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Wednesday, July 22, 1998
Brothers and Sisters, Members of the Seventh General Congress of the National Democratic Party, In the history of nations, there occur eternal, unforgettable moments and significant events that can be hardly obliterated from our memory due to the fresh energies and revelations they generate and in-depth changes and the all-embracing, radical transformations they cause to various aspects of the nation's community life and the visible impact on the course of national work. Such events turn into reality greater national goals, which were in the past muffled and latent dreams and aspiration in the innermost conscience of every citizen and bring about a new reality reflecting its favourable dimensions and results on individual and community life. Undoubtedly, the July 23,1952 Revolution stands out as one of the most prominent occurences in Egypt's eventful history. On that day, an enlightened vanguard of Egypt's sons started a victorious march, raising the banner of getting rid of domination by imperialism and its accomplices. They could regain the people's dignity and the country sovereignty, enhance the nation's defence capability. Thus, they established a purely national rule that represented the people, truly expressed their hopes and mobilized the masses' creative potential energies for building a new community. Under such conditions, national sovereignty in its perfect form would be realized and scope of national work would be expanded to cover greater pan-national goals of the entire Arab nation. Every citizen, with his dignity is inviolably protected, would no longer feel alienated in his homeland and boast of his ability to sustain the spirit of revolution sparked off by his grandfathers and fathers in 1919 as well as his rejection to be subjected save to the will of Allah. The Egyptian Revolution was indeed a fabulous feat of heroism, sparked off by the Egyptian Armed Forces. Driven by absolute allegiance to the homeland and genuine affiliation to the people, these forces set out to risk and sacrifice their lives and property for the sake of the country supreme interests. Naturally, the people would spontaneously and instantly respond to the Revolution, declaring, with all vigour, that the revolutionary vanguard led by Egypt's great son Gamal Abdel-Nasser, were the real incarnation of their will and sincere expression of their grand ambitions and legitimate aspirations. They also provided a renewable energy to stage battles of liberation and reconstruction and pursue their deep-rooted march of civilization, thus making fresh, visible achievement that can never overlooked in history. Inevitably, such victorious revolutionary march would generate huge achievements unprecedented in the country and at the same time encounter stumbling blocks and suffer from weaknesses. The road ahead was not strewn with flowers and roses but rather fraught with such thorns and pains that could be tolerated only by a group who had made an oath to Allah and the people to dedicate themselves to duty and shoulder responsibility down to the last drop of their blood, regardless of obstacles and challenges. Thus, they pursue their course with unflinching hearts and sure steps, even under the darkest circumstances, when they were subjected to outside pressures and coveteous conspiracies, designed to keep Egypt a zone of influence for foreign forces that had no interest whatsoever in the common weal of the Egyptian people. They were preoccupied only with their egotistical interests that categorically contracts with the people's right to self-rule and self-determination. Regardless of any acquired ability to reverse facts, no one can deny the huge achievements made by the bloodless July Revolution that had adopted the right goals, issues and priorities of the masses. It opted to align itself with the people, and together with them to go through their battles at home and abroad. In its movement and struggle the Revolution adhered to the deep-rooted Egyptian values that rejects injustice and violence, protects man's dignity and right to pursue progress throughout all stages of history. This emanates from full awareness that such stages are necessarily consecutive and their achievements are interrelated. The movement of peoples do not occur in a void nor do they take the form of sporadic, haphazard events. They rather take straight-line course of continuing cycles where achievements proceed one after the other as long as peoples maintain their ability to pursue target. On the other hand, it is not fair to claim that the march of national work only started in 1952, and all the pre-Revolution era was sheer evil and absolute deviation. Nor is it acceptable to claim the pre-Revolution era was one where freedom and democracy prospered and flourished and the door was wide open for daring, unimpeded and unobstructed national work. Had conditions before the Revolution been so rosy and bright as rumour-mongers claim, the Revolution would have never broke out. Nor would it have enjoyed that sweeping popular support since the early hours of its inception not only in Egypt but also all over the Arab and Third Worlds. The masses would have definitely sided with the then existing situation as long as they deemed it expressive of their hopes and aspirations. In this respect, what most concerns us is to realize that a citizen who is engrossed with worries and concerns of his people and committed to their rights and interests would commit an act, tantamount to a cardinal sin, should he keep himself within the confines of the past, its battles and occurences. This orientation blatantly contradicts with the movement of history, leading to blindness of sight and insight, crippling forward nation towards the future as well as awareness and determination required. It is inadmissible then to imagine that history may come to a halt at a specific moment or that events may freeze and fossilize up into certain patterns. It is rather more proper that man should gear his thought and action towards the future, learning lessons from both past and present experiences. In assessing events and analysing phenomena, man should be armed with objectivity and impartiality. Our uppermost allegiance should be to absolute truth, rather than bias and prejudice, particularly in matters related to the