It came in Lisan al-Arab by Ibn Manzoor about the word Faisal and separation: “And separation: the judiciary between truth and falsehood, and the name of that judiciary that separates them: Faisal, which is: the judiciary of Faisal and Fasel. And the rule of Fasel and Faisal: past, and the government of Faysal as well.
Last Monday, I attended the speech of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in his dialogue session, within the World Government Summit in Dubai.
The bright media interview was moderated by Faisal bin Huzair, and he asked most of the expected questions, despite President Sisi’s influx and sometimes flirting with the announcer Faisal, asking him to let him finish his words, saying in the gentle Egyptian: “He will build, Faisal… I am not tired, Faisal,” amidst the smiles of the audience.
In a talk that lasted more than an hour, the Egyptian president set out to explain the situation in Egypt during 2011 – what some describe as a revolution – the Egyptian state was on the brink of an abyss, and Sisi tells us that what happened during that era alone cost Egypt $450 billion.
As for the biggest challenge, it was not the economy and the state’s finances, but rather the Egyptian fabric that was about to be torn apart, with the loss of hope, the dominance of despair, and the blockage of horizons, after the struggles and charades of political action in the distant 2011.
President El-Sisi continued, “The administrative apparatus in the state was suffering from flabbiness and regression. Approximately one and a half million people were employed in it, while the state and its population do not need more than a third of them.”
Security was lacking, terrorism was rampant, and police directorates, mosques, churches, and army checkpoints were repeatedly bombed. We all remember that, and the era is not far away, but when people have a blessing, they forget the moments of losing it… This is a deeply rooted nature in human beings. Perhaps it is sometimes described as the blessing of forgetting… However, forgetting is not a blessing in “all” cases.
I think that what is meant by Sisi’s words is to set a related “context” for the nature of the challenges that Egypt has gone through and is still going through, which are security, economic, and political development challenges, at one time…and the man tried to explain how he dealt with this “ball of fire”.
For example, about major housing and urban projects, such as the Administrative Capital, which the man’s opponents accuse his administration of tampering and showing off in luxury projects and not feeling the suffering of the tired Egyptian over the “loaf of bread.”
Here, Sisi set a “context” for urban projects, and that it is a necessity, not a luxury: Egyptians live on 5 percent of Egypt’s area, and the state aims to reach 12 percent of its total area by building 24 smart cities, not just the administrative capital.
There remains an important question, which I wish the brilliant broadcaster Faisal bin Hariz had asked President Sisi in an explicit way:
Do the army and armed forces interfere in private sector projects and place conditions on them?
This is the accusation that is common among platforms that attack current Egyptian politics, and place the burden of difficulties on their shoulders.
Yes, Sisi talked about encouraging the private sector and what the Egyptian government has done in this regard, but in such speaking opportunities, you need as much directness as possible, so as not to leave room for speculation.
And yet, it is certain that there are mistakes in these years in Egypt, and they must be corrected, but correction and its request is one thing… and incitement and demonization against the Egyptian state is something else entirely. That is the word “Al-Faisal”.