britain’s number one enemy, what are you talking about? This is important information.
Ahmed Saeed, who some people make fun of, was one of the most important teachers of the Egyptian media. Well, Ahmed Saeed tells you that he used to give the dates of the setback. He used to say the dates of the state. I mean, like any TV station that publishes a bulletin, the bulletin is published by the state. Of course, the bulletin will have its own point of view. I am not saying no. They are informing Samsung as if nothing has happened. There is nothing humiliating about that. Edward Al-Kharrat told me that you don’t go crazy when you try to think about what is happening around you.
What do you think about the national dialogue that some believe could gain space in terms of freedoms, the demands of the street, the demands of the politicians, the parties, and the most important demands that were achieved through the rerun of the elections and the submission of the proposal to the president?
GOOD.
What do you think about the national dialogue?
No, I don’t. I tell you, sweet and delicious parties, I see them and I see the picture. I mean, people sit and enjoy, and they say, Mr. President, he wants it, and the government has such great achievements and needs. I don’t think much about them, I mean. But what are they going to accomplish?
If you have proposals, what are they? If you make suggestions for a national dialogue or make demands?
The media would take away the hand of the security authorities, or at least return to Laura for a while, as it was the case, for example, when Mubarak was in power, even if we don’t like it. He says his opinion doesn’t count. I mean, I am the case of the engineer, Yahya Hussein Abd al-Hadi, and there are public releases and no secret releases. Something like this is extremely strange, although the man writes very politely, with great respect and with great appreciation, but it is painful, I know, I know it is painful, but what is in custody, you cannot see piece by piece, you are taken out piece by piece. Why was the person who committed a crime prosecuted and we are finished? There are disaster institutions, has the national dialogue identified the general coordinator of the national dialogue? I don’t want to name names. I mean, he said there are three red lines. The first red line and the second red line is for the constitution. The second one is national security.
Speaker 1:
Okay, what are we talking about, like how to make chicken with béchamel noodles or what? I mean, if I didn’t talk about the Constitution, the Constitution. Well, what did you talk about the Constitution? How can we say that January 25 is sabotage, and we are talking about June 30, and we are saying that Egypt lost 450 billion. How can I talk about that? Mr. Amina… I don’t mind, by God Almighty, I respect these hands very much, but they are explaining to us, they are telling us what happened in the matter of the Renaissance Dam, nobody is saying, they are saying what is happening in Libya, where are we in Libya?
Speaker 1’s line said red, okay, and then what is happening in Libya, what is happening in Sudan? That’s Sudan being broken up in Jeddah, and we’re not here at all. Our media is delicious, and we and Saudi Arabia are good people, princes and dear people. I mean, how can you say that? You mean a national dialogue, and then we don’t talk about foreign policy. So, what do you want me to talk about? The parliament where this happened, and the Mostaqbal Watan Party, which had forty-seven seats, came out. It gained an overwhelming majority in the parliament, which followed without an emirate. There was not a single deputy.
I don’t know who their chairman is. They demoted him to vice president of the party and called him the leader of the majority. Where is this majority? Okay, where is the first, where is the minority? There is no minority. That’s five, six working voices. They have a headache. I mean, when the national dialogue comes, he wants to discuss.
He says the truth is that there is no parliament in Egypt and that this parliament was formed with the consent of the people and with an agreement that was made in 25 with a criminal intent. I mean, I am reporting what happened, Mr. Twenty-five. There is no dispute called the Senate and the National Dialogue, and it is meeting right now. What is happening in the engineering syndicate is happening. Somebody comes out and says a statement that we reject this on behalf of the National Dialogue. You say that the General Coordinator of the National Dialogue has not said that there is no one who has called my house to discuss this, as if this was happening in Mozambique, for example, or in Belgium. How are you going to… I mean, what are you saying that you object to…? You object to a party or a base visiting a party of good people, I mean, they’re nice, and he tells you that, God willing, there will be hope for freedoms and purchases…. Well, we don’t know the problem…. The whole issue is for the presidential election. And we finish the medicine, why all the shower. And there is a national dialogue that is taking place, and there are no articles in the newspapers about it, that is, those who are there do not leave it to them, and those who are there do not have a voice of opposition that says, no, I am against it, or I protest, or I have reservations. To what the dialogue coordinator said, I say, but I don’t want anything. I will not keep my word, but I say I am reserved, and it is sent to the people, and it is said, it is said, who is the one who shows them on these screens, and the people who are all banned are so many? On the screens or what is written in the magazine, as they call it, does not come out. It is common to call it Samsung media, and I remember very well.