destiny of peoples and their basic rights. Dear Brothers and Sisters, It was one of the most important goals for the glorious July Revolution to establish a sound democratic life. It was, however, impossible to realize such goal overnight. Building democracy was not merely a slogan to be raised, nor a motto to be opportunely or otherwise repeated. It was rather an integrated structure with its own indicators and requirements as well as a way of life to be firmly established. This required rapid and untiring endeavours, whereby new blocks are added day by day to the edifice. Construction required full participation by all citizens, each within his own ability and capacity. All active forces in the community were required to be committed to the concept and rules of democracy. Each individual had to personally adhere to such rules and norms before urging others to do so. Only then, a transition towards democracy could be a credible endeavour, a way of life and a tangible reality to be felt by the masses in their day-to-day practices and adhered to by political institutions, parties, governmental and non-governmental bodies in conducting their activities and implementing their programmes. It should be even observed by individuals in their day-to-day dealings with each other. There is no doubt that our country has taken long strides over the past decades on the road of firmly establishing democratic practice in various fields. Objective pre-requisites as well as socio-economic and cultural requirements for such a transition have been, to a great extent, already fulfilled. It is now possible for our country to proceed, with long sure strides along this course. I need not assure you that in this epoch we are a foremost believer in democracy as we view it as a basic right of both citizen and community as a whole as well as an effective safeguard for protecting the progress of national work and a reliable approach to prope truth, identify reality and address problem. Should democratic practice bring about some negative aspects, the blame should not be put on democracy but rather on those who commit such practices, actuated by short-righteousness of the essential goal of democracy, namely, to serve public interest and realize balance between rights and obligations for all sectors of the community, regardless of the sources of power and skills they possess and to protect the right of minority to express their opinions and orientations. No one can claim to hold exclusive knowledge of the truth nor claim that all his acts are infallible from slips or errors. None is even more worthy or deepening democratic practice in our political and social environment than the National Democratic Party, which expresses the orientations of the majority. It allows opportunity for everybody to express his opinions freely, in recognition of the fact that every Egyptian citizen is endowed with a natural disposition for loyality to his country and concern for its future and destiny. It also recognises that to resolve problems related to democracy, more democracy is required. In essence, democracy is a responsbility as much as it is a right of both individual and community. It requires in the first place the maximum amount of popular participation. Failing such effective popular participation in puplic affairs, democracy would be a form void of content, an appearance rather than an essence, which is not acceptable. Brothers and Sisters, Members of the Seventh General Congress of the National Democratic Party, I have followed the proceedings of your congress during the last two days and reviewed studies conducted by various committees and papers submitted in the course of preparations for the conference. Indeed, the preparatory works and discussions conducted on the fringes of the congress reflect a high degree of national awareness and commitment to the public interest, adherence to working priorities as felt by the broader base of our people. They also reflect refusal to acquiesce in the priorities of a limited sector seeking to serve their own interest at the expense of the interest of the community, propagate their own individual opinions and orientations as well as their short-sighted vision and illegitimately impose their own concerns on the masses. As you are fully aware, the covening of the congress specifically at this time adds special importance to its proceedings as it takes place at the threshold of the third millennium which will witness far-reaching developments and transformations at both the international and regional levels. This also concides with the begining of a new phase of internal building process at a time when the firm basis of this structure has been completed over the last two decades and the road is now paved for a breakthrough. By all standards, such breakthrough constitutes a radical, revolutionary transformation which will affect and reflect on various aspects of life on the blessed land of Egypt. I need not speak in details about subjects raised, opinions expressed on working papers and discussions conducted in the conference. But it is enough to point briefly to topics, which I believe, can be at the top of our priorities in the coming years, as follows: First: The major national projects covering a large part of Egypt. We hope that such projects will have tangible results, not only in the volume and quality of production and introducing new forms of modern technology in agriculture and industry, but also in expanding construction all over the country and introducing a new pattern of life in desert, where its treasures and resources may be utilized. Chief of these major projects are Southern Valley Development Project which is expected to add more than half million feddan to the cultivated area. The project also is designed to create residential communities in areas that have remained uninhabited for long centuries, increase our ability to deal with desert using new concepts in agriculture, irrigation, industry and mining, transportation and telecommunications, architectural and construction techniques and environmental protection. In addition, the project opens new horizons to the coming generations of great Egyptian people who had built up a lofty civilization in this blessed valley. For more than 7,000 years they have been honest guardian of such civilization. So, they deserve all respect and appreciation