Egypt, the Middle East, and Elsewhere: Egypt's Development: Character and Leadership, mandatory prerequisites

Dear friends,

For years now I have been thinking of this formidable obstacle on the road ahead for Egypt, it is a two-headed monster, character and leadership. Now, five months after the 25 January glorious revolution, it is time to put down in writing my analysis of this obstacle/monster.

It is my unwavering contention that Egypt must deal with this obstacle, because success in development is simply not possible without first slaying this monster.

As Egypt embarks on its immediate future, with scheduled parliamentary and presidential elections, putting together a new constitution, trials of Mubarak and former officials, recovery of stolen funds and assets and targeting its immediate political, economic and social priorities, it must not overlook the crucial objective of determining the character of the nation, and the responsibility of its leadership. This is a prerequisite that if not met, progress and development will not come.

Below analysis will first set the stage for what is meant worldwide by development. I will begin with an outline of the various institutions and factors needed to establish a sustainable ongoing levels of economic prosperity, which in turn will usher in an era of development in Egypt. It is critically important to note that these institutions and factors are time-tested and proven elements of development the world over, East to West, South to North. They are a necessity for a country's productivity and its ability to provide prosperity to its citizens; they allow a country to use available resources productively.

My analysis will then turn its focus on the all-critical two-headed monster, the areas, issues and concerns around which the character of a nation is formed and the indispensable signs and characteristics of viable leadership, outlining that without a character overhaul and the emergence of a genuine and passionate leadership Egypt stands little chance of progressive and sustainable development.

Development: stages, factors and pillars

The World Economic Forum, in its annual global competitiveness reports, examines the many factors enabling national economies to achieve sustained economic growth and long-term prosperity. In order to find out Egypt's current stage of development, the economic components associated with that stage, and the most problematic factors for doing business in Egypt today, I looked into the 2010-2011 Global Competitiveness Report. The report ranks countries as to the state of their national economics; Egypt ranks 81 out of 139 countries with the top ten being Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, United States, Germany, Japan, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark, Canada.

The Global Competitiveness Report addresses development's three stages/factors and within them, twelve pillars:

Stage A. Basic requirements:

institutions
infrastructure
macroeconomic environment
health and primary education

Stage B. Efficiency enhancers:

higher education and training
goods market efficiency
labor market efficiency
financial market development
technology readiness
market size.

Stage C. Innovation and sophisticated factors:

business sophistication
innovation.

These pillars are not independent. They reinforce each other, and a weakness in one area often has a negative impact on other areas. For example, innovation will be very difficult without a well-educated and trained workforce adept at absorbing new technologies, and without sufficient financing for R&D or an efficient goods market that makes it possible to take new innovations to market.

With regard to the three stages for development, Egypt is in transition between stages 1 and 2. This means that Egypt's focus should be on Stage 1's basic requirements and Stage 2's efficiency enhancer pillars.

For any given nation, solid character and a competent and ethical leadership are a prerequisites for the twelve pillars' viability and proper functioning, and for their expected impact on the economy to materialize. The alternative is a bleak state of paralysis and lack of development. I have distilled below those components of the twelve pillars that are pertinent for and problematic in Egypt.

Institutions

The importance of a sound and fair institutional environment has become even more apparent during the economic crisis, given the increasingly direct role played by the state in the economy of many countries.
For example, owners of land, corporate shares, or intellectual property are unwilling to invest in the improvement and upkeep of their property if their rights as owners are not protected.
Excessive bureaucracy and red tape, over-regulation, corruption, dishonesty in dealing with public contracts, lack of transparency and trustworthiness, and the political dependence of the judicial system impose significant economic costs to businesses and slow the process of economic development.
Proper management of public finances is critical to ensuring trust in the national business environment.
The recent global financial crisis, along with numerous corporate scandals, has highlighted the relevance of accounting and reporting standards and transparency for preventing fraud and mismanagement, ensuring good governance, and maintaining investor and consumer confidence. An economy is well served by businesses that are run honestly, where managers abide by strong ethical practices in their dealings with the government, other firms, and the public at large.
Private-sector transparency is indispensable to business, and can be brought about through the use of standards as well as auditing and accounting practices that ensure access to information in a timely manner.

Infrastructure

The quality, extensiveness and availability of infrastructure networks significantly impact economic growth and affect income inequalities and poverty in a variety of ways.
Effective modes of transport, including quality roads, railroads, ports, and air transport, enable entrepreneurs to get their goods and services to market in a secure and timely manner and facilitate the movement of workers to the most suitable jobs.
Economies depend on an electricity supply that is free of interruptions and shortages so that businesses and factories can work unimpeded.
A solid and extensive telecommunications network allows for a rapid and free flow of information, which increases overall economic efficiency by helping to ensure that businesses can communicate and decisions are made by economic actors taking into account all available relevant information.

Macroeconomic environment

Macroeconomic disarray harms the economy.

Health and primary education

A healthy workforce is vital to a country’s competitiveness and productivity.

Higher education and training

Quality higher education and training is crucial for economies that want to move up the value chain beyond simple production processes and products.