It was an amazing thing when Dr. Ayman Mansour Nada wrote his articles and slandered the courts (the flags of the mules). It went so far as to interfere in his private life and deny him access to the university and then force him to apologize in a very humiliating way.
Speaker 1:
I find it difficult for him because I didn’t know him at the time and I took his case. I defended him very much, and then when he apologized for this humiliating apology, I was not upset with him, by God, I was upset with him and the state of the country, and you think that you are doing that as if you are pointing a gun at me and saying I apologize to Egypt, whose situation you criticized in the fifties and sixties, and that there was censorship and confiscation of freedoms.
In the fifties and sixties, all the theaters, the biggest theater in the Arab world, the biggest cinema in the Arab world, the biggest journalism in the Arab world, the biggest writers in the Arab world and the whole Arab world said that we have learned from this, of course, the greatest poets there were, the greatest writers there were in the fifties and sixties days of dictatorship. We are in the days of Raya, enjoying their bliss.
Now there are so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, and so-and-so, without mentioning their names, so they don’t even understand the resemblance of Raguz, and Raguz laughs, it makes you cry. And then they will all be very happy now that Rahweh will wear a watch, like the watch of the high lords, ministers, I mean, and officials wear very expensive watches, so it means that there are young men who will pick up the watch and know its price, and write to them on Facebook, this is the price of so-and-so thousand dollars, this is the price of so-and-so, and they talk to the people, and he tells you tolerate for the country.
Speaker 1:
I know some of them who didn’t know how to wear slippers. I know them very well, and they know me, and they don’t pay attention. They know, I mean, and I know they are, and there are some of them that have worked with me a lot, I mean, and I’ve been in the places that I’ve worked. What is that, and hours and they talk to me about millions of millions, so many, God bless them, but where did they get that?
Is the agency afraid to open up media that gets criticized a lot? I mean, what happened on the twenty-fifth of January or the thirtieth of June, that is, between two options that both existed…?
No, Mr. President. He said if we don’t want to, by God, without going out, we will go. We are in the moment now. The difference between us and them is that we hire one of the polling agencies or research firms to do a survey or a poll and say people want you or not…but we don’t want anything else…I am talking about if the general climate for freedom is not opened up.
The President said if you don’t want me to go. It closes the general climate and closes all eyes and the whole world in this way. Of course, because I am afraid of what you will tell me, because security and stability is security and stability. In Egypt it is there, but in Europe there is a lack of security and stability. Or what are you going to tell me so that we will remain as they used to say, we will remain like Libya or like Iraq, God willing. That is in all the studies that are put out by international bodies, Libya, Iraq, Syria, and the need in the advanced centers today proclaims that Yemen has a reserve of wheat for 4 months and is not growing. I mean, Yemen does not have the Nile. They will tell me that we will remain like Libya, Syria and Iraq.
