CNN is running an article on its website
under a weird title that goes like this: “Egypt's era of hope has ended,”
written by Sarah El Sirgany and published on April 25, 2019.
Nowhere in the article does it say who or
what is referred to by the term “Egypt,” and what exactly the thing was hoping
for ... that has ended so abruptly. And then, instead of starting the article
by explaining that riddle to help the readers understand what the article is
about, Sirgany began by telling the readers about protesters in Sudan and
Algeria that distrust their militaries because “those made in Cairo have since
been broken.” Be that as it may, what happened after the distrust? Did the
protesters abort the protests and go home to mommy? We'll never know because
the editors at CNN never asked Sirgany to clarify.
Sarah Sirgany had nothing more to say
about the protesters, and this left the readers wondering what damage Egypt did
to Sudan and Algeria by unknowingly ending its own hopes … whatever they may
have been in the eyes of the geniuses at CNN. But instead of fixing this
literary defect, the writer of the article went on to tell that President Sisi
of Egypt, who ran twice and won, may run a third time.
And given that there was mention of the
neighboring states of Sudan and Algeria for whatever obscure reason, you'd
expect Sirgany to admit that even if Sisi will run a third time and win, it
will be less than Netanyahu's five runs in Israel, the adjacent entity that is
a closer neighbor to Egypt than is faraway Algeria, and closer to its capital
city of Cairo (as well as the still unnamed new capital) than is adjacent
Sudan.
The article says there has been a
referendum in Egypt, and the people approved several measures, one of which
extends the electoral cycle from the American style four-year term to the
European style six-year term. This will give the current president and sitting
parliamentarians, the right to run again for their respective positions in 2024
and if successful, remain in power till the year 2030. So the question is this:
What's wrong with that? And the answer is this: Nothing really is wrong to a
normal person.
But the reality is that CNN is staffed
with a bunch of abnormal people that have no right to vote in Egypt, thus
lament the decision of the millions who voted and gave their support to the man
that delivered on the promise of transforming what used to be called “basket
case Egypt” into a modern economy that's on the path to become the seventh most
powerful in the world by that very same year 2030. This being the cold eye
assessment of those who do high level economics for a living.
In fact, that's when, according to a major
British team of economists –– backed with figures published by such
institutions as the IMF and the World Bank –– Egypt will by then, be ahead of every African and
European country without exception, ahead of every North American country
except the United States, ahead of every South American country except Brazil, and
ahead of every Asian country except China, India, Indonesia and Turkey. Get
this: Egypt will be ahead of such juggernauts as Germany and Japan by that
time.
Whether or not this prediction will come
true by that date, the reality is that President Sisi has put the country on a
path of tangible gains that have turned the old era of idle hopes in Egypt into
a new era of abundant opportunities for everyone to realize their dream. So the
question to ask is this: How did Sisi do it?
We recall a time when the late President
Anwar Sadat started to implement a policy of “infitah,” which is Arabic for
opening. That is, he started the process of opening the Egyptian economy to the
world. For this to succeed, he needed the stamp of approval from the IMF, and so
he asked the world organization for a loan. As usual, the IMF attached
conditions to granting the loan, and this meant applying austerity measures
that would have affected the subsidy programs entrenched in the Egyptian system
since the Second World War. The people protested vehemently because they were
never consulted ahead of time, and Sadat backed out of the original plan. He
implemented a less stringent one that was nevertheless successful by all
measures.
Decades have passed, much water has gone under
the bridge, and Egypt was ready for another attempt at infitah, now known as
globalization. Sisi was there to implement a realistic program, but needed the
IMF stamp of approval to make it work. Rather than be deterred from
implementing the conditions that come with the loan, as did presidents before
him, Sisi got down to earth and was open with the people of Egypt.
He told the people they'll be going
through hard times brought about by the austerity measures, but the country
will come out of that period stronger than ever before, and he asked them to be
patient. The people trusted Sisi and accepted his argument. He started the
program, and the people went along with it.
When the success of the policy became
obvious to everyone, Sisi asked the people to vote in a referendum and approve
his continued leadership so that he may complete the program by 2030, subject
to another general election that will be held in the year 2024. And the people
gave Sisi a strong yes.