Egypt and my native India began their modern national movements at roughly the same time, by the 1920s, and sought independence from British rule. India has held on to constitutionalism, while Egypt has succumbed to the culture of the strongman in uniform. Why the difference? An answer is that the earliest leaders of independent India were civilians with unimpeachable nationalist credentials. (Think Nehru, Patel, Azad, and others.) When they made mistakes, they lost elections. Such men were largely absent from Egypt’s early modern history. After feckless “Freddy” Farouk—le roi—Egypt only became truly independent via a military coup; and Israel was used as an alibi thereafter for a permanent state of emergency and absolute executive authority. (Piquantly, once Sadat opted for rapprochement, peace with Israel became the excuse for keeping democracy at bay!)
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 18:22:00 +0000
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