Speaker1:
I want to stay like Iraq, frankly, Iraq has a number of channels with a number of magazines. I want to stay like Libya, which has a number of journals with parties, even if there are internal conflicts in the context of a power struggle and there is no confusion, there is an atmosphere of freedom. I want to stay like Sudan, I have newspapers like Sudan, I want to stay like Tunisia, I want to stay like Algeria, okay, let me be like Morocco, I’m not telling you, let me be like Saudi Arabia, because Saudi Arabia is the flag of His Highness, and so on. It’s a natural thing. I mean, either the government system stays that way, and they provide their people with that luxury. Redemption. That is their business. I don’t get involved in that. But I want Gaza to stay. I want our media to be like Gaza or the West Bank. I’m not going to say it stays like Israel. Transgression means transgression is unnatural.
We do not stand idly by. We have seen the head of state who has ruled his grocery store for twenty-two years, and we have not seen one scratch the other, and I have seen it well on television. We have not seen a head of state being tried in the United States of America and the like. What are your rules and do you apply them to everybody, including yourself. I mean, that is just the whole idea. But we will say that the authority is afraid that January twenty-fifth is going to happen. If the authority is afraid that January twenty-fifth is not going to happen, then there are reasons leading up to the twenty-fifth, and one point from the beginning of the line. It took 10 or 12 years because of the same freedoms he entered. So all this was done to extend the duration of his reign. But you put so much pressure on the press, on the people, on the officials.
I see all the officials standing, not in a good way, not even befitting the president. They stand in front of him, trembling, and he silently treats them like that. We don’t watch presidents. We don’t watch TV, we watch the President of America and his side, not America, we watch Sudan. That’s not reasonable, people. I mean, the one who is the prime minister is sitting. Everything he says, yes, everything he says is right, and he is the one doing the wrong thing. Anyway, a prime minister is not allowed to have a say in the constitution, national security or foreign policy, so he remains prime minister.
But do you have experience in party work? How do you evaluate this experience or party work in Egypt?
My experience in party work was presented to her. At that time, he was the secretary general of the party. It was Dr. Issam Khalil, and the party chairman was Ahmed Saeed, and Jally Issam Khalil told me he was an appointee, that is of Naguib Sawiris. I mean, Naguib Sawiris (that’s the Free Egyptians Party), the Free Egyptian Party, and he said you should join and things like that, and after that I discussed two or three things with him, and he told me you will join, you will remain a member of a supreme body and also a member of a political bureau, so I joined. You imagine this story that you write a party book, become a member of a supreme body and become a member of a political bureau.
I don’t see the experience, I mean, it was the climate at that time, I mean, he hadn’t been elected to the first parliament yet, and the president was newly elected, and the president used to say sweet and strong words, and all the people were gathered around him, and I was one of them. That’s over. As long as you play along here, the distance between us remains great. I mean, we communicate, respect each other, appreciate each other, and so on to some extent. I mean, if they decide they’re going to take me, I’m going to go. I mean, there’s no problem there at all. I mean, that is the experience of the party, but I entered and I was shy, and the Free Egyptians Party took the majority during that time.
It had sixty-five seats and the future of the country, forty-seven seats, and there was a good atmosphere in the parliament, and at that time I was also working on the program of the parliament. The most important thing is that the party did not do any partisan work. There was Naguib Sawiris, I mean, he is the pope par excellence.
I mean Issam Khalil and your needs go to him from inside and others with me, we did not like this situation. I mean Issam Khalil comes to give us the instructions from Naguib Sawiris, then he takes us and we sit down once for a meeting and we answer Sawiris by saying we want to do this, so his words go on. And so we arrived at the formula that led to the crisis of the Free Egyptians Party and a general conference of the party. The General Conference decided to adopt the position that we saw and that Issam Khalil represented for the Secretariat. After that, elections were held and Issam Khalil was elected as the party chairman and I am the secretary general of the party. Five months later, it had fully formed eighteen governorates. Ideal formations formed sixty-four names and centers, and I was surprised to be in Alexandria at night to visit the party secretariat. With exercise it is not permissible, no alive, it is not permissible, I mean it does not make sense, so I was dressed and went to the party at that time, I left and sat down, and accordingly there was an intervention, an intervention made with me by my dear colleague Muhammad Desouki Rushdie and it seems that they do not know how to reach him or they do not know how to impose on him and I told him what happened and the brother replied Issam Khalil said such beautiful words.
