The Free man"Part 1"

This is a long, very long post and I am sorry I can not summarize it

“I though they were free but they turned to be evil”

Mohamed Naguib, the first president of Egypt in his memories first published in 1984

The First Egyptian President on the Time's cover

The cover story of the Time edition on the 8^th of September 1956

Only one man made me respect the coup of 1952, only one man made me re-think again about the 6 principals of that coup that turned in to revolution

Only one man made me believe that they are not bad and they can be great if they were implemented in the correct way

Only one man made me hate the revolution

That man was the first Egyptian President General Mohamed Naguib

For years many Egyptians believed that the First Egyptian President to Rule Egypt since the time of Pharaohs was Gamal Abd El-Nasser thanks to the orders that were given to erase the name of that man from the Egyptian history, not even from the history books but also everything related to his short era, even songs, Laila Muard had that song she sang in the Egyptian Radio after the coup, strangely she did not mention anything related to Naguib, we were still away from the “President-Cult” ,still that song was suddenly disappeared after the departure of Naguib

They thought that they can really control the history; alias history always reveals the truth in the end

For those who don’t know Mohamed Naguib was used by the Gamal Abd El-Nasser and the rest of the free officers, they used the General as a front, no one in Egypt knew them but many knew the General and respected him very much

Already from a logic point of view no one in Egypt would trust a bunch of young men who want to take charge of the country and that was why Naguib was the perfect man

Another interesting point I believe they took an advantage of  the origin of President Naguib, whose father was an Egyptian and his mother was a Sudanese, the perfect match or a mix for the next ruler for Egypt and Sudan, do not forget even after the revolution we were still having that blessed union between Egypt and Sudan, the Union that was over in 1954 just after the general’s departure from rule to the exile

President Naguib is a patriot man, no one can deny this, very patriot and that’s why he accepted to join those daring young men in their quest, the man believed in their quest, any patriot who believes in his country and wants the best for it will do so. President Naguib accepted to lead those young men despite the danger of the failure, Naguib would be the first one to be hanged if that coup failed and believe or not the biggest surprise of that coup was that it succeeded.

If you want a proof about the patriotism of that great man, you will only have to know why he was sent in exile to suffer till the end of his life

The Crisis of 1954

From the six principal; there is a golden principal Egyptians only read about in history books still it was never achieved, there was a chance they missed it in achieving it, may be if they understood the real game that was going on back then, they would never have left it and may be, may be our conditions now were different

That Principal is “To establish a correct constitutional and democratic life”

Anyhow here is the story in simple summarized words

President Naguib became the first president when the republic was announced on the 18^th of June 1953, he was not only the President but also the prime minister and the chairman of the Revolution council commandership, Nasser was his deputy. President Naguib seemed since year 1953 had a different vision than the young officers

"at the age of 36, Abdel-Nasser felt that we could ignore Egyptian public opinion until we had reached our goals, but with the caution of a 53-year-old, I believed that we needed grassroots support for our policies, even if it meant postponing some of our goals. I differed with the younger officers on the means by which to reach our goals, never on the principles."

President Naguib in his memories published in Cairo year 1984 under the title “I was a president for Egypt”

Naguib wanted to implement the principal of having a correct and healthy constitutional democratic life through the only possible way to achieve it by having a real civilian political life, the army should withdraw from the political life going back to its military bases, he believed in the constitutional political multi party system and he wanted the party system in Egypt which was corrupted before the revolution to be mended so it can be healthy again, so the parties can really represent the people

Now you can understand how this man was a real Patriot and how he had a correct vision, President Naguib in his vision and view reminds me with what happened in Mauritania from the democratic coup that took place, seriously we had our own Ould Vall but fate did not give him a chance because there was Nasser

Most historians who justify what Nasser did in 1954 say that Nasser was afraid from the return of the corrupted parties like El-Wafad, who no one can deny that figures like Fouad Serg El-Din gave an excuse for Nasser to hate democracy, of course I will not defend Fouad Serg El-Din but after all the man seems to do nothing compared to the men in the NDP now, also they said that Nasser also did not want the Muslim Brotherhood to be a political party and gain more power , it sounds familiar ,well my dear friend that was the origin of the war between the regime and the MB