Goods market efficiency

Healthy market competition, both domestic and foreign, is important in driving market efficiency and thus business productivity, by ensuring that the most efficient firms, producing goods demanded by the market, are those that thrive. The best possible environment for the exchange of goods requires a minimum of impediments to business activity through government intervention.
Market efficiency also depends on demand conditions such as customer orientation and buyer sophistication.

Labor market efficiency

Labor markets must have the flexibility to shift workers from one economic activity to another quickly and at low cost, and to allow for wage fluctuations without much social disruption.
Efficient labor markets must also ensure a clear relationship between worker incentives and their efforts.
Efficient labor markets must also ensure equity in the business environment between women and men.

Financial market development

The banking sector needs to be trustworthy and transparent, and—as has been made so clear recently—financial markets need appropriate regulation to protect investors and other actors in the economy at large.

Technological readiness

The technological readiness pillar measures the agility with which an economy adopts existing technologies to enhance the productivity of its industries, with specific emphasis on its capacity to fully leverage information and communication technologies (ICT) in daily activities and production processes for increased efficiency and competitiveness.

Market size

The size of the market affects productivity since large markets allow firms to exploit economies of scale.
Traditionally, the markets available to firms have been constrained by national borders.

Business sophistication

Business sophistication is conducive to higher efficiency in the production of goods and services. This leads to increased productivity, thus enhancing a nation’s competitiveness. Business sophistication concerns the quality of a country’s overall business networks as well as the quality of individual firms’ operations and strategies.

Innovation

In the long run, standards of living can be enhanced only by technological innovation. Innovation is particularly important for economies as they approach the frontiers of knowledge and the possibility of integrating and adapting exogenous technologies tends to disappear.

Egypt's Problematic Factors

Respondents in Egypt were asked to select from a list of fifteen factors the five most problematic for doing business in their country and to rank them between 1 (most problematic) to 5.

That self-analysis directly points to the prevailing national character and leadership issues, the two-headed monster that presents a formidable obstacle for Egypt to successfully navigate the above-outlined development factors and related pillars, enabling it to achieve sustained economic growth and long-term prosperity.

According to The Global Competitiveness Report, Egypt's most problematic factors for doing business are (%):

Corruption 19.0
Inflation 14.8
Inadequately educated workforce 10.1
Tax regulations 9.2
Access to financing 8.2
Inefficient government bureaucracy 6.1
Restrictive labor regulations 5.9
Poor work ethic in national labor force 5.6
Tax rates 4.5
Policy instability 4.5
Inadequate supply of infrastructure 3.8
Crime and theft 3.5
Poor public health 3.2
Foreign currency regulations 0.9
Government instability/coups 0.6

Egypt's Modern Day State of Affairs

Extreme poverty, over 40 per cent of the total population live on less than $2 a day.
Over 87% of Egyptian households have an annual income of less than $1,000.
Over 20% unemployment rate, particularly among the youth where a quarter of men and three-fifths of women are jobless, an all-time high.
Deplorable health system.
Low standard of living environment, the inflation rate in 2010 increased by 12% and food prices specifically rose by 20%, air/water pollution and disease.
Hundreds of thousands are living in graveyards and in other substandard accommodations.
Villages throughout Egypt have gone for decades without potable water. Egyptians eat food contaminated with carcinogens, and drink water contaminated with sewage, which destroys their health. With regard to infant mortality rate, the number of deaths of infants per 1,000 live births, Egypt ranks 115 of 195 countries according to the United Nation and 144 of 224 countries or territories, according to the World Factbook.
Appalling state of education.
High illiteracy rate: over 30 million are illiterate, 35% of all Egyptians, and 45% of Egyptian women.
Unacceptable state of research and development in science and technology.
Inequality between women and men.
Copts' issues: inequality, harassment and violence against them.
No freedom of the press, freedom of expression or freedom of association and organization.
The rule of law has all but disappeared, people harassed, treated with brutality, tortured, fired from their jobs, their families living in fear, arrested and thrown in jail without due process.
Stifling bureaucracy, effectively paralyzing Egypt's public and private sectors.
Alarming and unchecked state of corruption, bribery, nepotism, cronyism and favoritism, ten times what was there during the monarchy - which was overthrown for exactly these reasons.
Depleted work force, with little or no skills, training, or work ethic.
Low wages and negligible benefits while unearned wealth accrues to members of the ruling elite and their business partners.
Gross mismanagement of the national budget, the nation's wealth siphoned away.
Deplorable leadership throughout, with Egyptian people clinging to the most oppressive practices of traditional society, driving Egypt further into backwardness.
A non-representative and incoherent foreign policy that has greatly harmed Egypt's standing in the global community.
A non-representative, non-independent and incompetent parliament, with little citizen engagement.
A string of incompetent and grossly corrupt governments.
Lack of an independent judiciary system.
The effective total disappearance of civic institutions and organizations, denying people a critical outlet for programs, services and ideas.

Egypt's National Character

"Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike." --- Theodore Roosevelt

"The true wealth of a nation lies not in its gold or silver but in its learning, wisdom and in the uprightness of its sons." --- Khalil Gibran

It is said that nations survive and thrive but for their character, for if they lose their character they are gone.