And I met one of the heads of National Security and he told me you really wanted to work for a party. I told him, „Oh, I’m a tramp or something, I don’t earn anything from political work. What does a man really do for a party? That means there will be transgressions. I gave a name, but maybe he’ll see a National Security report, then he’ll know anyway.
I told him, oh, of course, we were serious about working for the Party. The request for impeachment came from the security authorities… I think, uh, because I wrote something, and it caused a big crisis. I mean, it’s a reference, not a statement against an official in Egypt today. that official? Whoever comes near him, his life is ruined and his life is strained. I mean, I would have written a hint, not a statement against him.
Partisan life in Egypt today is as you describe it. No, I’m sorry, get rid of your old bath. I mean, we are parties before the revolution. There were serious parties, but they were weak and flabby before the revolution. Excuse me? January twenty-five, not fifty-two, not fifty-two, I mean the January twenty-five revolution was not completed, and the June thirty revolution was not completed, I mean it took place, and that’s why some people say it’s not a revolution, it’s an uprising. It completely destroyed the Mubarak regime, and the second one is a revolution that completely destroyed the Brotherhood regime, so as long as a revolution threatens a regime, it remains a revolution, but it should be completed by building a system. June I mean, how is it when they talk to us about the new republic? I don’t know how. I mean, is it the final model? Some things, what are we, our economic system, we don’t know, what is our political system?
I mean, is it based on competition with any parties? No, we agree and love our brother’s head, and everybody takes a piece, and we trust in God, but that’s what exists. So, what does our constitution say about our identity? Okay, what is our cultural identity?
If you tell me all of them, then you can say, in a new republic. I mean, like the twenty-third of July, when the twenty-third revolution happened. No identity. Agree or disagree with me as you like. Gamal Abdel Nasser has died. The twenty-third of June revolution is over. I am not the one to say that the one who ruled after that did something called the fifteenth of May Revolution.
President Anwar Sadat said the revolutionary regime is over, the revolutionary legitimacy is over, and we start with the constitutional legitimacy, and he called it the corrective revolution, and so the second republic began. And it continues to this day. I mean, you don’t see promising parties on the scene. How can there be promising parties when they are led by the security services?
I mean, I don’t understand them. I mean, I want to stay in the security party. It has the right to see, track, and know every need. Don’t interfere, and you are your own master. You answer me why you get the leadership or remove the leadership. Why are you your owner, not your task?
I mean, this is what I want to say: the National. The biggest party in Egypt is the National Security. That is the biggest party. A strong, cohesive and wonderful party. And it has committees, there’s a committee like this, a committee like this, and a committee like this.
I mean, I can say that. Your comment on the announcement of some candidates or party leaders to run in the upcoming presidential election. Well, may God grant them success in the coming presidential elections. President El-Sisi was elected President of the Republic with an overwhelming popularity that no one disputes.
It is unprecedented except for Muhammad Ali, who is meant in the same way. This tyrannical popularity means that Gamal Abdel Nasser gave us his popularity with his work, his achievements and his personality. With his thinking and his culture. And every need. President Sisi is ready. Mr. Hamdeen Sabahi was nominated against him.
I think the percentage was clear, that is, the need of two or three percent. And that was the current reality. There was this circumvention of the President, and then President Sisi decided, and he decided according to what he sees for the homeland. He sees what the homeland is doing. The next election came. And we saw who ran against him, in an absurd scene.
Then they want to repeat the game. We also want to repeat it. Someone will come out and spread such words. He tells you that the percentage can come down to something. Seventy percent is fine. I mean, why do you do that?
Why are you doing that? I mean, do you want to hold presidential elections?
