If in one year we end up with military rule, we don’t blame the military. We can only blame ourselves.
Alaa Al-Asway in an interview to the New Yorker Magazine
January 2014
I remember these words as soon as I read renowned writer and novelist Alaa Al-Aswany’s announcement on his official twitter account that he would no longer write in Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper because only one view is welcomed in the paper.
الى القراء الأعزاء . لقد توقفت عن الكتابة في جريدة المصري اليوم . . اشكر لكم حسن متابعتكم لمقالاتي الأسبوعية ونلتقى بإذن الله في مكان اخر
— Alaa Al Aswany (@AlaaAswany) June 23, 2014
Dear readers , I stopped writing in Al-Masry Al-Youm. Thank you for following my weekly column , we will meet inshallah in another place.لم يعد الان مسموحا الا برأي واحد وفكر واحد وكلام واحد . لم يعد مسموحا بالنقد والاختلاف في الرأي . لم يعد مسموحا الا بالمديح على حساب الحقيقة
— Alaa Al Aswany (@AlaaAswany) June 23, 2014
Different views are no longer allowed ; only one view , one though and one talk. It is no longer acceptable to have different opinion and to criticize. It is no longer acceptable to say the truth but to praise only.
Strong words.
Of course on that night Al-Aswany had his shares from Pro El-Sisi TV channel media attacks to the level that he complained about it next day on twitter.
ما ان تعبر عن رأى مختلف حتى يخرج عليك المذيعون في الفضائيات ليشتموك بأقذرالالفاظ ويتهموك بخيانة وطنك ،هذا الإرهاب المعنوي يتم برضا السلطة
— Alaa Al Aswany (@AlaaAswany) June 24, 2014
As soon as you express a different view , the TV hosts go and insult you using the worst names and accuse you of treason. The regime accepts this morale terrorism.
الرئيس السيسي يطالبنا بالتحلي بالأخلاق ، هل من الأخلاق ان يتم اتهام مواطن مصري بالخيانة والعمالة في التليفزيون لمجرد انه يختلف مع رأى الرئيس
— Alaa Al Aswany (@AlaaAswany) June 24, 2014
President El-Sisi demands us to have manners. Is it from manner to accuse an Egyptian citizen of treason because he has got a different opinion than the president’s opinion.
Giving no further details , people were not so surprised because as it is no secret that the Pro-25 January revolution and its prominent faces from activists, protesters,intellectuals,TV hosts and writers are being stalked whether legally or in the media in not so-secret war.
The last op-ed for Al-Aswany had a direct criticism to El-Sisi and the protest law where he published an alleged letter from a young protester who decided to leave the country and immigrate due to the lack of freedoms in Egypt.
Eventually Al-Masry Al-Youm revealed that the bestselling novelist decided to stop writing there because the newspaper did not publish a teaser on the printed Front page of the paper for his three last articles as it was agreed upon in his contract.
Then Al-Aswany fired back claimed that the newspaper’s administration was forcing to him accusing the regime of pressing the administration to stop him.
Al-Masry Al-Youm’s owner Salah Diab denied those accusations and so on.
I do not care if Al-Aswany was acting like a diva or that Al Masry Al Youm was actually pushing him to leave the newspaper in the same way Al Shorouk did with Belal Fadl but I care for the fact now only he began to feel that there was something wrong after all those months. He failed in doing his homework I am afraid. Ironically the New Yorker’s piece speaks about Ibrahim Eissa too , the so-called liberal prominent journalist who is now justifying the imprisonment of his fellow journalists in Egypt.
Now Dr. Alaa Al-Aswany is speaking now but where he was in the past year when voices were gagged and activists were sent to prison not mention human rights were abused widely. He should have spoken about the human rights committed against the Islamists before the Non-Islamists.
I know that faces like Al-Aswany were kept away in the media yet he should have been more vocal, more vocal about that the scenario he kept warning us of during 2011 and 2012 a.k.a The Counter Revolution or as he used to say “The Romanian Scenario”.
It is an irony because the man who introduced us to “The Romanian Scenario” fell for it.
I think Dr. Alaa Al-Aswany is blaming himself now for that unconditional support to El-Sisi.
By the way I do not consider Alaa Al-Aswany as a liberal , the Foreign media should know the difference by name. Al-Aswany like many intellectuals from his generation is Nasserite.
Of course Nasserites have a very soft spot for the military , for nationalism and populism and are still trying to achieve their lost bloody dream of 1967 in 2014 regardless the fact that
Anyhow I do not gloat over Al-Aswany as some are doing because I consider him an important voice and it is better to wake up late than never but it is still too late.
The more voices are forced to shut up and to be cornered , the more damaging it will be for Egypt and its people more than you think.
During the French revolution, a Frenchman who is historic said, as a hallmark of democracy, "I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend with my life your right to say it". Clearly this applies in the case noted, but unfortunately in many "democratic" countries, as well as in Egypt, this idea is not applied. Everyone should show every other person, and their views, respect, and consider their views, even if they turn out not to agree with them. It is when someone is fearful that another person's ideas may strike others as reasonable, so they will adopt them, that the first person tries to silence the views of the second.
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