by the whole world. Then, the Northern Sinai Development Project provides the opportunity for cultivating 400,000 feddans using water carried through Al-Salam Canal after crossing Suez Canal. The canal is expected to start operating at the end of this year. Obviously, it is highly important to reconstruct this vital part, expand urbanization and life all over our country. There comes in the list, projects for reclaming 220,000 feddans west of Suez Canal and the East Ewainat project. This project depends on underground water, sufficient to irrigating 200,000 feddans under phase I. In addition to these giant projects, we have started the implementation of projects to establish major industrial estates east of Port-Said and Suez Gulf. An integrated plan to introduce industry on a large scale into Upper-Egypt governorates in such a way that suits the requirements, needs and potentialities of this region was put. We have also started the implementation of a giant project to re-build the Egyptian village which will have visible effects on all aspects of life in rural areas. The project comprises infrastructure works including supply of potable water, sanitary drainage and electricity, as well as, paving access roads to villages, environmental protection, in addition to social facilities including schools, youth centres, service complexes and public libraries not only in villages but also in small hamlets. This project also provides for building the economic facilities through soft loans to be granted by Local Development Fund to finance any development project no matter how small it might be. It might be appropriate to state in this context that by the end of this year, electricity will be introduced into all residential communities in Egypt with no exception. We can imagine how far these various projects can be reflected in a new image for life in our beloved country and on the future of its high-souled, perseverent people. Second: Prepare Egyptians to face the ferocious challenges of the new era. This serious and important issue requires uninterrupted efforts in the fields of education, scientific research and training, introduction of modern technology as one of the day-to-day requirements of individuals and community life. It is also required to upbring young generations all over Egypt, deepen cultural awareness, enhance religious call and continue to promote information system as to contribute to the amelioration of Egyptian individual's emotions and to enrich their intellects over the different stages of his life regardless his social and educational status. Third: Prepare Egypt's youth to shoulder the responsibility of national work in various fields by encouraging them to think of the future and draw an image of a new Egypt capable of maintaining its pioneering role in the coming century. Realizing such goal requires enabling youth to increase their awareness of Egypt's issues and modern world-wide trend, extending scope of their participation in public life through existing legitimate institutions and those to be introduced in future. Young men are urged to take the initiative of discussing home affairs. The ability of youth should be boosted to deal with modern means of communication, information systems, advanced technology and make themselves familiar with its components as well as the skill of leadership in various fields. All these elements will be the basic qualifications of man of modern age, failing which it would be extremely difficult and far improbable to proceed towards the forefront. In order to prepare youth to acquire such capabilities, the state seeks to make it easier for youth to meet their living needs. This can be achieved either by encouraging the establishment of projects generating mass job opportunities or by implementing housing projects for youth, whereby seventy thousand houses will be provided over the coming five years. These houses are given against soft loans, repayable over forty years. Moreover, the youth will bear only up to 60% of construction cost, while the state will provide for the rest of the cost from the proceeds of selling lands in the new cities. Needless to say that the National Party bears the prime responsibility in preparing youth for confronting such exigencies. It is the party of the future which represents the greater majority of Egypt's citizens. It is the prime institution that adopts people's causes and together addresses their problems and challenges. Fourth: Pay attention to woman's role, in developing community and upgrading our country, given that woman constitutes one half of society, and the first school for upbringing younger generations and implanting correct values into their conscience. Besides, she shares with man the responsibility for the national work and the implementation of the great awakening enterprise by acquiring more knowledge and participating in the public life as a national duty and obligation on every able citizen rather than a luxury, without any distinction between man and woman. Dear Brothers and Sisters, These ideas came to my mind and I thought to share them with you, as they cover fields which, I am well aware, are of major concern to you, as you fathom the depths of social structure, adopt the causes of society with all its categories and express their opinions and attitudes. As you have unanimously decided to renew for another term my mandate as chairman of the party; a gesture, which I fully appreciate and recognise its dimensions and responsibilities, I do take as a convenant on the part of every one of you to exert his utmost efforts to achieve the revival which we are all determined to fulfil during the coming years and to push forward our beloved Egypt to a higher and more elevated status that becomes its past and heritage and matches its present and ability to realize a better future. We humbly pray with full submission to Allah Almighty to protect our march on the road of development and progress, strengthen our determination and help us face the renewable challenges with fearless, un flinching hearts. We proceed to shoulder the responsibility of reconstruction at home, armed with the support and precious trust of this time-honoured people as well as, our faith in the huge energy stored deep within the hearts of the pyramid-builders, makers of civilization and the greatest accomplishments in human history. We