The above components of the twelve pillars, pertinent for and problematic in Egypt; Egypt's most problematic factors for doing business; and facts of Egypt's modern day state of affairs - all are documented, well-known throughout Egypt, in official and public circles. Related information can be easily accessed, obtained for free. In fact, all of these offend, disconcert and shock any Egyptian with love and passion for this piece of land straddling the magnificent Nile river, north of Sudan, east of Libya, buffered to the east by the Red Sea and to the north by the Mediterranean.

And now, five months after the revolution, there is no real serious national discourse on above state of affairs, there is no effective public and official demand for an immediate start to address above-noted decisive issues.

Instead, Egypt's 2011 national character, a devastating testament to decades of neglect, is reflected in a great deal of chatter (in official reports, in the media, in the press, everywhere) focused on the following issues and concerns.

Religious leaders, be it the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, the Gama'a Islamyia, pushing for a resurgence of Islamism and having the audacity, and the temerity to state/advocate that:

Religion/Islam should mix with politics, willfully and in sinister manner ignoring the unquestionable merits of separation of mosque and state.
Sharia law should become the law of the land, when it is beyond obvious that Sharia law should be but one source, only one source, into Egypt's laws and regulations, we should apply from it what is consistent and what is relevant to a moderate, modern, and progressive Egypt, an Egypt with a secular democracy.
Women do not have the same rights as men, and they are not legally their equal.
Women need not learn, women need not work, since their role is as mothers and homekeepers; what next, prohibiting women drivers and forbidding them from leaving their homes without a male permission as practiced in Saudi Arabia, the model country in the eyes of these Muslim extremists.
Boycott of Pepsi, because the name purportedly stands for Pay Every Penny to Save Israel. This kind of talk when Pepsi Cola Egypt SAE, operating as a subsidiary of Pepsico, Inc. undoubtedly is beneficial to Egypt's economy, and could be, with a better business environment and further incentives, investing more in Egypt.
Boycott of other companies and businesses for one reason or another, while the whole world is busily adjusting to living in a global economy that is here to stay.
Enormous focus on Israel, for sure not without major merit at this time, but given Egypt's pressing circumstances and urgent needs, the last thing on its collective mind should be another country.
Tourism, a major source of revenue, should be curtailed and controlled in order for it to be consistent with Islam.
Prohibition of football, soccer in the US, with the underlying reasons being it distracts from family duties and wearing shorts is temptation for women who may catch a glimpse of the screen.
Inconsistency with Islam is presented by commercial banking with regard to interest and profit-sharing.
Threats of more violence against Coptic Christians.
Islam is superior rather than one of many religions in the world, not better or worse than any other faith.
Believers of other religions are infidels.
The West is decadent, also Japan, Brazil is immoral, China atheist, but not one idea is offered for a prosperous future, no alternatives to development.
A person has no right to renounce or abandon Islam.
A great victory for Islam, a cause for joy simply because a teenage Christian girl has converted.
Women and Copts are not qualified to be President.
A need for a campaign for a million bearded Egyptian men, prompting sarcastic commentary from TV host Amr Adib asking why only a million, Egypt has at least 40 million men, even in growing beards do we expect low productivity!
A position that could be fairly described as follows: We are unwilling to reform, we do not accept modern life, we do not have the intellect to come up to alternatives for a good life; therefore life on earth will continue without prosperity, without good health, without education, and without happiness. But, do not despair, we offer you paradise where you get all of this and more, so you better hurry up and die. What a convenient way to sit around, do nothing and pass the buck to God!

When couple of months ago, the government announced the appointment of a Copt as governor of a southern province, riots broke out, protesting the appointment of a Christian as governor.
A lot of talk about the upcoming elections, with almost 50 parties already formed and eleven declared candidates for the presidency, with fourteen more expected to declare soon. However, with the ongoing sectarian conflicts, you hear no discussion about the need for Egypt to establish a permanent “bill of rights” to protect religious and personal freedoms before holding elections that could give power to an Islamist majority. Such a bill of rights would improve the anxiety over the state of affairs that exists today in Egypt.
According to the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Justice, thugs are in control of bread and butane prices.
The failure to create, generate, spread, disseminate and synthesize knowledge and information; ensuring that people read, understand and practice/implement what they learn in their lives.
The failure to make universal literacy for all, male and female, a subject for a huge campaign starting now with the involvement of all facets of Egypt's society.
The failure to explore the fact that Egyptians are not happy in Egypt, or in any other Arab country for that matter, but you find them by and large happy in England, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, USA, Norway and almost in any other country that is not Muslim.
The inarguable logic that the 25 January revolution belongs equally to men and women, liberating Egypt from Mubarak dictatorship and brutality, with blood, tears and extreme exertion, for freedom from fear, for freedom of expression, for freedom of assembly, for freedom from torture, for democratic principles, for the right to pursue happiness and more, was not for men only.
The critical issue of Egypt's women, not only women of Cairo and Alexandria but of the remotest of villages. Ideas, programs and projects need to be generated for the equal participation of women in Egypt's workforce, without which Egypt is denied the creative and productive efforts of half of its populations and thus has little chance of making speedy, effective and efficient movement forward; that that means Egypt's collective wisdom is in favor of a culture that asks of a nation in the 21st century to fire its economy on only half of its cylinders.
The military, knowing full well its know-how limitations and that, for almost six decades now, it has not positively delivered on Egypt's political, economic and social issues and needs, still unwilling to come out clearly and definitively and state that it is getting out of politics and state affairs for good.
On the contrary, everywhere you look, read or hear you find praise and admiration for the military, when in fact nothing of substance, nothing revolutionary in nature has taken place yet. The situation is as murky as ever, with real danger that Egypt will emerge at the end of 2011 more or less the same country it has been at least since 1952 on, with merely a reshuffling of the deck and the survival of the culture of Mubarak's regime.
"Egypt's Arab-language media has largely looked the other way, before and following a general recently speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity. He admitted that female activists detained during a Tahrir Square demonstration a month after Mubarak's overthrow had indeed been subjected to "virginity tests" – as the women have insisted all along." Mona Eltahawy, Guardian, June 2. Here is the link to the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/02/egypt-next-revolution-virginity-tests.
Serious coverage is being accorded to various trials of former officials and the upcoming trials of Mubarak, his wife and his sons. While completely justified to seek justice and retribution, it should not be the main show.
With all that is transpiring in Egypt since January 25, with the military, the Islamist groups and the progressive secular movement, even the remnants of Mubarak's regime, all staking their positions and plotting their strategies for 2011 and beyond, there still is a large segment of the population, called the spectators party, that is indifferent, non-committal and seen by writers like Khaled El Sawy as modern day slaves addicted to the glorification of their masters who have stripped them not only of their freedom but also of their dreams and money.
The Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and the transitional government of Essam Sharaf still have not addressed the issues of:

Security, where the police apparatus is missing in action in many Cairo districts and through entire governorates, a peculiar development since right before the 25 January revolution, they were enjoying tremendous power. In fact, as Basma Abdel-Aziz writes in her book, Roots of Police Violence, "The relationship between the police and the citizen entered the 'master-slave' definition following the authority and excessive power given to the police apparatus, adding new dimensions of this power over the years. This was especially true under the Mubarak regime, where violence became programmatic.....The absence – or minimal presence – of policemen since they were withdrawn from the streets, three days after the mass protests in Tahrir Square, Cairo on 28 January forced a mere barter: either democracy, or the return of security forces with their own rules as before."
Stability, where the dates of the elections, which could be less than 100 days away, have not been announced, and the nation is clueless as to what policies the government is taking in the face of the enormous challenges ahead, and what the different ministers have been doing for the past five months. Still, there is no weekly report in the newspapers outlining the issues tackled this week, the issues on their agenda for the next week.

In their interactions with private or public organizations, Egyptian citizens are more likely than those in advanced democracies to rely on personal relationships with employees or representatives. This pattern is reflected in corruption statistics of Transparency International, which show that in Arab countries in general relationships with government agencies are much more likely to be viewed as personal business deals, Timur Kuran, New York Times, May 28.
With the recent arrest of an Israeli spy, authorities are floating the idea that he was in the middle of the revolutionary youth in Tahrir Square on January 25 and beyond, implying that Israel was a factor behind the revolution aiming to spread unrest, chaos, instability and insecurity.
Listening, watching, reading in Egypt, one cannot help but think that Egypt is Cairo and Alexandria, grant you that between them you have almost 30 of the 85 million Egyptians. But, what about the other 55 million living everywhere else, what about the enormous lack of information flow in their direction, which is the only way to shape, alter and influence their character toward the needs of modern society.
Strange sense of resignation as to Egypt's noticeable absence from the world stage in many global endeavors.
Curious omission of reaching out to Egyptians abroad, who under the right circumstances are well-positioned to contribute mightily, what with all of the education, experience and expertise they have accumulated over their lives and careers abroad. In fact, the opposite seems to be taking place, not wanting them to vote in Egypt's elections, denigrating their intentions, questioning their motives and seeking to exclude or disqualify them from certain national offices and positions. As Wael Kandil puts it, El Shorouk, May 13 "We practice the most severe types of insult to ten million Egyptians living abroad when we deny them the right to vote in the elections, arguing that the vote could be bought and sold, and that their presence abroad probably makes them not care about the identity of their representatives as would a citizen living in Egypt. These justifications given by a 'military source' and published in yesterday's newspapers, mean that we look at our children abroad as if they were not fully-fledged citizens and patriots. When in fact, they are far from the possibility of vote trading, and during the days of the revolution they were perhaps interacting more with what was going on in their homeland than many of their fellow citizens in Egypt."
A culture of blaming others, nationally and internationally, for Egypt's societal ills and woes. Couple that with a long-standing failure to confront such culture head on on any scale.

Dr. Amr articulates this issue with clarity and conviction. He says "If Egyptians can only focus on building Egypt politically,economically & socially while let go of the ongoing 'conspiracy scenarios' that are eating up the mind, body & soul of Egyptians like:

US and/or Israel are responsible for all the vices in Egypt including the rotten behavior of people in the street.
Muslim Brothers is masterminding a plan to rule Egypt & the world.
Saudi Arabia is financing the Salafis.
The military wants to continue to rule.
The military wants to get rid of the responsibility too quickly.
The military is conspiring with Muslim Brothers.
The military is following a US pre-planned agenda.
The Mubarak regime is coming back under another name.
The military is protecting Mubarak & that's why they allowed his whole family to go to jail.
The government is is using religious unrest to enforce military rule.
Copts are traitors because they are asking for foreign intervention.
Copts blame Salafis for attacking churches.
Salafis blame ex-regime & outside forces for framing them.
Globalization is aiming to control governments in favor of a few wealthy individuals.
Communists want to take over the country.

