These days we celebrate the birth anniversary of the leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, and it is an occasion for us to recall the beginning of the journey of an Arab man and his intellectual and political experience and the positions that the man took within his official positions of responsibility as a head of state and as a leader of an Arab movement that lived a renaissance project, with which he wanted to say “no” in the time of “yes”, if I may say so. It is a temporal journey with all its positives and negatives, and with all its rise as a “project” and the fall of its victories and failures, it represented a rich experience that the Arabs “still” discuss, against it and with it, and it represents an ongoing debate to re-evaluate what happened, and all this because this experience was an “attempt” at a movement project that sought to return the Arabs to their natural historical position as “makers of civilization”.
In any case, it was a diverse “journey” that represented a “pioneering experience” that the Arab people lived with him everywhere and moved with him emotionally and sentimentally, interacting with him and awaiting his speeches, and thus they lived “hope” and “wishes” with the attempt of this loyal Arab leader to make the return of the Arabs... all Arabs to renaissance and civilizational creativity.
Gamal Abdel Nasser used to say: “We will work to benefit from all the strength and potential of our country, and we are actually creating a country that feels strong,” and “We want to cooperate with the West and the East with all sincerity and honesty without restrictions or reservations, as long as this cooperation is based on equality, non-interference, and common mutual interests.”
The late leader Abdel Nasser represented a distinctive phenomenon in the history of the Arab nation, as he led it towards making its own decisions away from foreign strangers, and tried to create a popular Arab state that lives in freedom on the psychological and cultural levels, and set out on a path of “positive neutrality” between global conflicts that the Arabs have nothing to do with, and was able to establish the “Non-Aligned Movement” bloc.
He also made efforts to build a new Arab generation that carries a “message” that lives in freedom and independence and wants to create a new civilized society that is confident in itself, seeks to build, looks to the future, and relies on itself.
Gamal Abdel Nasser, the “person,” did not impose himself on the people, and no one can impose himself as a “leader,” but within his official position as a “president,” he announced his project, revealed his principles, and launched his slogans. He moved on the ground, and his conscience lived with loyalty to the project. He made mistakes here, succeeded there, and retreated there, and this is the nature of things. However, in any case, he had something to offer.
He planned within the reality in which he lived, and faced economic, administrative, and organizational problems, committed to “Arab unity” with the conviction that it cannot be imposed by force, and that its future is not decided by force, but rather required by the independent will of every Arab people. However, he wanted, at the very least, to have “Arab solidarity,” because destiny and fate are one.
The anniversary of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s birth is considered a re-remembrance of a “project” and a re-evaluation of a pioneering experience that the Arabs lived for 18 years. The anniversary of the birth comes so that we rethink the old-new question: Why did the Arabs lag behind and others advance?
Dr ADEL REDA