Anyhow back to Naguib and Nasser, the gap between the two had widen more and more, unfortunately Nasser had the majority of the RCC in his pocket, after all most of them were young men who had no experience in the real politics “at least that what days would prove” where as Naguib had no allies except the cavalry or who used to be known as the Khalid Mohi El-Din red group, and old politicians who were usually  accused to be corrupted by the RCC yet I believe they were respectable men

On 25^th of February 1954, the Egyptian people suddenly woke up to find an announcement in the Radio from the RCC stating that President Naguib resigned from his position because the RCC refused to give him “absolute POWER” !!

On that day Nasser knew that General Naguib was much popular than he thought as people went to the street that demanding that the “father of the Egyptian” return to his office,I already know that in Port Said the boys main high school had seen a strike from the boys who gathered in one of the class room refusing to let anyone in except when President Mohamed Naguib would return back to his office , they were only 15 years old boys "check the film I posted below and see how the people acted"

President Naguib was a very popular simple regular man, the kind of man who goes and visits peasants as soon as a catastrophe happens, just read this news from the archives of the Time magazine and you will understand what I am talking about

I believe on that day Nasser realized the power of the Egyptian people that made Naguib return back to his office, of course that was not the end, it was a round, a round for Naguib, I think since that day Nasser decided that the main power that should be in his side was the people, he underestimated the popular appeal of President Naguib something anyone can realize and something the Time magazine hinted to, it was obvious that Nasser did not include the people in his calculation back then

From February to November 1954 there was a huge war between the two men , a war its signs should have warned the people that Nasser hated so much democracy and anyone who had a different opinion than his , if just the people were much more careful,I swear our future would have been different, there were signs that sent alarm signals no one cared for it just like the case of Aboul Fath brothers and their newspaper “El-Masry” {The Egyptian} Nasser made adjustments in the RCC and the cabinet to limit Naguib’s influence and Naguib understood that it was a matter of time and it was in fact a matter of months

When Nasser found a good story to justify the elimination of Naguib for ever, with no further introductions he claimed that President Naguib made an agreement with the MB to kill him and that the MB members who were arrested said so !!

Why I can not believe this historical crap, may be because till now we are hearing about the MB confessions day and night

On 14^th of November 1954, two army officers twice came to the office of Naguib telling him it was over and for his dignity the man resigned and was isolated by the orders of Gamal Abd El-Nasser for definite reason in a villa owned by famous Zeinab El-Waikal, the wife of Mustafa An-Nahas Pasha in the suburbs, strangely did not know that then, or even knew where he suddenly disappeared

Since then President Naguib began a trip of suffering and humiliation I can find any justification from it except that Nasser was really scared from that man, so scared from him and that was why he worked very hard to burry that man alive, do not ask me why he had not ordered his secret service to kill the man and already he had done so with King Farouk , but may be God made him forget this ,blind enough to let the General live even more than Nasser in order to write down his memories and Share with us the truth

I will stop here but this in not the end insh Allah tomorrow I will continue because the world needs to know how that man suffered a lot

For Further reading about the late president

I only found nothing about him in Amazon only chapters in other books; I wish someone would be generous enough to translate his memories

Here is a PDF from an article from Life Magazine back to August 1952 I found scanned on the net "sorry for the big size" Binder1.pdf

Here is also Laila Muard patriotic anthem; I don’t know why on earth they banned it!!??
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Also here are some preview low res. samples from newsreel I download from British Pathe archive , unfortunately I think I can not upload them to Youtube despite there are so beautiful

For the first time film about the crisis ,you can download them here

• Naguib back on a Tight Rope146_02.wmv

Sources:

1. I was a president of Egypt by Mohamed Naguib ,published in September 1984
2.  A Witness on President Naguib’s era by Ambassador Ryad Sami
3. Time magazine Archive
4.  Life magazine Archive

Technorati tags: Egypt, Revolution, Nasser, Mohamed Naguib, History, 23rd of July, Mideast, Egyptian faces, Noth africa, books