Sanity dictates that we stop perpetuating these theories even if they are true. Worrying only drains the power to think, plan & execute. It creates confused individuals resulting in apathy, confusion & incapacity to build for the future. It turns a proactive nation to a helpless & reactive nation. The authorities can help by being more transparent & responsive in a timely manner. Conspiracy theories are present the beginning of history & will continue to evolve. Focus on work, trust & moving forwards."

In general, Egyptians living in Egypt today are made to feel mentally fatigued, financially insecure, insufficiently educated or informed, intellectually stretched, missing out on modern living, constantly fighting corruption, having their human rights violated regularly, harassed at will by police and security people, unsure of the ethics code permeating their society, uncomfortable with the fairness of the judicial system, uncertain that any elections have not been rigged, politically indifferent and hoping on an ongoing basis that they do not do something stupid that will have them in jail in no time at all.

It is hard to overemphasize that the revolutionary people of last January 25, and all people the world over who love Egypt, deeply know about this damaging and harmful national character and would love nothing more than to rid Egypt of it. They know their history, they can relive it in their dreams, Egypt that was a magnet for people seeking a better and safe life, people who came from Turkey, from Greece, from Italy, and on and on, Egypt where young people from all over the Arab world came seeking college education, establishing glossy careers in arts, literature and entertainment, Egypt of Cairo the one-time cosmopolitan city rivaling the most cultured and sophisticated cities the world had to offer, Egypt of Alexandria, the one-time shining star of the Mediterranean, that is Egypt they now can only read about.

This is why these young revolutionary Egyptians, with the prideful and unwavering support of all the people who love Egypt, are saying enough is enough, we cannot take it anymore, we do not care about arcane traditions, we will no longer accept whatever is thrown at us politically or culturally. That is why these young revolutionary Egyptians will take care of the mandatory prerequisite to confront and overhaul today's character for the sake of Egypt's development.

Leadership in Egypt

"Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.
Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another ruler with trumpetings again.
Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.
Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation."
— Khalil Gibran

60 years of a military regime, and 30 years of a Mubarak dictatorship have in effect made the concept of leadership non-existent, there is a dearth of leaders in all aspects of Egypt's society today. But, make no mistake about it, leadership is what Egypt needs, leadership is what Egypt must have if there will be a forward movement.

Leadership, Why

Leadership's first order of the day is to gradually replace above-noted national character by a healthier one.

Leadership needs to take to the streets. It is important to talk on TV, it is important to write articles, but now is the time to organize on the ground. There are potential leaders in the cities, in the villages, everywhere in Egypt. We must reach out to them and mobilize them so that they can assume responsibility and take action with regard to the leadership objectives and tasks outlined below.

Leadership, What

"Courage, not complacency, is our need today. Leadership not salesmanship."
---John F. Kennedy

After decades of shady and incompetent leadership across the board, Egypt is more than deserving a better group of leaders. If anyone were to think differently, I need only to point at the current state of affairs. It should not take a miracle for Egypt with some 90 million citizens worldwide to uncover or discover leaders of character, with passion, ethics and a strong vision of the future. Words like rich, famous or powerful should not be in their dictionary.

A strong leader is not nearly enough, a gang leader is an example of a strong person with a bad character, while an outstanding leader (of a country or a community) is one with both strong and good characteristics. An organization needs leaders with both strong and good characteristics, people who will guide them to the future and show that they can be trusted.

Egypt is in desperate need of leaders with the capacity to instill hope and ambition, and the capability to convey confidently that change is necessary to survive and thrive.

For Egypt's future leaders to be effective, their people must have trust in them and be sold on their vision. Such leaders need to display a good sense of character composed of beliefs, values, skills, and traits.

Beliefs: they need to be humble and share with confidence and conviction their beliefs about life, death, religion, what is good, what is bad, what is human nature, etc.
Values: they need to be open and forthcoming as to what they value in life, the worth of people, what concepts or things they value.
Skills: they need to demonstrate knowledge and abilities, gained throughout their life, as well as their continued devotion to study and learn.
Traits: they need to display by action not words honesty, competency, forward-looking, inspired performance on the job, fair- and broad-mindedness, courage, intelligence, imagination, and straightforwardness.

No one expects Egypt's future leaders to possess all or even most of these qualities or characteristics of the ultimate leader. However, nations that have had sons and daughters possessing a good deal of these beliefs, values, skills and traits have done well indeed.

Therefore, it is going to be crucial for Egypt's leaders, wherever they work, to establish the ethical framework, to help others learn, to teach and coach, as well as harmoniously manage the many activities within their realm. This is what it would take for their people to trust in their vision and buy into their plans for the future.