proceed forward to achieve a major leap and all-out revolution in all fields of production and services, providing basic needs for every Egyptian, man and woman through work, persistent endeavour, perceptive vision and unity of ranks rather well-wishing. We progress to reinforce the cohesion of the social texture in Egypt and uphold social justice as a basic pillar of government and a commitment which is the subject of consensus by all Egyptians. We advance to provide opportunities of education for all children in this country, promote culture and improve the level of health and social services in every village and hamlet all over glorious Egypt. We advance to enhance the peace process in the Middle East, overcome existing obstacles hindering its path created by rigid policies and oppressive practices, that can never provide bridges of love and coexistance among peoples. Such policies can only end up in widening gap which keeps us apart, abort our aspirations for a better future, sow despair in our hearts at a time when the world is moving in wide strides towards higher echelons of development and prosperity and peoples enjoy safety and stability. It would be appropriate, in this context, to address, on your behalf, a call to the Israeli people, who shares us the responsibility of establishing peace, to adopt such a stance that may match gravity of the current situation and the inevitable consequences should the peace process collapse or reach a deadlock. We call upon the peace-loving powers all over the world to continue their support to peace, redouble efforts already exerted to help remove obstacles and overcome the existing difficulties. Any occurrence that takes place in this critical region must leave strong and far-reaching repercussions all over the world. From this rostrum, we reiterate our call to all countries of the world to reach an international agreement on eradicating weapons of mass destruction from our planet. Such weapons have no legitimate or moral raison d'etre at the beginning of the third millennium, where all peoples are looking forward to a new era of co-existence and solidarity in facing perils threatening the whole humanity. We urge countries which have achieved higher levels of industrial and technological progress to enter into a serious and meaningful dialogue with other countries subjected to circumstances that have hampered their progress for long centuries along this course. If some are raising slogans of globalization, advocating the unity of human community, they should rather realize such hopes can never be achieved in the absence of justice among peoples in various parts of the world, regardless of the level of progress achieved and elements of power they possess. It still remains for us to renew the oath to mobilize all thoughts and determination we possess for the battle of progress and reconstruction. In so doing, we seek support from our full faith in Allah, allegiance to the homeland for which we sacrifice our lives and full trust in the time-honoured people of Egypt who is capable of making miracles. Looking ahead, we can see close by battalions of reconstruction engaged in unceasing motion and forces of reform proceeding with its mission in all fields of production, services and administration. These are all auspicious indicators to Egypt of the future. In the new era, Egypt's power and capability at home and abroad are increasingly growing and its role in shaping international relations escalating. Egypt is a power that calls for peace and justice, protects truth, performs its duty, rejects and stands against aggression and injustice, upholds the rule of law and denounces anarchy and the law of the jungle. Looking ahead, we can see from afar the fruits of reform blossoming and ready for harvest by their owner; the people. Per capita income of each citizen of this secure country would rise at increasing rates year by year. Neediness and anxiety would diminish. Creative products of the Egypt's geniuses in various walks of life would spread out not only within Egypt, but also in every part of the globe. Thereby, we would be fulfilling the message exclusively entrusted by Allah to the glorious people of Egypt. We humbly pray to Allah Almighty from the innermost of our hearts to guide us to the right path, keep us away from slips and errors and inspire us to exhort each other to always adhere to truth and endurance. We do pray for Him so that we always maintain close and firm bonds, clear vision. Nor would we be misled beyond target, slacken in pursuing a right or honour a duty. We would never cease to move but rather proceed forward in sure steps, adding everyday a block to the structure of reform, moving, from one phase to another with full self-confidence, firm belief in our goals and persistence to give generous contributions to national work. We should not wonder how much our homeland has given us but rather asking ourselves how much we have given to this country, which is, to us both means and an end in view. We do not turn back to the past with all its accumulated build-up and residues. Nor do we fight battles or settle accounts of the past, but we rather set our eyes on the future and its challenges and arm ourselves for the future battles with science and action, trust and hope. We are embarking onto the competition arena with a manpower fully equipped with the skills of the time, conscious of the nature of challenge and necessity of facing it. In such race, only those adequately qualified with the prerequisites for precedence and ability to stand the test, will successfully manage to stand out. We can see the historical opportunity, already created over the past years through our untiring work, sweat, patience, endurance and the power to bear hardships and surmount barriers. We can feel such auspicious opportunity, that can be hardly paralleled in history. We can virtually see it with our own eyes and hearts. Fully-determined we hereby pledge to Allah never to let it go. Should we do so, we would be doing injustice to ourselves and forsaking our history. We are aware that Allah Almighty never bars good performers from their reward, nor does He foresake His honest and loyal creatures and Allah has promised to let triumph those who stand out in support of Him. May Allah's Peace and Mercy be upon you |
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