Intellectual suppression for the Freedom to form Parties

     The Egyptian Committee of Parties Affairs was established 30 years ago, during this time, it had not approved the establishment of any party in Egypt, all the requests submitted to the committee concerning forming a political party were refused. This committee still has the right to give and the right to ban, in regard to giving license to any group to practice the right to manage public affairs and form parties.

     According to the law No 40 for the year 1976, the committee of parties affairs was established. Since then, it did not give license to any group to form a political party, except for "the national concord party" or "Al-Wefaq Al-Qawmy Party" on March 9th 2000, though it corrected its only mistake "approval" by freezing it later. The total number of parties that were refused since the committee was founded till March 2003 is 46 parties.

     It seems that the long history of suppression and burying any movement or group desires to form a party to express its free will, is not enough, the matter goes further to the writers and journalists, who are, supposedly, the protectors of liberties.

     In this concern, Mohsen Lotfy El-Saied, who submitted a request to the Parties Affairs Committee to establish "Masr El-Om Party" on February 14th 2004, had been exposing to a defamation campaign alongside with the other founders of the party since then.

     That campaign gets ascended to charge the founders with working for Israel and the USA. Whereas Lotfy affirmed that the party in concern is working for enlivening the Egyptian identity, through the assertion on "Egypt for Egyptians", the saying was said before by "Gamal El-Deen Al-Afghany", Qasem Amin and others of the figures of the Egyptian Enlightenment, meaning that Lotfy did not came up with strange idea in this concern.

     Likewise, Lotfy negated that his party being against Arabs or Islam, saying: " we call for prompting national affiliation through enlivening the Egyptian identity. It is not possible to eliminate Arabian identity or Islam, but we are talking about prioritizing our real identity, and pursuing rephrasing and developing the Egyptian culture".

     By not considering either agreeing or disagreeing with these ideas mentioned in the quote, what is important in this issue is the defamation campaign on the founders of the party which reached the extent of confiscation and negation, using a flow of insults, starting with inquisition and ending with charges of national treachery. The defamation campaign leaders did not bother themselves with involving in debate with the founders of the party, they rather went on provoking the authorities to put the founders in jail.

     They wondered, how could the government let those founders, while detaining an innocent citizen who wrote "No for Presidency inheritance" on the walls? And also wondered, why the government does not take action against those atheists? They even asserted that this party will never see the light because it is not consistent with the constitution. The provoking does not stop at this extent, it goes further to invoke citizens by describing the party as "the devil's party" and "the devil's coalition" whose founders should be isolated and blockaded, the society is innocent of them. Silence is not a situation towards nation treachery.

     The party also was described as "The Party of Evil" imitating Bush's expression "the Axis of Evil" when he was justifying the war on Iraq, in spite of their deep detestation to Bush and the USA, that did not prevent the campaign leaders to use the same political terms he used in justifying war, it seems that this expression is usually used in justifying war on the others who may have different opinions.

     The defamation campaign leaders continue their work and describe the founders of the intended establishing party by a "group of retardates and enemies of nation's constants" who are loved by the Zionists and the Americans, who in turn, are against the nation and its belief. The founders also was figured as a group of mentally retarded and what they call for are nothing but their dreams.
The leaders of the defamation campaign invented lies which were not mentioned in the program of the party, like "As the king "the pharaoh" in ancient Egypt was marrying his own sister, and sometimes his own daughter in order to keep the royal blood pure" so the leaders' question is that "is it possible for some intellectuals, meaning the founders of the party, to call for getting back to the pharaohs era and separation from Arabs? Does that need a consultation from specialized doctors or centers of psychological analysis?

     To this extent charges could be forged and brought against citizens, without doing any effort to obtain the party document, read it and objectively criticize it, before claiming that they call for incest marriage.

     Thinking deeply in the speech against the founders of the party, we find that this speech does not discuss the other opinion, it rather confiscates it, using the weapons of inquisition and treachery as the most strong, and the easiest tools in trapping others. It also uses the tool of provoking people against them. As what had happened during the crisis of the novel "Walema Le A'shab Elbahr" by "Haider Haider", the provoking led the students of some universities to demonstrate against the novel without even reading it. Unfortunately, the situation is repeated as we were moving in an endless chain. The adopters of the suppressive speech are marked by their cleverness in choosing the different issues they tackle. For them every thing could be divided into what they accept and what they deny, a liberty they enjoy and forget that the others have the right to enjoy it too.

     Also, those who suppress the freedom of intellect think themselves the owners of the absolute truth, particularly, in regard to the national values. So they give this absolute truth to whom they love and hide it from whom they do not love.

     This kind of speech, which talk on behalf of the public, without giving them the real chance to engage realistically with any idea is one of the main reasons behind our weakness in facing realistically our own problems. So, we call for those who adopt that oppressive speech to let people refuse and accept any idea, without assigning yourselves guardians. For, all ideas could be criticized or argued, and no one own the absolute truth, including the founders of the example party who do not own an authorization to talk on behalf of the Egyptian civilization or any other civilization.

Abdel Mawla Ismaiil