Then let the whole international media pull. Hands off the media, let the media write the people and let the people speak, and set rules of the game for how the elections are going to be held. When will you speak and who is the opposing candidate? I declare clearly that you will not arrest anyone who runs with one of the candidates, as happened in the elections after the January 25 revolution. I mean, we appreciated the time of Muhammad Morsi, and I am against the Brotherhood, and my attitude toward the Brotherhood is well known. In the past, even in the days of Mubarak, but in the days of Mohamed Morsi, we could have a rebellion and go to the streets, and I could look at the screens and speak, and I could write in the newspaper, but now this is not possible. Is anyone able to make a rebellion form? In the twenty-first century, is Egypt in the twenty-first century, or are we still there? … I mean, if there are candidates who could be partisan, there are positive people, I mean, they definitely try. I mean, there is the head of the Wafd Party on the platform and the candidacy The head of the Conservative Party, Ahmed Tantawi, are the ones who have announced their candidacy now.
Maybe other good names will be added. A young man, I mean, who is promising and trying. To be honest, I can say that Ahmed Tantawi was wronged in the last parliamentary elections. It was a very big injustice. His presence in parliament was something that I think was good, because he was successful as a member of parliament.
In the first session of my constituency, because he went to Disouq, and he told me that I was from Disouq, and so on, and I didn’t know him personally, but I saw his performance, which was a little bit of youthful impulsiveness, but he was sweet, I mean, not a monster, and now I see that he is becoming more mature, I mean more, but I don’t think he will be able or It could be very difficult, but he is trying and he has the right to try. As far as Professor Abd al-Sanad Yamama is concerned, I don’t know him at all. By God, I mean, the first time I heard about him was when I was surprised that he was Abu Shaqqa, who was overthrown because he was close to power. Professor Abd al-Sanad Yamama came at the time when Bahaa al-Din Abu Shaqqa fell because he was close to power, the same day he fell. Abu Shaqqa and Nabrawi followed him. Dahi Hani Dahi also fell to the Engineer Syndicate, and the two were in power on the same day. Professor Sahib Yamama came. I met him at the National Dialogue party. Or I praise the government in it.
There is no problem, Mr. Party Chairman. Tell me who you are. When he spoke, I did not meet the delegation. I mean, I can have reservations or have an opinion about the delegation party, but I have to mention in their history the big names, also the big struggles. Little means that their history is great, as Mr. Yamama thinks. I mean, it is very difficult that I can stay or what he will do. I mean, I don’t know, I mean, I can’t. Professor Akmal Kurtam is a man who has a good, nice party and was in parliament before. He had an experience in the parliament, I didn’t see anything about it. I saw that he resigned and got upset. He wanted to be the head of the Human Rights Committee, and I don’t know about such things. Because he is a traitor. I know Anwar well, I mean, many years ago, and I remember the days when I wrote articles about ending the quagmire of a homeland. He was talking to me, and there was a clash between us and some, I mean because he was guiding me, and he told me that the group is angry with you and should be a little less, and I’m trying to calm them down. Who is the meeting? He told me, I mean, he told me they’re like this, and I’m on the coast with them and things like that, and he said to me, „Well, we’ll just sit down.“ I told him, „No, I don’t want to sit down. I’ve always made it safe, I mean, I give my opinion honestly, and everything I submitted to the Presidency of the Republic, praise God, with his approval, honestly, wasn’t taken.
none of it. Are you the one who turned away from the decision maker, or did the decision maker turn away from him? no. I’m not in a position. I mean, in the partisan experience, I didn’t raise the white flag. I understood the game, so I kept a low profile in terms of the media. What I saw in the media was nothing humiliating. I dealt with chief editors, I dealt directly with them, I dealt directly with Mohsen Muhammad, with Ibrahim Nafie, with Ibrahim Saada, with Anis Mansour, I dealt with Abbas Al-Tarabili in an office, with Muhammad Abdel Moneim in an office, I had the honor of having Dr. I had the honor of sitting with Professor Naguib Mahfouz, and I saw Tawfiq al-Hakim many times, and Asmaa Mahmoud Awad, my great teacher, friend and brother, and I learned from him how to stay in the midst of all countries, and I will stay in him as he is now.