Leadership, Who

This is an opportunity Egypt has not seen in generations, a golden opportunity for Egyptians across the spectrum of professions, organizations, institutions and the nation as a whole to rise up as leaders, as persons who hope, can and would make a difference. Missing this opportunity would mean at best a wait for another generation or two.

It is true that nations that have achieved great forward movements were fortunate to have in their midst historic leaders. The US had George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and many more; the UK had Winston Churchill; France had Charles DeGaulle; Germany had Conrad Adenauer; India had Jawaharlal Nehru; Turkey had Kemal Atatürk; more recently the Soviet Union had Mikhail Gorbachev; South Africa had Nelson Mandela; and on and on.

As for Egypt's top job, we may have to wait for a while for a leader of such caliber, but Egypt cannot just sit idle waiting, it must move on to capitalize on 25 January and elect a president who can get it started on the correct path. My friend Abdel Karim recently said to me "I have always advocated that instituting radical change and political stability in Egypt is best assured by a powerful benevolent dictator. I am awe-inspired by the great leader Kemal Ataturk but must admit that in this day and age such leadership is not possible. But the vigor of today’s young Egyptians and their disillusionment with authority and recent history could mark a departure from that long-standing tradition and see the introduction of a people-led transformation. We must be careful not to rush into the election process in electing a new leader. We need a visionary leader with immense intellect, a sense of history and charismatic appeal."

In addition to a fine president or prime minister, an absolute necessity is for leaders to start emerging from all over Egypt, family patriarchs, media executives, university presidents and faculty heads, village mayors, community leaders, youth groups, aspiring presidents, military leaders, government officials, parliament members, the judiciary, arts and entertainment celebrities, business executives, labor organizations of various stripes, religious groups, ideological movements, and older and newly forming political parties.

Now, it is not easy after a long history of indifference, fear of exposure and low expectations for such leaders to emerge throughout Egypt, from the smallest of communities to the nation's top job. However, it is incumbent on the revolutionary people and their supporters nation-wide, who when the dust settles are the majority of the Egyptian people, to get loud, effectively organize and speak credibly to potential leaders, coaxing, pleading and even embarrassing them to quit being spectators, stand up, take risks and be a catalyst to a proud Egypt. Secularists, liberals, leftists and all political activists with the same vision of a modern Egypt should work fast and hard to identify such leaders, understand their interests and fears, then take to the streets but instead of heading to Tahrir Square go to where these future leaders are, lobby them, work with them, and ask them to speak up, to tell people what they know about what it would take to make things happen, as Marc Lynch, Foreign Policy, June 12, says "They could work to highlight economic and social issues which resonate with ordinary Egyptians --schools, hospitals, jobs, labor conditions -- which are the traditional focus of the left." They could also work with corporate leaders to speak up about the importance of a robust and independent corporate world, as Timur Kuran, New York Times, May 28, says "Independent and well-financed private organizations are thus essential to the success of democratic transitions. They are also critical to maintaining democracies, once they have emerged. Indeed, without strong private players willing and able to resist undemocratic forces, nascent Arab democracies could easily slip back into authoritarianism."

A highly relevant effort, with an immeasurable potential benefit, is to put together a program for information flow specifically tailored to reach deep into Egypt's remotest of villages and communities. Basically, it is a "Train the Trainer" program, where mayors, chiefs and otherwise influential members of such communities will be invited to various centers around Egypt for periodic information-sharing sessions, that they can carry back, train potential leaders within their communities and later report on progress.

Leadership, Objectives

Egypt's new leadership, whatever its composition, whoever they are, must focus on below three top-priority objectives. This will go a long way toward addressing the need to overhaul the national character, modeling to suit the modern world.

Separation of Mosque and State

Sharia law should never be the law of the land of Egypt, Sharia law should be but one of many sources of Egypt's constitutional, civil and criminal laws. Last time I checked, Egypt has two genders, many religions, races, and ethnicities. Egypt's laws must be appropriate, just, fair and proportionate for ALL. Anyone who believes that Sharia law should be the law of the land of Egypt should think again. There should be no question about the merits of separation of mosque and state. In fact, in countries around the world where separation of religion and state is the norm, religion has done very well indeed, there have been more people attending mosques, churches, synagogues, mainly because religion is a spiritual matter, people need it for their souls, people need it for a respite from life's demands, it is between the individual and God, it is about doing the right thing, it is about treating others as you wish to be treated, each of us prays in his or her own way, each of us seeks the comfort and reassurance of religion in different manners.
Interjecting religion into everything has its roots in the fact that this is the raison d'être for religious groups. It is understandable because that is what they bring to the table, that is their profession. The need here is to work with them to reach an understanding that it is absolutely fine to preach Islam but not to legislate life in Egypt, mainly because no modern society today can claim total homogeneity. Islamist organizations by definition denounce political pluralism and personal freedoms.
Take religion out of politics.
Take religion off the media (one or two faith-based channels on TV is fine).
Take religion off the street.

Separation of Military and State

The only job of the military is to defend the nation against enemies, foreign or domestic.
Writing a progressive constitution is undeniably a major key objective for Egypt's future. However, it may not be realistic to write such a document in a democratic manner before a parliament is elected. Therefore, nation-wide arguments about the when, who and what should not under any circumstances allow the military to stay in power indefinitely, thus squandering this historically unique opportunity for Egypt to embark on the road to democracy.
The SCAF should not be allowed to grow comfortable in power. Once elections are held, authority in Egypt should be shared between the president and the parliament, no SCAF. Cabinet ministers should be made to answer to both president and parliament. Cabinet ministers should be technocrats.

Women's full participation in all aspects of life in Egypt is a must

If full equality of women and men is not achieved in a reasonable amount of time, Egypt will continue to be mired in all sorts of political, economic and societal issues, issues major enough to effectively prevent any chance for progress, issues that ultimately will ransack it.
A fulfilling life for all the people in Egypt will not happen, not now, not never, while women continue to be prevented, discouraged or intimidated from living up to their duties and responsibilities for their country, in all aspects of its life.

Leadership, Tasks

Working through these young revolutionary Egyptians, Egypt's leadership should start off with the easier task of grasping and etching in its collective soul the twelve pillars necessary for a nation's development, Egypt's most problematic factors for doing business, and the facts of Egypt's modern day state of affairs.

Then, the leadership should begin the enormous challenge of completely reshaping and reframing the national discourse in order to mobilize the nation to urgently start the task of addressing the mandatory prerequisite for development, that of confronting and overhauling today's Egypt's national character. This means moving determinedly and expeditiously to tackle the following twelve tasks:

Task 1 Free men from their obsession on women

A national campaign educating both men and women with the purpose to:

Present the benefits of establishing equality of men's and women's rights.
Persuade men to focus less on lust, control and narcissism toward women, and more on self-control, their jobs, and their role and responsibilities toward effecting social reform.
Inform that men do not own women, that the status of women must change.

Task 2 As other great religions have done, reform Islam

A national campaign co-opting moderate elements of religious groups who understand the basic requisites of our modern world to effect reform of Islam, by pointing out that:

The only way to progress is the application of the principles of true Islam: freedom, justice and equality. This will be achieved only by establishing a civil state, where all citizens are equal before the law, regardless of religion, gender and race. Democracy will do that.
The history of the world we live in tells us that a secular democracy, a moderate and modern way of life, while never perfect and presenting many issues of its own, still offers us by far the best chance to get there. Only with a secular democracy can Egypt finally and hopefully succeed in having a separation of mosque and state.
The Quran does not speak the principles and values the Muslim extremists advocate, which bankrupt any society where they are practiced. This could be done by interpreting the Quran verse by verse in light of life in the 21st century on. At the end of such effort, I am certain that we will find that the Quran asks us to accomplish a lot in our lives, to work with everyone in the world and to discriminate against no one, particularly women. It will be proven that the Quran is for progress, modernization, freedom of thinking and that God never gave man any autocratic rights over man.
Fatwas made by religious leaders are invariably misinterpretations of the Quran and the Hadith, at best they are dated. Moreover, nations and governments that resort to fatwas are basically trying to coerce their people into accepting policies against their best interests, using religion and God as a tool.
The constantly implied focus on the afterlife is a harmful and a passive way to live, as well as contrary to Islam's true teachings. A life-loving approach is a far better way to show our devotion and worthiness to God. The issue here is not to give up on life on earth as if it does not matter, as if it is meaningless, as if we are not supposed to give it our best efforts, our best thinking and our best imagination to make it fruitful, to make it pleasant and to make it rewarding. God asked us to do that, any other thinking is blasphemy.
We must stop talking about religion, religion is a given, it is in every country, every individual in the whole wide world believes one way or another, this is good for spirituality, good for values, for principles, for morals. What Egypt needs is constant and non-stop serious and enlightened talk about its priorities for development, what programs and projects throughout the country are needed to push it forward, how to achieve a higher standard of living, etc. The US Pledge of Allegiance has "under God" in it, when appropriate it is recited, then everyone goes about his/her business.
Muslim extremists never stopped telling the rest of the world that they are superior because Islam is superior to the world's other faiths. A meaningless and defeatist position to take since the rest of the world does not care, and no people are about to leave their respective religions any time soon. On the contrary, such position is driving the Arab world further and further into a backward civilization, denying its people a prosperous and culturally-enriching life. In fact, such a position is an insult to Islam since it is in effect saying that because we are Muslims, we do not need to do much else!

Task 3   Do not give up on 2011 elections

Secularists, liberals and leftists and all other political activists should get on with the hard work of building parties and preparing for the 2011 elections.

Task 4   The big picture - beyond 2011

Whatever the outcome of the 2011 elections, switch focus to the big picture and work harder to convert the organizational successes since January 25 into parties and effective electoral organizations for the next round of elections. Progress will not happen overnight, it is a process.

Task 5   Revolutionary youth

Use the popular mobilization skills and the network of groups, so effective over the past few months, to:
Engage the secular masses, gauge their interests, incorporate their views and get them involved.
Continue to pressure the SCAF to deliver on civilian rule.
Shape the constitutional process.
Shape the legislative agenda of the new parliament.

Task 6 Leadership to educate and inform

Do not ask why they do not know or do not understand, but ask how we can educate and inform the underprivileged Egyptians, all Egyptians who have been left behind in the cities and countryside, anywhere in Egypt. Remember "Destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy you."