No, it was difficult for me, so I respected myself and took an unpaid leave and paid the insurance. Then the administration started saying no and coming back and doing things like that. After that I also stopped working on TV, I was suspended, and then I went to the pensioner, they didn’t spend my pension, and they sat there stubbornly for a while, and I told you that the President of the Republic knows, and then I got my pension by chance. It happened, so the verdict was given, so the differences must be resolved, so a new head of the Insurance Authority came, may God grant him success and honor him.
So they turned to Al-Ahram. Al-Ahram was afraid to say something wrong, so she did not answer, so he told them to approach her again, so she did not answer, so the man decided to pay my fees. I was somewhat puzzled and asked what was going on, and they said it was. There is an answer and we will transfer it to you to the bank.
Otherwise, I have a gratuity at the end of service. The one who sits in the National Media Authority is forbidden to pay the severance pay to the scholarship fund of Al-Ahram, and these are large sums that I do not accept, and I am supposed to kiss the foot and regret my mistake, so I will not kiss the foot and regret my mistake at all, because we did not make a mistake.
Do you think that the crisis can be solved with an economic government, a change of government, or a change of policy?
I understand that His Excellency the President has an objection to what he is saying. He says the approach and based on that comes a government that adopts that approach, and based on that there will be a parliament that discusses the government, whether it was out of line or whether it succeeded or whether it failed, and there will be media that talks about all the countries, then it remains Here we can start a new phase and stay in a new country. Otherwise, we will sit in the parties of national dialogue and remain delicious and sweet and so on and make recommendations. Certainly His Excellency the President will take up some of them so that he can also take a shower, as you said. .
They will broadcast that. Salsafeel will curse Abu grandfather and his money, because among those who will curse me are the outcasts of this people. I would be proud. I mean, if my denunciation came to you, I would be happy about it. I mean, but I understand someone telling me that I don’t agree with you on this. I understand if somebody tells me that you don’t see that. I mean, if they tell me you don’t see successes, I will say I see my bridges. I mean I see it well, and I see beautiful ways, and I see the project of tilapia galleon that cost eight pounds, it became a hundred, and I see the project of veal from a hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty, and maybe it went up, I see, I do not see, I see the Arab, which cost two hundred thousand, now it’s a million and two hundred, I see that people say, I mean, rice, obesity, sugar, you see, I do not see, they tell me, they say people there are roads and bridges, so it was a good thing, and we were happy with it, but I want to eat. . the citizen wants to eat.
I mean, no, you will tell me that in the sixties and fifties we were in crisis. Yes, but we were all the same, but you all day, I suffer from headaches on the phone. Villa and apartment offers. A villa and an apartment on the coast, so I do not know what is too much to offer.
I see that the state sells an apartment for three million. They went to the tanneries, took people away from here and started making gardens and yummy things. He bought an apartment for three million. People came from Maspero and developed it, so he sells the apartment for three, five or seven. Or eight million, that you increase salaries by twenty percent and prices by ninety percent. That is not permissible. Then all the reports and newspapers talk about a crisis, and I mean, His Excellency the President comes out and says there is no crisis.
We were in a dollar crisis and it is over. There is no way out. There is no way out. If somebody sees him and tells me about it, I will believe him. Unless someone you talk to says to you, „Fear God, my brother.“ Our Lord is present, praise be to Him, my brother. We will work with the Blessing, how are you talking?
We are in the fifteenth century, and now you want to go out and tell me that the Pope stayed and God stayed on earth, and how did he pursue that? I mean you guys are talking, I mean whoever is ruled by their religion, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity or Muslims, there’s curriculum, there’s people, there’s an economy, and there’s a family, I mean….
We thank you very much.Nasr Alqafas