Task 7 Business leadership to fight corruption and lobby for a civil society

Convince business leaders to file official charges against everyone they had to bribe in order to get their business going and clear the slate once and for all. The Egyptian law is clear: if you paid a bribe to someone and reported it, when convicted they go to jail, and not you. Therefore, you as a business leader are not legally liable, and you would be doing the country a huge favor by exposing all the corrupt officials in all the ministries, municipalities and government institutions and cleaning them out once and for all.
Work with business leaders to support a civil society, understanding that it is to the best interest of businesses and Egypt's people.

Task 8   Writing of the constitution

Ensure that for the writing of the constitution, there is a good mixture of parliamentarians, politicians, constitutional lawyers, and civil society activists, and that various interests, most particularly that of women, Copts, other minorities current or foreseen, are balanced.

As my friend Abdel Karim reminded me "Egypt has had a rich base of intellectuals experienced in constitutional government. We must not forget that Egypt drafted the first civic constitution in the Middle East in1923, with Saad Zaghloul, the iconic leader of Egypt’s struggle for independence as one of its founding fathers. It included parliamentary representation, separation of executive, legislative and judicial authorities, respect for civil rights and universal suffrage. The constitution represented the quintessence of Egypt’s liberal democratic experiment consisting of a parliament divided between a house of representatives (Maglis El Nouwab) and a senate (Maglis El Sheyoukh), as well as an orderly transfer of power governed by an institutional system of checks and balances."

Task 9   Military leadership to level with the nation

Ask Mohamed Tantawi, chairman SCAF, and Sami Anan, chief of staff of Egypt's military, to level and share with the Egyptian people what they find and learn during their frequent visits to the US, Europe and elsewhere. Mainly, what development, progress and prosperity look like and what kind of deep reforms, and not the cosmetic variety, would be needed in Egypt to achieve similar results.

Task 10   Social reform

Be absolutely clear that there simply no avoiding social reform, without it there will not be a significant boost to the strength and popularity of genuine progressive democratic forces in Egypt. The nation should be preoccupied much less with external issues and causes and much more with internal reform and the many fights to be waged against corruption, pillaging of the country's resources and the absence of the rule of law.

Task 11   Leadership performance evaluation

Institute review and evaluation mechanisms throughout the nation's leadership infrastructure, to ensure that leaders show improvement and added value. The reviews and evaluations should be carried out by an independent agency, akin to the General Accounting Office in the US government. Such agency should report to the prime minister, the president, or the parliament as appropriate.

Task 12   Information campaign about desirable social characteristics

Launch a nation-wide information campaign outlining the social characteristics of progressive nations. Emphasis should be on the key elements, and issues, of successful cultures, and what makes countries achieve a low level of corruption, and a high level of integrity and transparency. It is certainly not for lack of good teachings from the Quran's heavenly and immortal instructions.

Without above-outlined leadership structure and framework, the second (leadership) prerequisite is not taken care of, meaning that the character overhaul prerequisite will not be addressed, further meaning that development will have to wait a while longer.

Conclusion

Knowing what it takes for development is never the issue. In a global economy, progress is possible, and an improved life standard is waiting on the horizon. However, throughout history, the character of a nation and its inspired and exceptional leadership are what carry the day, no way around it.

The fate of the 25 January revolution is at stake. A nation's stellar character and its passionate leadership lead the way to development. If that does not happen in Egypt in the near future, the revolution will go down in history as a mere regime change.

Allow me to conclude with this metaphor that is close to my heart. We all know that football is the runaway favorite sport/pastime of all of Egypt.

Imagine that Egypt's national team, preparing for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, is one of the favorites to win it all. It is superbly conditioned, highly skilled and extremely motivated. The team's starting lineup is comprised of seven Muslims, three Copts and one Jew, all extremely talented in their respective positions. This team, who function above all as a team, offers Egypt the best chance to come back from Brazil with the Cup for the first time in its history. The manager (coach) is a woman with unsurpassed international credentials, and has had great success to date with the team, she has hired two more women in her seven-person coaching staff. The team's security detail is great, providing privacy and protection all over the team's various training camps. The team, the coaching staff and the security people are fine people, principled with high morals and commendable ethics. They work hard and are dedicated to this ultimate task at hand. They pray to their respective religions in the privacy of their homes and go to the mosque on Friday, church on Sundays and synagogue on Saturdays.
Now, some invisible hand comes along and wants to fire the coach and the women on the coaching staff and hire instead a highly religious group regardless of their qualifications. It wants to get rid of the Coptic and the Jewish players because they are "not real Egyptians," and is asking the Muslim players to wear long pants, grow their beards and dedicate more time to prayer and meditation than to football all week, every week. This invisible hand also demands that the security people run the team, from A to Z. It is well-acknowledged worldwide that such an Egyptian team has exactly zero chance to get out of the group stage, let alone win the Cup.
With what football means to you and what football means to Egypt, what would you like to see happen?
Finally, understanding that this is a metaphor for Egypt, how would you like to see Egypt proceed?

Hussein

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Egypt's Developmen​t: Character and Leadership​, mandatory prerequisi​tes

Egypt's Development: Character and Leadership, mandatory prerequisites